Page:The Hussite wars, by the Count Lützow.djvu/380

Matters once again appeared to have arrived at a standstill, but Sigismund, not usually much troubled by conscientious scruples, devised a scheme by which a rupture was avoided. The assurances demanded by the Council were now formulated in a revised draft, in which the passage containing the Emperor’s promise not to interfere in matters concerning the doctrine and authority of the Church of Rome was omitted. On the suggestion of Archduke Albert, Sigismund’s son-in-law, it was, however, agreed that the Emperor should privately and secretly pledge his word to fulfil the promises contained in the passage which it had been thought necessary to suppress. The envoys of the Council reluctantly consented to this proposal, and on January 5 the Emperor, in the presence of his chancellor, Count Šlik, and of his son-in-law, Albert of Austria, swore not to interfere in any way in matters that concerned the doctrine or authority of the Church of Rome. It is, of course, impossible to state what took place at these strictly confidential conferences, but it is probable that Sigismund begged the envoys of the Council not to delay his accession to the Bohemian throne, and that he at the same time promised them that he would, as ruler of Bohemia, further the interests of the Church of Rome. The events of the short reign of Sigismund in Bohemia—with which I have not to deal in this work—certainly render this conjecture very probable. It is a proof of the King’s truly cynical duplicity that on the following day (January 6) he at last made public the document drafted at Brno in the previous year, which granted the Utraquists very considerable rights. It appears inexplicable that it should under these circumstances have been possible to come to an agreement. The delegates of the Council probably relied on Sigismund’s secret promises, while the Bohemians were anxious to be reunited to the universal Church. The more advanced Utraquists may also, in view of Sigismund’s advanced age and failing health, have thought that his reign would be a short one, and that it would