Bohemia, from the earliest times to the fall of national independence in 1620 / With a short summary of later events

by C. Edmund Maurice

Though Z̆iz̆ka, like Nicholaus, had been a favourite at Court, he had already once offended the king by a daring act of independence. Influenced, no doubt, by Sigismund and his friends, Wenceslaus had at one time supported the Order of Teutonic Knights in their struggle against the King of Poland. The anti-German feeling in Bohemia was already running high, even at that time; and sympathy with their Slavonic kinsmen induced many Bohemian officers to hasten to the support of the Poles, in opposition to the wish of the King. In this semi-rebellious movement Z̆iz̆ka had taken a prominent part; but he had, since then, been pardoned and received back into favour. His independent spirit, however, was ill-suited to a Court life, and he was not long in giving new offence to Wenceslaus.

MARKET-PLACE OF PRACHATICE, THE TOWN WHERE HUS AND Z̆IZ̆KA WENT TO SCHOOL.

Tradition gives an early date to the first signs of sympathy between Z̆iz̆ka and Hus. Within a walk of the village of Husinec stands the old town of Prachatice, where the ruins are still shown of the school in which Z̆iz̆ka and Hus are said to have studied together. However this may be, there can be no doubt that it was very soon after the death of Hus that Z̆iz̆ka began to assume that position of leadership among the extremer Utraquists, which ultimately gained him such fame both among friends and enemies. This section of Reformers had already discovered that they did not receive that sympathy from the citizens of Prague which they believed to be their due. Many of them were compelled to leave the city; and they gathered together on a mountain near Austi, to which they gave the name of Tabor, and to which their supporters gradually flocked from all parts of the kingdom. These gatherings so alarmed Wenceslaus that they even weakened his hostility to the Council of Constance; and not only the followers of Nicholaus and Z̆iz̆ka, but even some of the more moderate Utraquists became objects of his suspicion.

This change of feeling naturally increased the hopes of Sigismund, and he became even more sanguine of success, and more bitter against the followers of Hus, when the Council of Constance elected, under the name of Pope Martin V., that Cardinal Colonna, who had urged upon John XXIII. the first proposal for the condemnation of Hus. Under the influence of this new Pope, all the schemes of reform, which the Council had once thought of considering, were sacrificed to the one aim of the suppression of heresy; and in April, 1418, the Pope secured himself a freer hand by dissolving the Council of Constance.

Urged, then, by pressure from Emperor and Pope, and by his own fear of Utraquistic excesses, Wenceslaus banished one of the Reformers from Prague, and recalled the Catholic clergy, who had been expelled from the city. He discovered, indeed, that Utraquism had taken so deep a root in Prague that it would be necessary to grant at least three churches to its preachers. But this concession did not satisfy the more zealous champions of the cause; and the favour shown by the King to the Catholics provoked riots among the Reformers. Then Wenceslaus demanded that the citizens should all give up their arms to him.

Z̆iz̆ka now saw that the controversy with the Catholics must sooner or later end in war; and he was determined that his followers should not be unprovided for such a struggle. He therefore resolved to obey the royal summons, but in a peculiar manner of his own. He gathered together his followers, led them into the presence of the King, and assured him that they were ready to stand by him, with life and property, against his enemies. The unfortunate Wenceslaus felt bound to thank Z̆iz̆ka and his followers for this loyal declaration; but Z̆iz̆ka knew well enough that he had thereby forfeited the royal favour. He therefore quickly retired from Court, and joined Nicholaus of Hus in organising their followers on Mount Tabor. The alarm of Wenceslaus was naturally increased by these proceedings; and he began to meet the opposition by deposing the Town Councillors in the different divisions of Prague, and thrusting in their opponents. This was a more arbitrary act of power than he had yet resorted to in this struggle; and it naturally hastened on the violent crisis which had long been approaching.

The quarter in which the outbreak finally took place had a peculiar character of its own, which some historians believe to have affected the character of the coming struggle. It will be remembered that Charles IV. had done much, not merely to develop the intellectual greatness of Prague, but also to increase its physical size. A completely new suburb had been added during that reign, which was known as the New Town of Prague. This division of the city was governed by its own Council, and rapidly assumed a peculiar character. Charles’s policy attracted many Germans to the city; and, while the more prominent struggle between the rival “Nations” of the University had been growing in intensity, it is believed by some that an equally bitter feeling had been springing up among those Bohemian workmen who had fallen under the rule of German employers of labour. The historians who hold this view maintain that the workmen, who desired to escape from this domination, fled from the older parts of Prague, and found new possibilities of life and of organisation in the New Town. Whether this migration can be clearly proved or no, it is certain that, both at this and later crises, there appears a more democratic and, in some respects, a more national spirit in the movements which had their rise in the New Town, than in those of other parts of the city.

It was then, in the church of St. Stephen, in the New Town, that on the 30th of July, 1419, a fiery preacher named John of Seelau (Zelív) delivered a sermon in the presence of an excited crowd of the followers of Z̆iz̆ka. After being worked up by pictures of the coming judgment, these fiery reformers marched in procession through the streets. As they passed the Council House, some insult appears to have been offered them by those who were looking out of the windows; whereupon the infuriated Utraquists rushed upstairs into the council chamber, and hurled the newly-elected Councillors from the window, the crowd below receiving the falling men on the points of their spikes. Then Z̆iz̆ka and his friends proceeded to seize the town into their hands, elected four captains for each district, and appointed Councillors in the place of those who had been killed.