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

by C. Edmund Maurice

With some difficulty the citizens now persuaded Nicholaus of Hus to bring a force of the Taborites to their help. The king had secretly arranged to send ships down the Moldau to the defence of the Vys̆ehrad; and the citizens had put chains across the island which lies below the fortress, so as to hinder the ships from passing. Nicholaus was set to guard this island; but not even the sense of a common danger could stifle the differences between the Calixtine leaders and the captains of the Taborites. The Royalists, in their fear of starvation, offered to surrender the Vys̆ehrad, if the king did not relieve them within a certain time. This proposal the citizens were willing to accept; but Nicholaus was so indignant at the terms granted to the garrison, that he abandoned the island and retired into the city. A nobleman, named Hynek of Crus̆ina, now undertook the defence of the city; and when Sigismund again arrived before it, he found it fortified against him.

Again, the division in his camp between the native nobles and his Hungarian and German followers speedily showed itself. Some Moravian barons advised him to abandon the attack, and frankly owned that they feared the flails of the rustics. Sigismund, whose sympathies were becoming more and more alienated from his countrymen, taunted the Moravians with cowardice and treachery. They thereupon sprang from their horses and declared that they were ready to go where the king would never be. Sigismund then ordered them to occupy a dangerous and marshy position on the low land in front of the city, while the Hungarians were to charge from a higher point. This double attack was at first successful, for the Utraquists fled in some confusion. But Hynek rallied their forces, telling them that the Lord would deliver their enemies into their hands. He and Nicholaus of Hus rushed forward gallantly with the others; and once more the fear of the flails of the rustics caused a panic among the Catholics. About five hundred of the Royalists were either killed or wounded, and the rout was complete. Then the men of Vys̆ehrad consented to surrender. But though their captors succeeded in conveying them safely into Prague, they could not save the church organs and images in the fortress from being destroyed by the crowd.

The war now raged fiercely on both sides; but while, in matters of physical cruelty, the Bohemians were as reckless as their opponents, on two important points there was a marked difference between the conduct of the rival armies. In the first place, the stern morality of the Utraquist leaders prevented any of those outrages on women in which the Hungarian soldiers freely indulged; and, secondly, the doctrine that no faith should be kept with heretics produced an utter unscrupulousness on the Imperialist side, in the observance of terms of truce or surrender, which cannot certainly be alleged, in the same degree, against the Bohemian leaders.

Yet, in the middle of their desperate struggle for national existence against German and Hungarian, the Calixtines and Taborites could not be induced to suspend their internal quarrels. Z̆iz̆ka, indeed, desired at first to adopt a more conciliatory policy than was customary with his colleagues; and he persuaded the Taborites to act with the citizens of Prague in offering the crown of Bohemia to the King of Poland. But even he soon felt compelled to adopt a more aggressive line of action; for the Calixtines had been so alarmed at the power of John of Z̆elív, that they had prohibited the further introduction of novelties in doctrine, and had deposed those Councillors of the Old Town who had been elected under the influence of John. Z̆iz̆ka was so alarmed at these proceedings, that he abandoned a siege which he was conducting in a distant part of Bohemia, and marched against the fortress of R̆íc̆an, which was in the near neighbourhood of Prague.

This fortress had long been a danger to the citizens; but they were perfectly well aware that Z̆iz̆ka’s present motive for marching against it was a desire to control the deliberations of the Town Councillors. Hynek of Crus̆ina was so indignant at Z̆iz̆ka’s conduct that he threw up the captaincy of Prague, and not long after adopted the cause of Sigismund. Z̆iz̆ka had his usual good success in the siege; but there is at least a doubt whether his proceedings were marked by his usual good faith. The Calixtine leaders had promised to spare the lives of the defenders of the fortress if they would surrender; yet, after the surrender was completed, Z̆iz̆ka burnt alive nine of the priests whom he found in the garrison. But neither the undoubted cruelty nor the possible treachery of this proceeding could prevent Z̆iz̆ka’s victory from producing the desired effect on the Calixtines; and they now consented to admit the Taborites to a free discussion of the points of difference between them and their rivals.

This discussion had at least one advantage. It showed clearly what was the point which the Taborites looked upon as the vital difference between themselves and the Calixtines. For, when the Masters of the Prague University brought forward a long list of subjects of controversy, one of the Taborite leaders complained that they had not come there to discuss all those points; but that they simply wished for a decision on the question whether they should or should not wear special vestments at the performance of the Mass. Jakaubek of Kladrau consented to limit the discussion to this one point; and, although no resolution was arrived at, the Taborites clearly saw that the majority in Prague were against them. The fierce spirit of fanaticism, which had already led the Taborites into such excesses, now roused them to fury against the Calixtines; and in one town, at least, they proclaimed that any priest who was found wearing a special dress at the celebration of the Mass, should be burned alive in his vestments.

But this dangerous division between the thinking and the fighting forces of the Utraquist party was checked by two events which were both of considerable importance in the history of the movement. The first of these was the death of Nicholaus of Hus, who was thrown from his horse as he was leaving Prague. This death naturally threw more power into the hands of Z̆iz̆ka; and he had always felt, much more strongly than Nicholaus, the necessity of maintaining the alliance with the Calixtine rulers of Prague. The other event, which drew the more moderate men of the two parties together, was the outbreak of a new division in the ranks of the Taborites themselves.

That a body, with the origin, constitution, and mode of life which have been already described, should develop new and unexpected phases of thought, might have been guessed from the beginning of the movement; but that the particular doctrine now broached should have caused division among any section of the Utraquists must sound very strange to modern ears. In any revolt against excessive priestly power, one would have expected that such a doctrine as Transubstantiation would have been the first to be attacked. Yet, while both Calixtines and Taborites were fiercely denouncing the civil power of the clergy, while they were attacking every outward badge which seemed to separate the clergy from the laity, they had yet shrunk with horror from any attack on the doctrine of Transubstantiation. When, then, Martinek Hauska, a leading Taborite preacher, began to denounce this doctrine, he roused the fiercest opposition among his Taborite colleagues; and two of their more learned members wrote, in February, 1421, to Jakaubek of Kladrau and John Pr̆zibram, to consult them about the best means for opposing this heresy. The answer to that question was only too easily given; for, while each party disagreed with every other on the definition of heresy, there was a striking unanimity about the right method of dealing with it when defined. So, while the Calixtines burnt one of the preachers of the new doctrine in Prague, the Taborites, doubtless finding them too numerous for such treatment, forcibly expelled them from Tabor.

Deserted and repudiated by all their neighbours, these unfortunate exiles wandered about in the woods, till their destitute condition, acting on their already excited fancy, drove them into a state of partial insanity. They plucked off their clothes, and declared that they would return to the state of innocence. That men in such a condition would fall into acts of impurity seems highly probable; but it would surely be unjust to believe all the rumours circulated against people who had no opportunity of stating their own case. The main fact, however, of their living habitually without clothes seems to be generally admitted; it was that peculiarity which gained them their name of Adamites; and it was on that ground that Z̆iz̆ka seized and burnt fifty of them. They entered the fire smiling, declaring that they would reign that day with Christ in heaven.

While these events were weakening the opposition between the Calixtines and the main body of the Taborites, other causes were securing still more positive advantages to the moderate party in Prague. In April, 1421, Kutna Hora at last fell into the hands of the joint armies of the Taborites and Calixtines; and this victory was speedily followed by the capture of the town of Jaromír. Then C̆enĕk of Wartenberg, Ulric of Rosenberg, Hynek of Crus̆ina, and other noblemen who had revolted to Sigismund, came back to the Utraquist camp. John of Z̆elív seems to have been the guide and adviser of the Utraquist forces in this campaign, and he compelled C̆enĕk to make public confession of his wickedness in having betrayed the castle of Prague to the king. When this concession had been made, the nobles returned to Prague, and regained for a time some of their old power. That power was strengthened by the speedy capture of the castle of Prague, which up to this time had held out against the citizens; and the acceptance by the nobles of the Four Articles seemed to complete the reunion of parties.