It now became clear that the divisions, which had been so carefully fostered between the Calixtines and the Taborites, were ready to break out into a dangerous flame. On the one hand, Meinhard of Neuhaus, one of the few nobles who had remained partially faithful to the Utraquist cause, called together a meeting of his supporters, and urged them to shake off the yoke of Procop, and to choose a captain from the ranks of the poorer nobility, who should carry on the government with the help of a Council. On the other hand, Lupus, a priest of the Taborites, stirred up the inhabitants of the New Town against Rokycana and his friends, and exhorted them to refuse submission to the newly-elected Captain. Nor did the arrival of the ambassadors from Basel tend to lessen this bitterness; for though they held out hopes of concessions to the Calixtines, they fanned the flame of division between them and the Taborites; and, about the time of their return to Basel, friendly messengers came to Pilsen to urge the Catholics to stand firm, as their victory was approaching.
Indeed, so successfully had the work of division been done, that the ambassadors had found the means of discrediting Rokycana himself with many of the Calixtines, and of bringing to the front the old party of Pr̆zibram, which had been out of favour ever since the time of Prince Korybut. The wedge which they used to make this split was sufficiently ingenious. They proposed that the Communion in both kinds should be allowed to those who wished it; but that the Communion in one kind should be left, in those churches where it was preferred. To modern thinkers, no doubt, such a compromise would seem the ideal settlement; but to those who had been struggling, for so many years, against the invaders who were trying to crush out these practices, it seemed as if such a concession would only sow the seeds of fresh bitterness. Such a compromise, said Rokycana, Wenceslaus IV. had attempted; and the attempt had ended in a bitter fight, in which one party had expelled the other. There was much force in Rokycana’s arguments; but it was easy to represent him as an opponent of reasonable liberty, and (a charge which was more telling at that moment) as a hinderer of peaceable union.
But, in the meantime, the siege of Pilsen was making such progress that the Catholics and moderate Utraquists began to fear that the victory, which seemed almost within their grasp, might be taken from them after all; and Sigismund wrote to Ulric of Rosenberg that the Taborites were actually preparing to send a special embassy of their own to Basel; and that, unless the Calixtines would go to Pilsen, to hinder the progress of Procop, the Council of Basel would after all be compelled to make concessions to the extreme party. While things were in this state, Procop suddenly received news in his camp that the bitterness between the two parties in Prague had at last led to a final outbreak. The Taborites of the New Town had resolved to resist the authority of the newly elected Captain, and had fortified their division of Prague against him; whereupon Meinhard of Neuhaus had suddenly stormed the New Town and put the Taborites to the sword. Thereupon Procop at once resolved to abandon the siege of Pilsen, and to call on all the Taborites to follow him to Prague. Meinhard rallied his forces for the defence; and the two armies met on the 30th of May, 1434, near the town of Lipaný.
The Taborites followed the plan, so often adopted by Z̆iz̆ka, of fortifying their camp by an arrangement of their baggage waggons. From behind these they threw shells into the camp of the enemy, which so irritated the soldiers that they called on the nobles to lead them to the attack. The nobles, however, were resolved to accomplish their purposes by stratagem. The inferior troops were placed in the front, with orders to give way at the first attack. The Taborites fell into that trap; and, seeing the enemy, as they supposed, flying before them, they left their entrenchments and pursued them. The picked troops of the nobles then rushed forward, seized on the deserted waggons, and attacked the Taborites in the rear. The supposed fugitives, at the same time, turned upon their pursuers; the Taborite army, surrounded on all sides, was cut to pieces; and Procop and the other leaders died, fighting to the last.
The immediate results of the battle of Lipaný were of two kinds. One of the chief objects of Meinhard of Neuhaus and his friends had been to pave the way for negotiations with Sigismund, and this object they at once obtained; but the conduct of the negotiations was not altogether left to those who had been the chief promoters of division. The death of Procop and of his immediate followers had given an opportunity to the more moderate party of the Orphans to come to the front; and, as C̆apek, the leading general of the Orphans, was now the most prominent military leader among the advanced section of the Utraquists, the change naturally led to a removal of many of the differences which had so weakened the common cause. C̆apek carried on the policy of Z̆iz̆ka in the matter of maintaining an alliance with those of the Calixtines who were sincerely zealous for their country and their faith.
The man who most embodied that cause, in the eyes of the general body of Bohemian patriots, was undoubtedly Rokycana; and thus he found that his position had been greatly strengthened, for the time, by the apparent victory of his opponents. While, therefore, the leaders of the Assembly were able to organise a deputation to Sigismund, of which Meinhard of Neuhaus was the chief leader, the terms which the deputation offered were considerably coloured by the feeling of Rokycana and his friends; for, on the one hand, they decided to insist on many doctrines and rites which were condemned by the Taborites; and on the other hand, they demanded a strict enforcement of the Four Articles. They even proposed that no one should be received into the city who did not communicate in both kinds; that the king should admit no one into his Councils who did not observe the same rule; and that, if any community was oppressed by the Emperor or his officials on account of Utraquism, they should have the right of meeting force by force. It was impossible to suppose that Sigismund would accept terms of this kind, in so crude a form; but his growing eagerness to recover his crown made him extremely willing to enter into the discussion.
He would, indeed, have been glad to base his claim on grounds independent of the religious controversy; and he even ventured to appeal to the Bohemians to accept him out of respect to his father’s memory, and to remember that his grandmother was a Bohemian princess, descended from the old ploughman king, Pr̆emysl. At the same time he remonstrated so sharply with the delegates of Basel on the slowness of their proceedings, and the quibbling of their arguments, that they began to fear that he would drift away into complete opposition to the Council. They, therefore, urged on both parties the acceptance of an understanding which had been already put into shape in Basel. This compromise involved the acceptance of the Four Articles, under certain conditions; the most important of which were that the Communion in both kinds should only be allowed to those who admitted the complete presence of Christ in the Sacrament; and that, with regard to the punishment of public sins, the clergy should only be permitted to deal with the offences of their own Order.
But Rokycana complained that these and other modifications required further explanation; and, on the other hand, the Basel delegates were alarmed at a proposal put forward by their opponents that no Bohemian should be summoned before any foreign tribunal, whether secular or spiritual.
All difficulties, however, gave way before Sigismund’s inexhaustible power of lying; for, when the delegates found that his promises and concessions had no real meaning, they began to calculate that, if he were restored, he must rely mainly on the Catholics and the Pr̆zibram party, and therefore would find his interest in breaking his word to the Utraquists, and maintaining it towards the Catholics. But, perhaps, neither Sigismund nor the delegates of Basel were quite prepared for the result of one concession which the King was induced to make. The Archbishop and two suffragan bishops were, according to the proposals of the Assembly, to be elected by representatives of all classes. A Council of Sixteen was chosen for this purpose; and they secretly fixed upon Rokycana as Archbishop of Prague. As soon as this election became known, the Emperor and the representatives of Basel were deeply offended at their choice; but Sigismund, as usual, succeeded in evading a direct reply; and, in their zeal for union, the Bohemians consented, for a moment, to overlook this evasion. So on the 14th of August, 1436, Sigismund was once again formally accepted as king by the representatives of all classes, the three towns of Königgrätz (Sadova), Mies (Kladrau), and Kolin alone refusing to admit his claim.
It soon became evident that the King’s acceptance of the Compacts of Basel, and of all the limitations of his power, had been nominal. He speedily dismissed from office the most zealous Calixtines, and encouraged the growth of Catholic ritual. With regard to Rokycana, the King again found a means of evading any direct action. Philibert, Bishop of Coutances, had come to Prague as one of the representatives of the Council of Basel; and, in consideration of his rank and position, he was allowed to perform the duties which should have been entrusted to the Archbishop of Prague. At the same time the King made a formal appeal to the Council of Basel to confirm Rokycana’s election; but he advised them secretly to find excuses for delay in answering this appeal.