Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 2.djvu/542

 ^26 THE HUSSITES. ities.^ The Church was completely baffled. It had triumphed over a similar revolt in Languedoc, and had shown the world, in charac- ters of blood and fire, how it utilized its triumphs. It now had a different problem to solve. Force having failed, it was obliged to discover some formula of reconciliation which should not too near- ly peril its claim to infalhbihty. To do it justice, it did not yield without compulsion. Tired of standing on the defensive against assaults whose repetition seemed endless, Procopius, in 1427, adopted the policy of aggression. He would win peace by making the coterminous states feel the miser- ies of war, and in a series of relentlessly destructive raids, con- tinued till 1432, he carried desolation into all the surrounding provinces. Thus in a foray of 1429, which cut a swath through Franconia, Saxony, and the Yogtland, over a hundred castles and fortified towns were captured, and an immense booty was carried back to Bohemia. Misnia, Lusatia, Silesia, Bavaria, Austria, and Hungary in turn felt the weight of the Hussite sword, while the prompt retirement of the invaders in every case showed that re- taliation and not conquest was their object. It was no wonder that a general cry for peace went up among those who bove the brunt of the effort to reassert the papal supremacy.f Meanwhile the Church was perplexed with another yet more vexatious question. Christendom never ceased to clamor for the reform of which it had been cheated at Constance. Skilful pro- crastination had wearied the reforming fathers, and they had con- sented, in 1418, to the dissolution of the council, hoping that the promises made in the election of Martin Y. would be fulfilled. They took the precaution, however, to provide for an endless series of councils, which might be expected to resume and com- plete their unfinished work, and the plan which they laid out shows how deep-seated was the distrust entertained of the papacy. Another general council was ordered 'to be held in five years, then t Balbin. Epit. Her. Hung. pp. 475-6.-Sommersberg Silesiac. Rer. Scriptt. I. 75.— A popular rhyme of the period described : " Meissen und Sachsen verderbt, Oesterreich verhergt, Schliesien und Laussnitz zerscherbt, Mahren verzerht, Bayern aussgenehrt, Boheimb umbgekehrt." ^ (Balbin. p. 478.)
 * Herburt. de Fulstin Statut. Regni Poloniae, Samoscii, 1597, p. 191.