Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 2.djvu/552

 .o^ THE HUSSITES. ODD exaggeration in the boast that they burned several thousand of those whom they subsequently captured. The power of the Tabor- ites was utterly broken. It is true that they contmued to hold Mount Tabor until finally crushed by George Podiebrad, m 1452; and that in the December following the battle their unconquera- ble spirit was again contemplating an appeal to arms, but after Lipan they were only a troublesome element of insubordmation, and not a factor in the poUtical situation. The congratulatory letters sent by some of the victors to Sigismund, and the effusive joy with which he communicated the news to the council, show that the victory was one for the Catholics.* Even after the virtual ehmination of the Taborites there were ample subjects of dispute, and at one time the prospect seemed so unpromismg that prehminary arrangements were set o^J<^°^^J^ August, 1434, for organizing a new crusade on the proceeds of the half -tithe levied shortly before. One source of endless trouble sprantr from the personal ambition of Eokyzana. Learned, able, a hardy disputant, and a skilled man of affairs, he had determmed to be Archbishop of Prague, and this object he pursued with un- alterable constancy. He bore a leading part in the negotiations and made himself as conspicuous as possible, shifting his ground with dexterity, interposing objections and smoothmg them as the interest of the moment might dictate. At first he endeavored to have a clause inserted that the people and the clergy should be empowered to elect an archbishop, who should be acknowledged and confirmed by the emperor and the pope. This being rejected, he procured of Sigismund a secret agreement that the election . Martene Ampl. CoU. VIII. 710-19.-Harduin. VIIL 1604 1650-2^-^g^. Carlerii Liber de Legationibus (Mon. Cone. Gen. S.c. XV. T . pp. 523, 529-39, 544) -Raynald. ann. 1435, No. 22-3.-Naucleri Chron. ann. 1434. The democratic insubordination cl,aracteristic of the TaborUes ,s seen .n an incident occurring in September, 1433. Procopius sent a detachment to invade Bafa a Ind appointed 'as leader a captain named Pardu. The -en mutinied ■ before setting out, and, on Procopius interposing, one of them felled him to the ! und t th a bi;w o; the head with a stool. The -- -•^°;'™'=Y:" Tr Ilected leader, and under his guidance the Taborites lost two thousand of their best veterans.-^gid. Carlerii 1. c. pp. 466-7. ^ The reduction to serfdom of the Bohemian peasantry, m 1487, may be .warded as the final result of the overthrow of the Taborites.