Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 2.djvu/555

 REACTION IN BOHEMIA. 539 and a mass of citizens. As a mute protest, Eokyzana met the splen- did array, attended only by three priests, and bearing both host and fZ^, ll'^'"" Pu"'"'"'' ^^^ ^""^ '^ '°°g struggled against ttte Scarle Woman the imposing ceremony must have seemed a bitter mockery, for the Empress Barbara, who occupied a conspicu- ous position in the ranks, was a woman notorious for shameless icentiousness, and, moreover, was an avowed atheist, who disbe- lieved m the immortality of the soul.* Within three weeks of this celebration, Eokyzana was a fugi- tive seeking the protection of George Podiebrad at Hradecz, not without reason, if ^neas Sylvius is correct in saying that Siffis- naund was about to arrest him and punish him oondignly Then the process of reaction went on apace. Had Sigismund lived he might have overcome aU resistance, and reduced the land to obedi- ence to Kome. His power was constantly growing. In March he surrender of the Taborite stronghold ofoni Jngratz fluS the Hussites with consternation. Not long after siege was laid to Zion, the fastness of John Eohacz, a powerful baron who had refused submission. He was finaUy captured in it, brought to Prague, and hanged in the presence of the emperor with sixty of h^fo lowers and a priest. Tradition relates that on that ver. day Sigismund was attacked with an ulcer which grew constant- ly worse and ended his days in December. Ahuosf simult^eous with this was the decision by the Council of Basle on the quition of communion m both elements, in which it skilfuUy evaded he inconsistency of the prohibition of the cup, and pronounced it to As AniT f f ^^^"-"^' ^-' to be modified without authority As Alber of Austria, the son-in-law and successor of Sigismund was a zealous Catholic prince, the councU was emboldened^in Janl ary, 1438 to issue an edict reciting and ordering the strict enforce ment of the implacable buU of Februarv 22, 1418 by Martin V directed against the errors of Wickliff, Huss, and Jerome Thi^ evidence of what they were to expect as the outcome Tf'he Com ^aetata gave the Taborites and the disaffected parties in BohemTa bew energy After a fruitless appeal to the council an amln e m made with Poland, whose boy-king, Oasimir, was elected as a >.lN:.fe;HT.l'r:,J^- "'• ''■ "^' «"^-^"- ^^'^" Hist. Bobe.. c.