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 the State offices to which Korybut had appointed them, Žižka rejoined the more advanced Taborite party. It seems probable that the suspicion that these lords wished to reinstate Sigismund—whose complicity in the death of Hus Žižka never forgave—largely influenced the decision of the leader of the Taborites.

The first armed conflict between the Bohemian parties took place at Hořic (April 27, 1423), where Čeněk of Wartenberg was decisively defeated by Žižka. Almost at the same time the Praguers, and the utraquist lords then allied with them, began the siege of the castle of Křiženec, held at that time by the Taborites.

The fact that a new general armament against the Bohemian heretics was at that moment being prepared in Germany was probably one of the reasons why this siege did not last long. It was agreed to by both parties that a disputation between Calixtine and Taborite priests should take place at the neighbouring castle of Konopišt (1423). No decision was arrived at on the principal question whether the rites of the Church of Rome which the Calixtines had retained, and the use of vestments, were permissible or not. It was, however, decreed that these questions were only a matter of ecclesiastical regulation, and in no wise dependent on divine law. A subsequent disputation (June 24) between the priests remained without result, but the compromise—such as it was—for a time put a stop to the internal strife among the Bohemians.

As already mentioned, a new crusade against the Bohemians was decided on early in the year 1423; but this crusade was even more unsuccessful than its predecessors. The Slavs of Poland, who were to have taken part in it, were unwilling to go to war with Bohemia, in spite of the change of policy on the part of their king, Vladislav, and his brother Witold. The German princes, being engaged in constant disputes among themselves, only equipped a scanty force, which soon recrossed the Bohemian frontier, without having even met the Hussites in the open field. The King of Denmark, who had arrived in Germany with an army to wage war against the heretics, also returned to his own country.

If we can trust the contemporary records (which at this time are even more obscure than during the other years of the Hussite wars) the agreement of Konopišt was of exceed-