Page:Bohemia An Historical Sketch.djvu/203

 to arm about this time. Poděbrad seems to have had evidence that the efforts of the Bohemian negotiators both at Rome and at Vienna had been secretly opposed by the Austrian party, and especially by Ulrich of Rosenberg. The national party decided, however, to await the result of the mission of Cardinal Carvajal. The cardinal arrived at Prague (May 1, 1448), but his mission proved a complete failure; he made no secret of his conviction that the Pope would never give his sanction to the election of Archbishop John of Rokycan. The cardinal also openly expressed his disapproval of communion in the two kinds, a rite which almost all Bohemians still revered as the great privilege they had obtained at the cost of so much blood. Questioned as to the Compacts, he denied all knowledge of them. George of Poděbrad, who had in his custody the original of this precious document, therefore forwarded it to him. When, upon the failure of his mission, the cardinal left Prague shortly afterwards, his departure caused a great outcry among the townspeople. They accused him of having carried away the original of the famous Compacts and threatened him with the fate of Hus. The cardinal was stopped on his journey by horsemen, but was on his entreaty allowed to proceed as far as Benešov; he here returned the Compacts, which he had hidden among the luggage of his carriage.

Thus the sole result of the mission of Carvajal was to embitter yet more the contending parties in Bohemia. George of Poděbrad, secure of his allies, who had sworn to devote their lives and their fortunes to his cause, no longer hesitated to act. He assembled near Kutna Hora an army of 9000 men, which was afterwards reinforced by troops from his adherents in Northern Bohemia. With these forces Poděbrad marched on Prague, before which city he arrived (1448). He obtained possession of the town almost without resistance; the citizens indeed received him with enthusiasm. The supreme burgrave Menhard of Jindřichův Hradec, who appears to have been a mere puppet in the hands of Ulrich of Rosenberg, was imprisoned. New city magistrates were chosen by the people of Prague, and John of Rokycan, disregarding the authority of Rome, assumed the functions of archbishop.