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 representatives to discuss the matter in the Landtag at Prague, the debates to continue at Basle until the arrangements for this purpose were complete. In these final discussions Payne took a prominent part; on 31 March and 1 April he spoke in reply to Henry of Kalteisen on the freedom of preaching; on 6 April he had a hot dispute with Partridge on the incidents of his English career, and on the following day endeavoured to make Keninghale produce his promised proofs of Wiclif's alleged heresies (ib. pp. 343–4). His interventions in the debate were received with much impatience by his opponents, and his unyielding temper probably contributed to the failure of the Bohemians to come to terms with the council. He had tried to prevent the reception of a friendly apology for the title of heretics, which John of Ragusa applied to the Bohemians on 7 Feb., and early in March the more moderate of the Hussites had considered whether an arrangement would not be practicable if Payne and other extremists were left out (ib. pp. 304–6, 321).

On 14 April the Bohemians left Basle with the delegates of the council, chief of whom were Gilles Charlier and John de Palomar. Prague was reached on 8 May, and after some negotiations, in which Payne took part, the Landtag met on 8 June. As the chief representative of the Orphans, Payne had a prominent part in the debates (ib. pp. 367, 372;, pp. 707, 710). The Landtag broke up on 3 July without any decisive result, and a second Bohemian embassy was sent with the delegates of the council to Basle. On 22 Oct. they brought back with them certain articles which might form the basis of a concordat, and in a second Landtag which met on 16 Nov. the aristocratic party accepted the agreement known as the First Prague Compact. The Orphans and Taborites resisted, Payne being foremost in the opposition. On 18 Nov. he attempted to speak, but was shouted down; and in a speech on 28 Nov. he complained that ‘the lords want to tie us up in a sack.’ He is asserted to have declared that he had a knife which would cut whatever the delegates of the council sewed together (, De Legationibus, pp. 450–68, 512, 515). The split between the two parties grew wider, and in the spring of 1434 resulted in open war. On 29 May the nobles were victorious in the battle of Lipau, where Procopius, the Taborite leader, was killed; it was falsely reported in England that Payne was also among the slain (Chron. Giles. Henry VI, p. 14); another account states that he was taken prisoner (, Chron. London, p. 120). In the subsequent negotiations the party of the nobles continued to gain ground, and in the November Landtag the majority of the Orphans were won over by the moderate party under John Rokycana. Payne then joined the Taborites. Certain doctrinal points were nevertheless referred to him for arbitration, but in the interests of his friends he postponed his decision for two years (Geschichtsschreiber der Hussitischen, ii. 704–5;, viii. 181–2). As one of the Taborite representatives, Payne attended the conference before Sigismund at Brunn in June–July 1435 (, De Legationibus, pp. 565–74). But from the subsequent proceedings that led up to Sigismund's reconciliation with the Bohemian nobles at Iglau in July 1436 he held aloof. After Sigismund came to Prague, Payne was compelled to give his decision on the points submitted to his arbitration. He pronounced in favour of Rokycana, though avowing that his own convictions were on the other side. The Taborites at once protested, and, after some discussion, the debatable points were on 16 Nov. submitted to four doctors, of whom Payne was one (Geschichtsschreiber der Hussitischen, ii. 728). As a result, the Taborites obtained permission to worship after their own fashion.

The remaining years of Payne's life were troublous. In 1433 it had been reported at Basle that the English wanted to prosecute him on behalf of their king, and still earlier Martin V had demanded a subsidy for his prosecution from the English church (, p. 317;, Acts and Monuments, iii. 538). On 13 Feb. 1437 a papal bull was received at Prague, requesting the emperor to send him to the council for trial on a charge of heresy (, p. 852). At this time Payne had a pastorate at Saaz, whence on 15 April he came to Prague under a safe-conduct. A discussion between Payne and Pribram was held before Sigismund, who, when the former proved obstinate, ordered him to leave Bohemia as soon as his safe-conduct had expired. Payne withdrew from Prague; but his English clerk, John Penning, was arrested, and the people of Saaz agreed not to support him (ib. pp. 861–2). According to Matthias Colinus, Payne now took refuge with Peter Chelcicky, the Bohemian author (, ix. 48, 469). In February 1439 he was captured by John Burian, who imprisoned him in his castle of Gutenstein (ib. viii. 326). Burian, by order of the Emperor Albert, offered to deliver Payne to the representa-