Page:Gregor The story of Bohemia.pdf/189

 singing hymns. The leader in these public demonstrations was a certain monk named John Zelivsky, a man of great eloquence and wondrous personal magnetism. He was supported in his work by Nicholas of Hussinetz, a former courtier of King Václav.

One day Nicholas, at the head of an immense congregation of people, met the king, and laid before him a petition that more churches be assigned to the Calixtines, since many of them had no place to worship. The king, instead of granting the petition, became angry, and ordered Nicholas to leave the city. As these public demonstrations mostly originated in New Town, where the monk Zelivsky was the preacher in the Church of Mary of the Snow, Václav thought he could prevent their recurrence by changing the officers of that town. He therefore dismissed the aldermen, appointing new ones in their places, with strict injunctions that all such public disturbances should be forbidden.

Nicholas, exiled from Prague, betook himself to the District of Bechyn, and began to take part in the gatherings upon the mountains. He early perceived that if the people would maintain their worship, they would, sooner or later, be compelled to resort to arms; and therefore he sought to come to some understanding upon this point with some of the more thoughtful of the Taborites. With this end in view, a grand meeting was appointed to be held on Mount Tabor, on St. Magdalen’s day (July 22, 1419).

The proposed meeting, having been announced at all the local meetings, both in Moravia and Bohemia, on the appointed day there gathered together a vast