Page:Gregor The story of Bohemia.pdf/214

 placed the Bohemians and Moravians in the most dangerous places, showing far more care and consideration for the Germans and Hungarians. The leaders now openly declared their intention of depriving him of the crown and electing a king of their own choice.

Some old historians represent John Žižka, the first great commander of the Hussites, as a bloodthirsty savage, and his followers as extremely fanatical and cruel. The Hussites were cruel, ’t is true; but not more so than the crusaders that invaded their country. Judging the people from a modern point of view, both parties were exceedingly cruel and bloodthirsty; but the fault lay more with the cruel times than with the individuals. Still it may be said, in palliation of the acts of the Hussites, that their enemies began the deeds of cruelty. It will be remembered what horrible atrocities were committed by the miners of Kuttenberg, and that without even a reprimand from their sovereign. The burning of the citizen Krasa, in Breslau, before the very eyes of the first princes of Christendom, was an act of inexcusable lawlessness that could not be left unavenged by the Hussites.

Even before the battle of Vyšehrad, the mayor of Litomeritz, to please his sovereign, ordered seventeen citizens to be drowned, simply because they favored the new teaching. He did not spare the lover of his own daughter, who, finding her pleading all in vain, flung herself into the river and perished with the rest of the victims. The Hussites retaliated.

At the surrender of Ricany, Žižka ordered eleven priests to be burned alive. The soldiers shut them up