Page:Gregor The story of Bohemia.pdf/292

 agreed to go to the Council, but discuss nothing whatever until they were granted the “Four Articles of Prague.” A Diet was held in Eger, where delegates from the Council met those from Bohemia, and it was decided upon what terms the Bohemians should be received in Basil. It was also decided that, in all religious questions, the authority should be the Holy Scripture, the practice of the primitive Church, and the decisions of Church Councils

The Bohemian deputation, numbering some three hundred persons, started for Basil, December 6, 1431. Among the lay delegates were William Kostka of Postupitz, and six other men of eminence. The delegates from the Churches were John Rokycan, Peter Payne, Prokop the Great, Nicholas of Pelhram, Ulric of Znoima, and three others.

On their way they were received with every mark of honor; the Council, and especially Cardinal Julian, being determined to win their good-will even before they reached Basil. The crafty prelate knew beforehand that the Council would never accede to their demands, and he imagined that the delegates, blinded by the favors received, would finally cease from demanding the liberties purchased by so much bloodshed and suffering. In this he was mistaken; for men made of such stern stuff as Prokop the Great, Payne, and Rokycan, could not be turned from their purpose by any such blandishments.

When the delegation was approaching Basil, it was decided to finish the journey by water; and as it had been expected to come by land, it reached the city before the inhabitants were aware of it; but the news spread as if by magic, and the aldermen went