Page:The Hussite wars, by the Count Lützow.djvu/248

 since the tragedy of Constance. Žižka and many others who considered that Sigismund’s participation in the execution of Hus excluded him for ever from the Bohemian throne were dead. Though Sigismund was at heart a fervent and even bigoted adherent of the Roman Church his innate falseness made it easy for him to express occasionally opinions which could be interpreted in a very different sense. Even at the time of the Council of Basel he stated that he was strongly opposed to the celibacy of the clergy, and it will be remembered that during the siege of Prague the Germans suspected Sigismund of secretly favouring their enemies.

It was one of the greatest of the Bohemian territorial nobles, Lord Menhard of Jindřichův Hradec (in German, Neuhaus); who undertook the difficult task of mediating between King Sigismund and the Utraquists. Menhard’s career had been a somewhat chequered one. He was the son of John of Jindřichův Hradec, who had been one of the first Bohemian nobles to adopt the Utraquist teaching, but who had died in 1417, before the beginning of the war. Menhard had in 1421 taken up arms against Žižka, by whom he was made prisoner and detained for some time at the castle of Přibenic. After his liberation he again opposed the national party, but was defeated at Kamenic in 1425. Henceforth he joined the Utraquists, as whose ally he took part in the campaigns of Střibro and Tachov. He now appears for a time as a genuine defender of the articles of Prague, but he continued to be a strong monarchist, and also endeavoured to restore the power of the Bohemian nobility, which had greatly declined since the departure of Korybutovič. His well-known prudence and caution caused him to become the recognised leader of the Utraquist nobility. Menhard found a favourable occasion for his attempted mediation when Prokop the Great, leaving the castle of Bechin, undertook a new invasion of Austria. Menhard of Jindřichův Hradec, accompanied by other nobles