Page:The Hussite wars, by the Count Lützow.djvu/274

 Church. This message, which must of course be judged according to the spirit of that time, was given to a special envoy, Brother Andrew of the Dominican Order.

When the papal envoy arrived at the end of his long journey, Vitold was already dead, but King Ladislas for a time earnestly attempted to bring about a reconciliation between the Hussites and the Church of Rome. His now well-known duplicity, however, caused him to be distrusted by all parties. It is probable that Prince Korybutovič—whose personality contrasts somewhat favourably with those of the other Polish and Lithuanian dignitaries of his time—suggested that some Bohemian generals and divines should be invited to Poland and should there hold a disputation with some Roman Catholic theologians. When Prokop, who was then engaged in warfare in Silesia, was informed of this proposal he avoided giving a definite answer, but deferred the matter to the Bohemian estates. They met at Kutna Hora on February 11, 1431. A new attempt to establish a provisional government was now made. Prince Korybutovič had been obliged to leave Bohemia, and though he had begun to take part in the border warfare, which continued on the frontiers of Bohemia, Silesia and Poland during the whole period of the Hussite wars, his partisans in Bohemia were not numerous. The notorious duplicity of his uncle, King Ladislas, who had expressed sympathy with Bohemia at a moment when he was plotting the ruin of that country in league with King Sigismund and Pope Martin, had naturally, though unjustly, caused the Bohemians to distrust Korybutovič. King Sigismund, whom many Bohemians, even Utraquists, would now have been ready to recognise as King, still persisted in demanding an unconditional surrender to Rome. Even the most moderate Utraquist noble could not accept this as a possible result of ten years of victorious warfare. Under these circumstances the only alternative to complete anarchy appeared to be the