Page:The Hussite wars, by the Count Lützow.djvu/276

 misfortunes which had befallen their country because of heresy. He specially admonished the Bohemian nobles to return to the fold of the Church of Rome, and endeavoured to persuade them to act independently of the other national parties. On April 4 King Ladislas, on the advice of his councillors, suggested to the Bohemians that they should sign a document stating that they would attend a ecumenical council of the Holy Roman Church, whether held at Basel or elsewhere. The document also contained the promise that the Bohemians would accept and observe indissolubly all the decisions of the Council. The Bohemians immediately declined to sign this document, whose contents, indeed, amounted to an unconditional surrender. The Hussites had demanded to appear on terms of equality at a council in which the whole Christian world was to be represented, and hoped that, should they be able to prove the truth of their tenets, the Council would accept them. The King of Poland now suggested a Council of the Roman Church, which was to be entirely under the direction of the Pope, and he demanded that they should, as erring sons, submit themselves unconditionally to this papal assembly—as the Hussites considered it. The desire for peace was, however, at that moment already so strong that the refusal was couched in very courteous language. The Bohemians begged the King of Poland to intercede in their favour, that they might obtain letters of safe conduct which would enable them to attend the Council; they also suggested that the negotiations begun at Cracow might be continued in Prague at the coming meeting of the estates, to which they begged the King of Poland to send representatives.

Though the Bohemians showed great moderation on this occasion there is no doubt that they left Cracow greatly disappointed and somewhat indignant. It was not the first, nor by any means the last, time that the Bohemians wrongly placed their trust in the kindred Polish nation. An incident which occurred during the stay of the Bohemians in Cracow