Page:The Hussite wars, by the Count Lützow.djvu/293



effect of the victory of Domážlice can hardly be exaggerated. Had the Bohemians now abandoned their system of only raiding the neighbouring lands and not establishing themselves permanently in foreign countries nothing would at that moment have prevented them from founding a Slavic state in Central Europe, though it is doubtful whether such an enterprise would have met with permanent success.

It is at any rate certain that none of the Bohemian leaders, not even Prokop, whose Táborites had contributed so largely to the crowning victory of Domážlice, entertained such plans. Their claims were, as before, limited to the recognition of the independence of their country and to the demands contained in the articles of Prague. Even the Táborites energetically protested against the accusation of heresy, and maintained that the Bohemians formed part of the universal Church. Still greater was the desire for peace among the Utraquist nobles and the more conservative citizens of Prague. The Utraquist nobility, which had played so brilliant a part during the earlier period of the Hussite wars, had, since the departure of Prince Korybutovič, almost entirely lost its predominant position. These men had always demanded the establishment of a Bohemian national Church, which was to form part of the universal Church. Within this national Church Communion was to be dispensed in the two kinds, the national language was to be used in the religious functions, and very severe regulations were to reform the clergy, whose worldliness and viciousness at that period scandalised even the most fervent adherents of the Church of Rome. With regard to temporal matters, however, these nobles held views not dissimilar from those of the nobility