Page:The Hussite wars, by the Count Lützow.djvu/300

 In view of the vacancy of the archiepiscopal see they then elected Rokycan administrator of the Utraquist Church (“director cleri”), and conferred on him the full powers which had been exercised by the Archbishops of Prague.

The committee, which had to deal with the political situation, began its activity by sanctioning all the resolutions made by the ecclesiastics. The members then devoted their attention to the necessity of putting a stop to the indiscipline of the soldiery, which had recently greatly increased, and to their depredations, from which the townsmen and peasants suffered severely. It was decided to appoint captains of the people, who were to exercise extensive powers in the districts of Bohemia and Moravia that were entrusted to them. They were in time of war to protect the Utraquist people from undue commandeering and plundering, and were, in accordance with the local authorities and the nobles and knights, to determine what supplies and provisions were required for the continuation of the war. The stress laid on this matter proves to how great an extent the new Táborite levies, very different from Žižka’s “warriors of God,” had already become a burden even to the Utraquist population of Bohemia. As to the all-important question whether the Utraquists should attend the Council the diet declared that, as the Bohemians had always desired peace, they were ready to take part in a ecumenical council if they were given the necessary guarantees for the safety of their envoys during their stay in Germany; they could not, however, give a positive answer before the leaders of the Táborite party, who had not taken part in the proceedings of the diet, had expressed their opinion. As under the existing circumstances a decision of the diet which had not been sanctioned by the Táborites would have had little value and could not have influenced the resolutions of the Council, the diet adjourned, after having only sat for a week.

It has, of course, been impossible to notice even slightly the innumerable feuds and minor intestine conflicts which con-