Page:The Hussite wars, by the Count Lützow.djvu/330

 representatives of the Council and the members of the Utraquist nobility. These noblemen have shared the fate of almost all men who, in a stormy and revolutionary period, attempt to maintain the principle of compromise. Menhard of Jindřichův Hradec acted as mediator, and we read of frequent banquets, to which he invited both the Utraquist nobles and the representatives of the Council. On other occasions also the envoys of the Council reproached the Bohemian nobles with their alliance with men of mean birth, and reminded them of the loss of their feudal rights and supremacy. It is certain that these arguments were not without influence on the Utraquist nobility. They remained, however, as is proved by the document just quoted, faithful to the demand that Communion in the two kinds should be granted. They stated that “they would in no case renounce Utraquism, rather would they all die.” Their demands had never gone beyond those formulated by the articles of Prague. The attacks made on these noblemen by German writers, who state that they were intimidated by the peasantry or influenced merely by the wish to acquire Church lands, are therefore unfair and unjustifiable. Though, as stated, it again for a moment appeared probable that the negotiations would be broken off, the universal desire for peace prevented this. An immediate agreement, however,