Page:The Hussite wars, by the Count Lützow.djvu/369

 large concessions to the Utraquists. They may have suggested to him that his position in Bohemia would become much stronger as soon as he became its acknowledged sovereign. His advisers well knew that Sigismund was not very scrupulous as to keeping promises made under different circumstances.

Though the conferences at Regensburg had led to no immediate result, it was probably at this moment that the Utraquist nobles determined to abandon their demand that Communion in the two kinds should be made obligatory in the whole of Bohemia and Moravia. Though the destruction of the Táborite bands had principally been their work, they began to feel that they had lost a powerful ally should it be necessary again to take up arms. In their own ranks defections were becoming frequent. Through the influence of Menhard and Rosenberg some nobles had already abandoned Utraquism, and the bribes of Sigismund, which were as considerable as his chronic impecuniosity permitted, had caused some men to submit unconditionally to the Church of Rome.

The new Bohemian diet met on October 23, shortly after the return of the envoys from Regensburg. Its most important resolution was to send a deputation to Hungary, where Sigismund was then residing, to confer with him on the conditions under which the Bohenians would receive him as king. The diet also decided to enter into renewed negotiations with the Council concerning the all-important question of the re-establishment of the Bohemian hierarchy. This was an absolute necessity if order was to be permanently re-established. Though the battle of Lipany had been fought but a short time previously bands of Táborites had again risen in arms, and in Silesia there had been conflicts between Utraquists and Roman Catholics. It was thought that only priests belonging to the Utraquist Church would have authority over the people. The diet therefore demanded that the new archbishop and his two suffragan bishops should be elected by the estates and should belong to the Bohemian nation. One of the most important