Page:The Hussite wars, by the Count Lützow.djvu/373

 send their representatives to Brno it was, however, necessary that the Bohemian estates should meet in Prague to deliberate on the conditions under which Sigismund would be received as king. It had been agreed that the estates should meet on the day of St. Valentine (February 14), but, in consequence of the exceptionally cold winter, the deliberations of the diet only began on March 2, 1435. The regent, Aleš of Riesenburg, had some time previously received a short communication from Bishop Philibert of Coutance and other members of the Council which proffered excuses for their delay in answering the letter concerning the Bohemian hierarchy which the estates had sent in the autumn of the previous year. The reply avoided answering the questions contained in the letter of the diet, and limited itself to stating that the Council would send a numerous and important embassy to Brno, which would take part in the deliberations during the stay of the Emperor in that city.

The resolutions of the “Diet of St. Valentine,” as it was called, though its sittings began somewhat later than the day of that saint, are very important. The estates here formulated the conditions under which they were prepared to recognise Sigismund as their king. Their demands were certainly extensive, and it is obvious that the constant delays and what they considered the double dealing had irritated many. The somewhat reviving strength of the Táborites was probably also taken into account by the assembly. The document which contained these demands consisted of twenty-seven articles. The most important stipulations were “that no man, and especially no German, should be received as a citizen by any town unless he communicated in the two kinds, that no one should hold office unless he communicated in the two kinds, that the Emperor should have no chaplain who did not communicate in the two kinds, that the Emperor himself with his court