Page:The Hussite wars, by the Count Lützow.djvu/377

 the one containing the formal sanction of the election of the Archbishop of Prague and his suffragans by the Bohemians. The King further declared that all parish priests in Bohemia and in Moravia should dispense the Sacrament in the two kinds to those laymen who claimed that privilege; if they refused to do so they were to be removed. The document also contained regulations and promises concerning matters of minor importance, but it is the imperial consent given in it to the foundation of a Bohemian national hierarchy which renders it important. It is unfortunately almost certain that Sigismund never intended to fulfil his promises. The dispute on this matter continued beyond the period with which I am now dealing, and as Professor Tomek rightly remarks: “Sigismund publicly wrote to the Council recommending it to confirm Rokycan’s election as archbishop; secretly he advised the contrary.”

As had been settled at Brno the Bohemian estates again met in Prague in the autumn of 1435. The most important act of this diet was the election of the heads of the Bohemian hierarchy. The assembly chose sixteen of its members—of whom eight were ecclesiastics and eight laymen—as electors. They unanimously chose John of Rokycan as archbishop and Martin Lupáč, who has often been mentioned in these pages, and Venceslas of Mýto as suffragan bishops. The diet also settled to send a new embassy to Sigismund, who was expected at Stuhlweissenburg (Bělehrad) in Hungary. The envoys arrived there early in December and were soon joined by the representatives of the Council, who had also proceeded to Hungary. The Emperor was then hunting in the neighbourhood of Stuhlweissenburg, but he arrived in that city immediately before Christmas. As on previous occasions, dissensions immediately arose on the question whether the Utraquist