Page:The history of medieval Europe.djvu/627

 THE PAPACY AND ITS OPPONENTS 571 armies fled without risking a battle, and in the years be- tween these two dates the Bohemians invaded Germany and spread terror far and wide. Both the crusaders in Bohe- mia and the Hussites in Germany were guilty of shocking atrocities. Since the Hussites could not be suppressed by force, an- other general council was called at Basel in 1431 and long negotiations ensued. While these were in proc- Compromise ess, the Hussites quarreled among themselves arranged 11 1 r i i i • • 1 Wltn the and the moderate party 01 nobles administered Council of a crushing defeat to the Taborites. Finally, in Basel 1436 the moderate Hussites accepted their four articles in a new form suggested by the council which somewhat weakened their force. The important question, however, was whether this agreement would be lived up to. The pope refused to confirm a Hussite whom the Bohemians elected Archbishop of Prague, and Sigismund was inclined toward a Roman Catholic reaction. He died the next year, how- ever; the reign of his Hapsburg successor, Albert of Austria, was brief; and then followed the long minority of Albert's posthumous son. During this minority George of Podiebrad, the leader of the Utraquists, gained the chief power, and when the young king died in 1457, he was chosen king. He main- R. f tained the Hussite archbishop, and, on the other George of hand, captured Mount Tabor where the radi- cals had been holding out to the last. They survived, never- theless, as a persecuted sect and later became the Bohemian Brotherhood or Moravians. The pope now refused to stand by the compromise which the Council of Basel had made with the Hussites, and preached another crusade against Bohemia which was undertaken by Matthias Corvinus of Hungary. Podiebrad died in 147 1, but was able to secure the election of a younger son of the King of Poland as his successor rather than Matthias. This king, Ladislas II, was himself a papal sympathizer, but found it necessary to tolerate the Utraquists, who con- tinued to receive the communion in both kinds. The Bohe-