Page:The life & times of Master John Hus by Count Lützow.djvu/197

 Lateran, which the pope considered to be a council, condemned as heretical all the writings of Wycliffe without exception.

The meeting of the Bohemian synod was, however, delayed by a new change in the person of the Archbishop of Prague. Archbishop Albik, a wealthy and well-intentioned man had, on the particular request of King Venceslas, consented to become Archbishop of Prague and had even, according to the evil custom then prevalent in Bohemia, paid a large sum for that honour. Albik soon tired of his new dignity and felt that it became ever more difficult to conform to the wishes both of King Venceslas and of Pope John, whose views were often directly contradictory. He therefore entered into an agreement with two other great dignitaries of the Bohemian Church, according to which they were on receipt of a considerable pecuniary remuneration to exchange their offices. Large presents were previously sent to Pope John XXIII. , who on receipt of them gave his consent to the agreement. Albik resigned the archbishopric of Prague in favour of Conrad of Vechta, then Bishop of Olomouc (Olmütz). Conrad, a German of Westphalian origin, had been one of the favourites of King Venceslas. Later in life, when Archbishop of Prague, he joined the Hussite Church and became the object of great opprobrium on the part of ultramontane writers. Tomek, whose strictly impartial attitude contrasts favourably with that of most historians of this period, writes: “Archbishop Conrad was neither better nor worse than the great majority of those who held the prominent ecclesiastical offices in Bohemia in his time. Like the others, he only wished to acquire large worldly possessions as rapidly as possible.” A contemporary chronicler, writing of the accession of Conrad of Vechta, tells us: “Conrad was an elderly and weak man. He pledged many of the towns and estates belonging to the archbishopric, and some are still in pawn. For himself, he