Page:The life & times of Master John Hus by Count Lützow.djvu/400

 time, the Old Testament had great influence, appears to have considered himself as an instrument chosen by providence to avenge on Sigismund the murder of master John Hus, and he always pursued the King of Hungary with relentless hatred. Having the greatest general of the time at their head, the Taborites no longer hesitated to wage open warfare against the moderate or Calixtine party. What I have written has, I hope, made it clear how great was the antagonism between the Hussite parties, and at a warlike period, and among a warlike people, such differences could only be settled by “blood and iron.” Zizka defeated the Calixtines, led by Cenek of Wartemberg, in a great battle at Horic (April 27, 1423). Rumours of a threatened new invasion caused the Bohemians to reunite, as indeed they at this period always did when attacked by foreign enemies. A truce was concluded at Konopist, which, reserving for future decision all questions of dogma and ecclesiastical government, limited itself to declaring that the questions concerning vestments and the decoration of churches should be entrusted to the authorities of the church, and did not depend on the law of God. So insufficient a settlement could not prove definite, and civil war again broke out as soon as the danger of foreign invasion disappeared for a time. Zizka, victorious as ever, defeated the Calixtines at Kralove Hradec and Malesov.

In the last year of Zizka’s life, peace was re-established between the contending Hussite parties, mainly through the mediation of Prince Korybut, who had returned to Bohemia. A great meeting took place on the “Spitalske pole” (spital field) on the spot where the Prague suburb Karlin now stands. Zizka, whose usual moderation always abandoned him when King Sigismund was in question, had sworn entirely to destroy the city of Prague, which, as he believed, still harboured some adherents of the King of Hungary. The eloquence of the young priest John of Rokycan, afterwards arch-