Hussites

“ Free for a time from foreign aggression, the Hussites invaded Moravia, where a large part of the population favoured their creed; but, again paralysed by dissensions, soon returned to Bohemia. The city of Königgrätz (Králové Hradec) , which had been under Utraquist rule, espoused the doctrine of Tabor, and called Žižka to its aid. After several military successes gained by Žižka (q.v.) in 1423 and the following year, a treaty of peace between the Hussites was concluded on the 13th of September 1424 at Liben, a village near Prague, now part of that city. ”

“ Only a few days later Žižka led his troops to the attack of the castle of Sedlec, the owner of which, Lord Ulrick of Ústi, was one of the nobles opposed to the national cause; he had cruelly persecuted some of the Hussites who had settled on his estates. The castle was stormed, and Ulrick and all his followers were killed. The Hussites, with strange cruelty, spared the six bravest warriors, and offered his life to the one of them who would consent to decapitate his five comrades. [47] A man named Pinta agreed to do this, and henceforth joined the Hussite armies. ”

“ The ardent faith of the Hussites and the meek goodness of Herrnhut were the arms with which they surprised these wild, wily hearts, and conquered them for heaven, making their converts lay down the savage, not in creed only, but in life also, and put on the Christian with all the hard conditions of forgiveness to enemies, of peace, and of continual labor. Never since Eliot preached to the Indians in New England had efforts so sincere and so fortunate been made for their conversion, and never had civilization been so strictly united with conversion. ”

“ Under the influence of his brother Sigismund, king of the Romans, King Wenceslaus endeavoured to stem the Hussite movement. A certain number of Hussites lead by Nicolas of Hus—no relation of John Huss—left Prague. They held meetings in various parts of Bohemia, particularly at Usti, near the spot where the town of Tabor was founded soon afterwards. At these meetings Sigismund was violently denounced, and the people everywhere prepared for war. In spite of the departure of many prominent Hussites the troubles at Prague continued. ”

“ The King then suggested that the Hussites should leave to the Council the final decision as to what was true Scriptural doctrine. The Hussites replied that they would die rather than submit unconditionally to the Council, and they also rejected Sigismund’s proposal that an armistice should be concluded which was to last during the time in which the Council continued its deliberations. This concluded the negotiations, and the Bohemian envoys hurriedly returned to Prague, where they cailed on their countrymen to be ready to resist an immediate German invasion. ”

“ The frontiers of the neighbouring lands had so long been closed to the Bohemians—all intercourse with the Hussites had been forbidden under penalty of excommunication—that the country would have been thoroughly exhausted had it not obtained supplies from Silesia. That country also now became a great recruiting-ground for the Hussite armies. In consequence of the necessities of agriculture it was impossible to keep the whole peasantry constantly under arms. ”

“ Among the earliest leaders of the Hussites were several priests, such as John of Zělivo, Koranda of Plzeň, Ambrose of Králové Hradec, and others. As learning was in those days confined almost entirely to the priesthood, it has been conjectured that these priests instructed the people to fight according to the system of the ancients, a conjecture which is confirmed by the words of a contemporary chronicler. [31] Dr. Toman has even ventured a turther conjecture. He suggests that some of the Hussite leaders, perhaps Žižka himself, were acquainted with the work of Vegetius, Epitome rei militaris. ”

“ The Duke of Brunswick and the Landgrave of Thuringia also marched to the aid of the menaced elector. The German army, according to the most trustworthy accounts, numbering about 100,000 men, was now vastly superior in strength to the Bohemian forces. On hearing of the approach of the Germans the Hussites marched in a north-western direction, burning the towns of Oschatz and Wurzen on their way. ”

“ HUSSITE WAR.—The indignation of the followers of Huss was such that a great revolt broke out in Bohemia. The leader was a brave man, Ziska. The imperial troops, after the coronation of Sigismund as king of Bohemia, were defeated, and driven out. The Hussite soldiers ravaged the neighboring countries. The council of Basel (1431-1449) concluded a treaty with the more moderate portion of the Hussites, in which concessions were made to them. ”

“ As all churches, even those where the utraquist rites were observed, were closed to the Taborites, they began to assemble in large numbers in the fields and on mountains. Lawrence of Brezova, the foremost among the historians of the Hussite war, writes: [18] “In the year 1419 the priests and preachers of Scripture who favoured the teaching of Hus and communion in the two kinds, who were then called Wycliffites or Hussites, and with them people of both sexes from all parts of Bohemia, both from towns and villages, began to assemble on a hill near Bechyn, to which they gave the name of Tabor. ”

“ When the news of Huss’s death reached Bohemia, a large part of the nation broke out in revolt. The bishop of Leitomysl, the chief Bohemian ecclesiastic at Constance, Sigismund, and the council itself, all three sought to check the rebellion, now by explanations and now by threats. Only a rapid survey can here be given of the devotion shown to Huss’s memory, the development of the parties which honored his name, the desolating crusades which were preached against the Hussites by the pope, the lamentable strife between the two wings of his followers and the extermination of Hussitism. ”

“ The Hussites, who had only retired from the frontier because of the difficulty of provisioning their large army in an exhausted country, had meanwhile rallied their forces near the Karlštýn fortress, and, probably well aware of the indiscipline and licence which prevailed among the crusaders, now immediately marched on Domážlice. When the Elector Frederick was, on the morning of August 14, informed of the approach of the Bohemian armies, he immediately determined to await their attack in a defensive position and also to prepare for a retreat which, he thought, might possibly be necessary. ”

“ A hundred years after Huss’s death that bitter enemy of the Protestant Reformation, Cochlæus—Dobneck, his German name—in his History of the Hussites wrote that there was no worse fornication than the fornication Huss committed with the Catholic faith. [59] When he spoke of fornication Cochlæus meant heresy. To such a judgment Huss’s purity of life and constancy in death are a solemn protest. His principle is the better one: “By their fruits ye shall know them.” ”

“ They had advised him also to send representatives to the diet of Prague. The King readily consented. He was above all things anxious to terminate the struggle with the Hussites. The Hussite wars have so great an importance in the world’s history that it is difficult to realise how largely Sigismund was, during this period, occupied with other matters, which even to the historian now appear unimportant. At this moment the King of Hungary was principally interested in the expedition to Italy which he had planned. ”

“ The crusaders undoubtedly aimed at the complete extermination of the Czech population of Bohemia, whom they wrongly believed to be all Utraquists. They therefore murdered all, without distinction of age or sex. “They were determined to let no heretic live,” as a contemporary chronicler writes. The Hussites almost always spared children and women, and those who suffered most from their cruelty were priests and monks, whom they considered responsible for the murder of Hus, as they termed it. It is, of course, impossible to deny that Žižka was cruel; no Hussite general could be otherwise ”

“ His ashes were scattered on the Rhine. The later Hussites, in accordance with an old Christian custom (§ 39, 5) , celebrated the day of his death as the dies natalis of the holy martyr John Huss.―Jerome of Prague had gone unasked to Constance. When he saw that his longer stay would not help his friend, but only involve himself in his fate, he left the city; but was seized on the way, and taken back in chains in April, A.D. 1415. During a severe half-year’s imprisonment, and wearied with the importunities of his judges, he agreed to recant, and to acquiesce in the sentence of Huss. ”

“ Under the guidance of Nicholas of Hussineccz, the friend and patron of Huss, in whom even his enemies acknowledged more a defender of the Reformers, than a persecutor of the Catholics; of Zhizhka of Trocznow, a Bohemian knight of great valour, but disgraced by cruelty; and, after the death of these two, under Procopius, formerly a clergyman; the Hussites carried their victorious arms throughout all Bohemia, into Silesia, Franconia, Austria, and Saxony; and made these unhappy countries the theatre of the most cruel devastations. ”

“ The Hussites armies (made up largely of peasants) prevailed against their Catholic opponents for a number of years, thanks to the military genius of the partially blind Jan Žižka, and a compromise was funally reached in 1434. Bohemia’s nobility then chose its first and last Hussite king, George (or Jiři) of Podébrad (1458–1471) .
Ever since these conflicts, Jan Hus has been seen by many Czechs as a hero of Czech nationalism and the Hussites, rightly or wrongly, as heroic patriots defending “land and . . . ”

“ The citizens were also instructed to treat the strangers with great courtesy, but to avoid all intimate intercourse with them; for the Council feared that their teaching might spread among the citizens.
Cardinal Cesarini, with his usual prudence, succeeded in persuading the Hussites to make their entry into Basel in as quiet a manner as possible, thus avoiding the danger of both hostile and friendly demonstrations. The Bohemians, who sincerely wished to avoid further difficulties, gladly acquiesced. ”

“ The regents thoroughly understood that it would be necessary that all members of the Bohemian Church should formulate their tenets in an identical manner. They thought—rightly, as events proved—that any appearance of disunion among the Hussites would be very advantageous to their antagonists. Somewhat later than had been intended, on April 30, the Bohemian divines, representatives of the moderate Utraquists (the so-called “Praguers”) , the Táborites, and Orphans met at the university college known as the Carolinum. Master John of Rokycan spoke first, in the name of the Praguers. ”

“ So profound was the impression Huss’s death made upon his people that in Prague and in the villages, in church and on street, every man was distinctly for him or against him. A contemporary chronicler says: “Every household in Bohemia is divided, the wife against the husband, the father against the child, and the host against his guests.” The houses of the anti-Hussites were plundered or even destroyed. Priests of the old way suffered personal injury or were driven from their parishes. ”

“ After having received letters from the Hussite leaders inviting him to their camp and letters of safe conduct, the Elector crossed the Bohemian lines accompanied by ten Hussite horsemen as his bodyguard. An interview took place between him and the Hussite commanders at the castle of Zwernitz, not far from Bayreuth, on February 6, 1430. It was here agreed that on condition of the payment of a considerable sum by the Bishop of Bamberg and by the municipalities of Bamberg and Forchheim, the Hussites should undertake not to attack the territory of Bamberg. ”

“ In spite of this drastic edict, intended to check the spread of Hussitism in Poland, the Bohemian Hussites sent some of their emissaries to Cracow in 1427 for the purpose of conducting religious discussions. The Polish historian Długosz, who was Cardinal Oleśnicki’s secretary, reports that such a discussion, in which the Hussite representatives and the Roman Catholic doctors of the University of Cracow participated, was actually held in the city of Cracow in 1431, in the presence of the king, and characteristically adds that the heretics were vanquished, but would not admit it. ”

“ The democratic spirit of the Hussites was also beginning to attract attention. Men could not but wonder that a citizen of Prague of modest birth and fortune should negotiate with princes and great territorial nobles. The German rulers began to fear that even ancient racial hatred might not be sufficient to prevent the Germans from joining the Bohemian fighters for freedom. Great agitation spread among the people. They said that they had been misled by the priests and abandoned by the princes and nobles, who had been unable to oppose the Slavic enthusiasts. ”

“ Early in 1417, the university, taking note of this dissension, and led by Jacobellus of Mies, Christian of Prachaticz and John of Reinstein, all friends of Huss, condemned the party of the Hussites who were denying purgatory, prayers for the dead, who banished images from the church, abandoned the use of candles, incense, the ringing of bells and consecrated baptismal water, who refused judicial oaths, demanded the mass in the vulgar tongue, and that only such ceremonies be practised as were distinctly set forth in the New Testament. ”

“ The same title is applied to the more militant Huguenots in France in 1560 and 1561, who, wherever they obtained the upper hand, ruthlessly destroyed the statues which adorned the churches and monasteries, and also to a section of the Puritans during the English Civil War.
Iglau, Treaty of.
A treaty between the Hussites and the Emperor Sigismund, signed in 1436, putting an end to the Hussite War. It was based upon the Compactata of Prague, and secured to the Hussites the free exercise of their religion on the lines of that document. ”