556 THE HUSSITES. there were powerful barons and cities who steadily held out for the pope and kaiser, and under the interregnum there had at first been a dual government, shared equally by Catholic and Calixtin. Under the firm hand of George Podiebrad the orthodox commu- nities submitted one by one, and in spiritual matters Eokyzana was supreme. It is true that there was now little to distinguish the churches in doctrine or practice save the use of the cup ; but independence served as a protection against the greed of the Eo- man curia, and there was small encouragement for a surrender of this independence in the clamor which was now going up from Germany. The Basilian regulations, confirmed by Eugenius, had for a time served as a safeguard to some extent, but now these were coolly treated as obsolete, and complaints were loud that all the old abuses were flourishing as vigorously as ever. Elections were set aside, or heavy sums were extorted for their confirma- tion, wliile the country was drained of money by the exaction of tenths and the sale' of indulgences. Secure in their isolation, the Bohemians might well submit to some inconvenience to be spared the costly blessing of apostolic paternal care. The only hope of Eome lay in the approaching majority of the Catholic youth La- dislas ; but when, on the eve of his marriage with the daughter of Charles Y II. of France, he suddenly died, towards the close of 1457, not without suspicions of foul play, and George Bodiebrad soon afterwards was elected and crowned, it might well seem that, short of Divine interposition, the peaceful return of Bohemia was not to be looked for.* Yet at first it looked as though an accommodation might be reached. Ladislas, shortly before his death, had proposed to send an embassy to Eome for the purpose of effecting a reconciliation, and Calixtus III. had asked of Podiebrad to gratify his vehement desire of seeing Eokyzana, whose high reputation was well known in Eome. Podiebrad, moreover, caused himself to be crowned according to the Eoman rite ; having no bishop of his own, he
- ^n. Sylvii Epist. 162. 324, 334-5, 337-40, 356, 369, 387 (Ed. 1571, pp. 714,
815, 821-22, 825, 831, 837, 840).— Ejusd. Hist. Boliem. c. 71-2. Pius II. did not hesitate to publish to Christendom a positive assertion that George poisoned Ladislas, and said that, though the facts were obscure, the Viennese physicians in attendance attributed his death to poison. — ^n. SylVc Epist. Ixxi. (0pp. inedd. p. 467).
