^,^ THE HUSSITES. 15 1420, to undergo the punishment. As the feet of Nicholas were ab^ut to be attached to the horse, his courage gave way and he recanted. Krasa was undaunted ; the legate followed him, as he was dragged to the place of execution, exhorting him to repent, i^t in vaiS he was attached half-dead to the stake and duly burned Two days later, March 17, the legate proclaimed the crusade. The die was cast; the Church so willed it, and a new Albisiensian war was inevitable * . m^ + o-»- There was wavering no longer in Bohemia. The events at Breslau united aU, with the exception of a few b™ and s.c^ Germans as were left, in resistance against Sigismund. The preach Sundered against him as the Eed Dragon of the Apocalypse. Z April 3 the citizens of Utraquist Prague had bound themselve by a solemn oath with the Taborites to defend themselves against hhn to the last, and were busy in preparations to sustam a siege. Sigismund's forces were whoUy inadequate for the conquest of a virtually united kingdom. After an advance to ^-f^^l^.^^ was forced to withdraw and await the assemWmg of the ciusade, which took long to organize, and did not burst in its fury over Bo- hemia until the following year, 1421. It was on a scale to crush au'esistance. In its mass of one hundred and fifty thousand |nen all Europe was represented, from Russia to Spam and from Sicily to EnZd. Thi reunited Church aroused all Christendom to stamp'out the revolt, and the treasures of salvation were poured Sly forth to exterminate those who dared to mamtam the mno- rS of Huss and Jerome, and to take the Eucharist as aU^Chns^ tians had done until within two hundred years. The ^^ar was wt^ed with desperation. Five times during 1421 the ~ders in- ried Bohemia, and five times they were beaten back disastrously^ ihe gain to the faith was scarce perceptible, for Sigismund stripped the churches of all their precious ornaments, declaring that he was . Laur Byzyn. Diar. Bell, Hussit. (Ludewig VI. 159).-Raynald ann. 1420. No. 13 -hS Persecut. Eccles. Bohem. pp. 39-40.-^gid. Carleru Lib. de Le- ^'"There°was taming also to the democratic party among the Bohemians in the in an uprising similar to that ot rra^ue. Tfpiphskrieffe crecren of them to be belieaded.-Bezold, Konig Sigmund und die ReicHsknege ,e,e die Husiten, Munchen, 1872, p. 37.
