Venceslas not endeavour to extirpate in his kingdom all opinions contrary to Rome, he would no longer consider him as his brother.
It would have required a firmer mind than that of Venceslas not to have been greatly agitated by the menaces contained in this letter of his younger brother. His position appeared to him a hopeless one should he have to encounter the whole force of Europe in a crusade (a word that only lost its terror during the subsequent Hussite wars), for not only did his rule extend over a comparatively limited territory, but it was further weakened by the German element in the towns, which always furthered foreign intervention, and by the seditious attitude of the extreme adversaries of papacy. It is, therefore, perhaps not surprising that Venceslas decided to comply with the wishes of his younger brother, and to attempt, as far as lay in his power, to restrain the anti-papal movement in Bohemia. He issued a decree ordaining that all priests, both in Prague and in the country, who had been expelled from their parishes because they refused to administer the sacrament in both kinds, should be allowed to return and resume their functions. This measure, as was inevitable in consequence of the excited condition of Bohemia, caused great disorder. Venceslas had, however, permitted that the use of three churches in the city of Prague should be granted to those who received the communion in both kinds, and the inhabitants of the country districts, deserting the parish churches when they were again under the direction of the papal clergy, assembled on the hills or in other secluded spots, to which they gave biblical names, such as Tabor, Oreb, the Mount of Olives, and others. Here the religious services were held in the Bohemian language, and communion administered in both kinds by the Hussite priests.
The fact that religious service, according to the rites then accepted by a large majority of the inhabitants of Prague, was limited to three churches in the town, appeared unfair to the townsmen, and Nicholas of Hus,[1] one of the courtiers of King Venceslas, but a firm adherent of the Calixtine party, became their leader. When Nicholas was marching through the streets of Prague at the head of a band
- ↑ The similarity of names led many of the older writers on Bohemian history to the quite erroneous supposition that he was a relation of John Hus.
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