Page:Bohemia An Historical Sketch.djvu/171

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An Historical Sketch
147

terms, for we read that early in the following year the Taborites and Orphans again entered Moravia and drove Sigismund's son-in-law, Duke Albert of Austria, out of that country. They then followed him into his own dominions, where they defeated him in a great battle at Zwettl (March 12, 1427), in which 9000 Austrians fell.

Almost immediately afterwards an event took place which not improbably was decisive in determining the future of the Hussite movement. Dissensions again broke out among the clergy of Prague; some priests had—to strengthen the alliance with the Taborites—permitted greater deviations from the ritual and dogma of the Roman Church than the Articles of Prague authorized. Among the prominent members of this party was John of Rokycan, whom Archbishop Conrad had consecrated as Vicar-General, and Peter Payne, an Englishman by birth who was generally known as "Magister Engliš." The teaching of these and some other priests caused a reaction among the more moderate Calixtines; their leader was Magister John Přibram, and this party enjoyed the favour of Prince Korybut. It seems certain that the prince had entered into negotiations with Pope Martin V. He probably hoped that by obtaining from the Pontiff some such concessions as were afterwards granted by the Compacts of Basel, he could pacify Bohemia, and then become its undisputed ruler. There was no time to mature these plans. On April 17, 1427, Korybut was suddenly seized in the castle of Waldstein; his adherents made an nsuccessful attempt to liberate him, but he was afterwards allowed to return to his own country. Magister Přibram and other ecclesiastics of the moderate party were also exiled from Prague.

There is no doubt that the retirement of Prince Korybut was a decisive blow to the party which hoped to establish an independent monarchy under a sovereign who accepted the Articles of Prague. It also—monarchy being at that time the only possible form of government over an extended area of country—ultimately proved fatal to the hopes of those who wished to preserve the autonomy of Bohemia, as well as the religious ceremonies which had become so dear to its people.

A monarch of Slav nationality—belonging to the reigning family of Poland, in which country sympathy with the