the month of February (1432). After a long and stormy debate it was decided that the Bohemians should send envoys to Cheb, where they were to meet the delegates of the Council. A further deliberation was then to take place. The date of the meeting was fixed for April 27, but it was only on May 7 that the Bohemian envoys arrived at Cheb; among them were Prokop the Great, John of Rokycan, afterwards utraquist Archbishop of Prague, Peter Payne, commonly called "Magister Engliš," and a few utraquist knights; among the delegates of the Council were several prominent ecclesiastics. Though preliminary matters only were discussed, the debates were very stormy. The Bohemians referred to the fate of Hus at a previous Council, and Prokop the Great openly questioned the security of the safe-conduct which was to be given to the Bohemian envoys who were to proceed to Basel. He remarked that it was an ancient papal doctrine that no faith need be kept with heretics. The Bohemians finally consented—subject to the approval of the Diet—to send representatives to Basel. An agreement was drawn up, the principal points of which were a full guarantee of the personal safety of the envoys, and of the right to express their opinions freely, to censure the abuses of the Church, and to defend the four Articles (of Prague). The envoys were further promised honourable seats at the assemblies of the Council. Finally, it was stipulated that the suspension of Church services in the towns through which the envoys were to pass (required by the rules of the Church, as Bohemia was under the interdict, but resented by the Bohemians as an insult) should not be enforced.
A new assembly of the Estates of Bohemia was held at Kutna Hora in August (1432). The representatives of Bohemia at the Council were then chosen, but the Diet did not accept the proposal of a truce with the neighbouring countries which was suggested in consequence of the deliberations at Cheb. The following months were spent in negotiations for securing the safety of the Bohemian ambassadors during their long journey.
The successful resistance offered by the Bohemians to the vast Romanist armies, had not only in Germany—where hatred of the Slav is traditional—but in all Western Europe engendered a ferocious hatred of the heretics.[1] It
- ↑ As a proof of the intense hatred of the Bohemians that then
