induced four of the prominent Bohemians to meet privately four of the leading members of the Council. Among the latter was Cardinal Cesarini, at whose residence the discussions took place. These informal interviews did more to further the cause of peace than the lengthy display of rhetoric at the general meetings of the Council. The Bohemians were beginning to see that a general reform of the Church and a return to the order of primitive Christianity were impossibilities. The members of the Council, on the other hand, at last realized that concessions as to the all-important question of communion in both kinds were inevitable. During the interviews at Cardinal Cesarini's residence it was settled that when the Bohemian envoys, as now seemed certain, returned to their country, they should be accompanied by representatives of the Council; it would thus be possible to continue the negotiations at Prague.
The Estates of Bohemia met at Prague in June (1433), and the representatives of the Council, at whose head was Philibert, Bishop of Coutances in Normandy, were present at the deliberations. The members of the embassy, which had returned from Basel, reported to the Diet on the result of their mission. As had probably been settled at Cardinal Cesarini's residence, they announced that the Council was prepared to grant to Bohemia the right of receiving the communion in both kinds, on condition of the Bohemians returning on the Universal Church and conforming to its regulations on all other points. This proposal was, on the whole, favourably received by the Diet. The Estates, however, demanded that the communion in both kinds should be obligatory in Bohemia and Moravia, and optional in Silesia as well as in Poland, where the Hussites then had many adherents. The deputies of the Council were not prepared, and indeed probably had no authority, to grant these terms. They therefore left Prague (July 14, 1433) accompanied by the Bohemian ambassadors, who were to continue the negotiations at Basel. On arriving there the Bohemians informed the Council of the conditions of peace which their countrymen were prepared to accept. They formulated these terms in four articles that constitute (in a subsequently slightly modified form) the famed "Compacts" which up to the year 1567 were considered one of the fundamental laws of the country. The Compacts, which are
