founded on the Articles of Prague, run thus: 1. The Holy Sacrament is to be given freely in both kinds to all Christians in Bohemia and Moravia, and to those elsewhere who adhere to the faith of the two countries. 2. All mortal sins shall be punished and extirpated by those whose office it is so to do. 3. The word of God is to be freely and truthfully preached by the priests of the Lord, and by worthy deacons. 4. The priests "in the time of the law of grace"[1] shall claim ownership of no worldly possessions.
The Council refused to reply to the demands of the Bohemian envoys, stating that its decision could only be made known to a general assembly of the Estates of Bohemia. The Council, therefore, again sent delegates to Prague, who travelled there together with the returning Bohemian envoys.
New internal troubles in Bohemia now for a time turned away public interest from the negotiations with the Council. The Bohemian armies had not discontinued the warlike expeditions which the still valid prohibition against trade with Bohemia indeed rendered almost a necessity. We find one of the Bohemian armies fighting as allies of Poland against the Knights of the Teutonic Order, in the vicinity of the Baltic Sea. At this moment, however, the Hussites concentrated all their efforts on the capture of the town of Plzeň; they naturally attached great importance to the possession of this considerable Bohemian town, which was still in the hands of the papal party. The most important point in the negotiations with the Council was whether communion in both kinds should be optional or obligatory in Bohemia, and it was difficult to demand the latter alternative as long as the Catholic town of Plzeň remained unconquered. A large army under Prokop the Great therefore began to besiege the city about July (1433). It was noted that the utraquist nobles no longer joined Prokop's forces.
The envoys of the Council reached Prague in the autumn
- ↑ This may be shortly interpreted as signifying "henceforth." Before acceptation by the Roman Church this article was qualified by an explanatory note stating that priests and monks should not own hereditary estates, and that the priests as "administrators" of the property of the Church should manage it faithfully, according to the injunctions of the Holy Father.
