morning. It must be considered as the extermination rather than as the defeat of the Taborites; 13,000 of their men perished in the battle, and several hundred prisoners were cruelly burnt to death in the huts in which they had been temporarily shut up.[1] A small detachment only escaped. Prokop the Great, Prokop the Less (Prokůpek), and most of the other leaders fell in this battle. "Thus these Bohemians could only be conquered by other Bohemians; they who had proved themselves invincible to all Germans, and had spread the terror and the glory of their name through the whole world."[2] Though of course many Taborites still remained, yet Palacký is undoubtedly right in dating "the fall of Tabor" from the battle of Lipany, rather than from the capture of the town itself (which only took place in 1542).
The more warlike among the men of Tabor mostly left their country. They became mercenaries in the service of foreign countries, especially in Hungary, and the Ukraine and other border-lands between Russia and Poland; the Cossacks in these districts are said to have learnt and adopted the system of warfare of the Taborites. The more peaceful and pious Taborites, despairing altogether of a world in which their religious views no longer prevailed, retired to secluded spots, where they gave themselves up entirely to prayers and devotion. They not inconsiderably contributed to the foundation of the sect of the "Bohemian Brethren" (Moravians)[3] which arose about this time.
The complete defeat of the more advanced party in Bohemia was naturally followed by a reaction which ex-
- ↑ The people of Bohemia long refused to believe in the death of the Taborites, and maintained that they were in hiding in a cave in the mountain Blanik, whence they were expected some day to reappear to save Bohemia in her moment of greatest peril.
- ↑ Bienenberg, Geschichte der Stadt Königgrätz.
- ↑ The connection of the Taborites with the Bohemian Brethren was long a disputed point in Bohemian history; all recent Bohemian historians, however, maintain its existence. Professor Goll (Quellen zur Geschichte der Böhmischen Brüder) tells us that the Brethren did not wish to be considered as continuators of the Taborites. They protested against this theory with a degree of energy which was not justified by the facts of the case. I have preferred to call the new sect "Bohemian Brethren" rather than "Moravians," as the former denomination is alone used by German and Bohemian writers; their doctrines were also not in all points identical with those of the sect now known as the Moravians.
