Pope Pius II, who was then attempting to form a confederacy against the Ottoman power, did not immediately take up the challenge. On his death (1464) his successor, Paul II, prudently awaited a favourable moment for securing his revenge on the King of Bohemia. He had not long to wait. Many of the great Bohemian nobles had from the first viewed with disatisfaction the elevation to the throne of Poděbrad, who was but their equal by birth. The king's attitude, not always conciliatory, rendered this feeling still stronger. Even the re-establishment of order and the administration of justice by regular tribunals were by many viewed with disfavour. The nobles of the Roman party were the principal, though not the only, opponents of the king; they declared themselves no longer bound by the oath of allegiance which they had sworn to King George.
The malcontent nobles met at Zelená Hora (November 28, 1465), and formed an alliance against the king, whom they accused of having violated the laws of the country, especially with regard to taxation. Though the religious question was not at first raised, the leaguers immediately sent an emissary to the Pope, with the view of obtaining his support. King George had, meanwhile, continued with Pope Paul II the negotiations which had been entirely broken off during the last years of Pius II. Though an agreement seemed to all an impossibility, the king made a last attempt towards that purpose. He addressed a letter to Paul II, in which he offered great concessions. He declared his readiness to accept a papist as Archbishop of Prague if he were a Bohemian by birth, and if he were prepared to ordain as priests those who communicated "sub utraque," as well as those who communicated "sub unâ." The king further suggested that all polemical preaching should be forbidden on both sides, and even proposed—a concession of no slight importance—to restore to the Church the estates that had formerly belonged to it. No ambassador, but a simple messenger carried the king's letter to Rome. His reception, when he stated that he had to deliver a letter sent by the King of Bohemia, quickly demonstrated the impossibility of an agreement. The Pope threw the letter on the floor, and addressed the messenger in the strongest language.[1]
- ↑ It is curious to note the forcible expressions used by the Pope, which it is perhaps better to leave in the original Latin: "Quomodo
