terms she should make peace with her king. The emperor, fearing that Matthias would be too powerful as King of Hungary and Bohemia, began to look upon him with distrust, which soon turned into open enmity. Thus, partly through success in arms and partly by favoring circumstances, the position of the Bohemian king became so favorable that the Pope was willing to treat with the two kings with the purpose of making peace between them. But before the negotiations commenced, King George died, March 22, 1471.
THE AGE OF GEORGE PODĚBRAD.
(1420–1471.)
This age was the age of war and religious controversy, and the literature of this time was devoted to the latter subject. Palacký says: “The Bohemian of this age, whenever he raised his mind into the realm of thought, sought nothing there but endless questions about the Church, the Word of God, heresy, and Antichrist, the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper and the chalice, the rights and duties of hierarchy, and similar topics; and when he turned to labor, he saw nothing better than drilling in arms, arranging war-carts, and other occupations incident to war.”
Jungman also speaks of this age with supreme contempt, since it was filled with aimless and empty controversies that led to wars and involved the neglect of all peaceful arts, occupations, and intellectual progress.
To a philosopher, it doubtless appears the height of folly that so much blood should be shed in the defense of so unimportant a principle as the Utraquist doctrine; but in the intellectual development of the nation this was no small matter. Having once accepted certain
