agreement with the Táborites. The Praguers in their reply, therefore, limited themselves to stating that they were unable to treat alone on such weighty matters, but that a general diet of the Bohemian kingdom would shortly assemble in their city and would be able to give a definite answer. The university of Prague and the moderate Utraquists generally sympathised with Rokycan’s praise of peace. The demands of these men, as has been repeatedly noted, were limited. Opposition was, however, to be expected on the part of the Táborites, who had just published a manifesto violently attacking the entire ecclesiastical institutions of the Catholic Church. All Bohemian parties, however, agreed that it was necessary that the estates should meet as soon as possible. It had at first been settled that the diet should begin its sittings on December 6, but some delay occurred, as the army of the Orphans had not at that date returned from a raid in Hungary; though negotiations in view of peace had begun, the Bohemians still continued these incursions into the neighbouring lands; they had, indeed, become necessary to provision the exhausted country. The new invasion of Hungary had, however, proved very disastrous; and the Orphans returned to Bohemia in very reduced numbers. Even after their return many died from exhaustion and exposure to the cold. The Orphans openly accused Prokop[1] of
- ↑ In a letter sent by John Nider, prior of the Dominicans, one of the peace negotiators to John of Ragusa, on January 5, 1532, he notes the report of an envoy of the Town of Cheb who was at Prague when the Orphans returned there. “Dixit [the envoy] quod XIII Decembris fuit Pragæ per VIII circiter dies; vidit eadem die i. e. in crastino S. Luciæ redire de Hungaria Hussitas et intrare Pragam non ut antea viderat aliquando cum spoliis, lætitia et fistulationibus, sed cum magna tristitia et irrisionibus. Sunt enim in Praga, præsertim Veteri, quæ in triplo validior est in omnibus Nova qui corde fideles sunt et cum summo gaudio perceperunt stragem Orphanorum, optantes ut malis Bohemiæ finis detur. Fuerunt autem præfati Hussitæ qui Pragam intraverunt hi quos hæretici percipientes eorum confratres circumdatos in Ungaria direxerunt eisdem fratribus in adjutorium. Sed mentita est iniquitas sibi. Ungariæ enim appropinquantes, perceperunt, prout alias audisti, nedum multitudinem Orphanorum fame et gladio occisam, verum etiam plures ignobiles, nobiles et capitaneos Taboritarum peremptos. Siquidem postquam Procopius cum suis et Orphanorum exercitus Ungariam intrasset et spolia multa collegisset captam prædam cum dissidio et seditione dividere cœperunt. Ex quo in iram motus Procopius cum paucis, quibus
