last began there on May 9, shortly after the arrival of the Bohemian envoys. The Bohemian embassy on this occasion was very numerous. It included Prokop the Great, John of Rokycan, Peter Payne—surnamed Engliš—the Táborite Bishop Nicholas of Pelhřimov, the nobles John of Uršovec and Beneš of Mokrovous, and several prominent citizens of Prague. Including guards and followers the embassy consisted of seventy persons. The negotiations that ensued were necessarily difficult and delicate. As was inevitable, when the question of the journey of the Bohemian envoys to Basel and the safe conduct necessary for that purpose was raised, the Bohemians—Prokop the Great acting as spokesman—recalled the treachery that had been committed against Hus. It seemed for a moment probable that the negotiations would end with a failure. The general political situation, however, forced both parties to avoid a rupture. Among the Bohemian envoys those who belonged to the conservative party—if we may thus describe the Utraquist nobles, the theologians of the university of Prague, and the conservative citizens of the capital—were becoming certain that their alliance with the democracy of Tábor could no longer endure. On the other hand, the Council was constantly receiving messages from the clergy of Western Europe begging that the Hussite schisma might be ended as soon as possible. References was made to the fact, to which I have already drawn attention, that Hussite sympathies had become evident even in countries far distant from Bohemia.[1]
- ↑ John of Segovia writes (Monumenta Conciliorum, as above, Tom. II. pp. 5–6): “Accidit rursus his diebus publicatas fuisse eciam ad Hyspaniam plurimas copias diversarum et diffusarum epistolarum Bohemorum ex parte ad honorabiles, providos, honestos dominos in tota communitate, divites et pauperes. Que salutacionis loco premittebant se desiderare, ut illis opperiret intellectum Deus illuminans corda eorum narrantes quomodo iam a pluribus annis inter se et illos magna fuisset discordia et utrimque nobiles et ignobiles multi fatui sua corpora perdissent; nunquam tamen audivissent de ore eorum fidem suam an possent vel non ex scriptura sacra probare eam et nichilominus reges et principes, domini et communitates magna interim ab eis percepissent damna ideoque admirarentur . . . quod pape et omni sacerdocii suo tantum confiderent dantibus . . . remissionem peccatorum . . . ut contra eos bellare deberent.”
