The Wyclif of Bohemia, like his English forerunner, embodied all that was required to satisfy the moral needs of the time. A priest, he preached the reform of the Church; a scholar, he popularized the Divine Word in the common language; a patriot, he tried to rescue the Bohemian nationality from the intellectual oppression of the German minority. Huss denounced the abuses then to be found in the Church strenuously and at all times. Papal wrath was aroused against him. He was summoned to the Council of Constance, and went under a safe-conduct, but was imprisoned and, after some time, burnt to death on July 6, 1415, his birthday, a fate which fell also on his fellow-citizen and follower, Jerome of Prague. The end of these two earnest men aroused a storm of wrath in their native country and the doctrines of the Reformation swept over the land. Civil war followed, and continued until the demands of the Hussites were granted. The great leader of the Hussites was Zizka, who showed admirable judgment and courage. His name is held in little less reverence than those of Huss and Jerome themselves. Though the kings of Bohemia were nominally elective, yet as a rule the crown descended from father to son as smoothly as in countries where the dignity was hereditary. That is to say, when there was a son to succeed, but it very frequently happened that, as in the case of other titles when heirs are earnestly desired, heirs very often failed to put in an appearance. As Sigismund had no sons, he managed to secure the succession of the throne to Albert, Archduke of Austria, who had married his daughter. Albert, however, reigned a very short time. A posthumous son was born to him, and after considerable debate, he was crowned king at the age of fourteen, only to die unmarried five years later, as a result of the terrible plague which acted as such a scourge in the Middle Ages. The Bohemians were therefore once more in the unenviable position of having to choose a king, and the influence which the Reformed doctrines had by this time gained is shown in the choice of the first “heretic” king, a national leader called George of Podebrad. After Podebrad’s death thirteen years later, there was great rivalry for the vacant place, numberless claimants starting up in the persons of the rulers of the small kingdoms adjoining Bohemia, but at length the son of the King of Poland was selected, as there was a very close community of interest between Poland and Bohemia. He eventually became King of Hungary also, and was succeeded in all three kingdoms by his son Louis.