FROM THE FIRST CORONATION OF SIGISMUND TO THE OPENING OF COUNCIL OF BASEL. (1420-1431.) In spite of the dramatic circumstances of Sigismund’s coronation at Prague, any hopes of peace or reconciliation, which the citizens may have entertained, at the moment, were speedily to be frustrated, partly by the bitter divisions in the Utraquist camp, partly by the incurably untrustworthy character of the king whom they had chosen. The former difficulty was the one which first forced itself on public attention. The Taborites had taken the leading part in the victory which had just been won; and they resolved that their will should be felt in the settlement which was to follow it. Furious at the recent burning of their friends before the very eyes of the citizens, they demanded that these murders should be revenged by the burning of the prisoners who had been taken in the battle; and the rulers of the city yielded to their wishes. Elated by this success, the Taborites insisted that twelve new Articles should be added to the four which had been already set forth by the Calixtines. Most of these new proposals were in the direction of more vigorous provisions for punishing self-indulgence and immorality. But the bitter national feeling manifests itself in the demand for the complete establishment of the law of God, in the place of those pagan and _Teutonic_ laws, which do not agree with the laws of God. Further, all the revenues of the priests were to be seized for the public good; usury was to be suppressed; all enemies of the truth to be expelled; all heretical monasteries and all unnecessary churches, altars, and ornaments to be destroyed. The discussion of these proposals was marked by the first public appearance in Bohemia of a man who was to play a remarkable part in the coming struggle. This was Peter Payne, an English Master of Arts, who had been forced to fly from Oxford on account of his sympathy with the doctrines of Wyclif. He had been welcomed by the scholars of Prague, and had been admitted to a Master’s Degree at their University also. Although his doctrinal Protestantism had led him to conclusions far beyond those adopted by any Bohemian party, yet his English sense of justice and love of compromise often marked him out as a go-between and moderator in the controversies of his adopted countrymen. He now came forward to suggest the senses in which the Articles of the Taborites might be accepted, without injury to either party. But, although the Calixtines were anxious to find a method of reconciliation with the Taborites, the latter were guided on this occasion by much fiercer spirits than Peter Payne. [Illustration]