The satisfaction which Martin V. experienced in witnessing the peaceful and happy condition of that portion of Christendom, the civil interests of which were intrusted to his immediate care, was not a little lessened by the contumacy and rebellion of the Bohemian reformers. These high-spirited men had been fired with indignation, when they were informed of the sad catastrophe of their beloved apostles, John Huss, and Jerome of Prague. The censures of the church, which were fulminated against their opinions, they treated with contempt. Taking advantage of the weakness of Winceslaus, their king, they possessed themselves of several churches in Prague and its environs, where they caused the communion to be administered in both kinds, and openly defied the pope, the emperor, and the council of Constance. Upon the death of Winceslaus, their confidence in their strength, and the ardour of their zeal, impelled them to risk a contest with the power of Sigismund, his successor. Led on by the intrepid Zisca, they encountered danger without fear; and in the shock of battle, their impetuosity was irresistible. For the space of four years, the military talents of their favourite commander discomfited the armies of the emperor, who was at length reduced to the mortifying necessity of entering into a treaty with a man, whom he could regard in no other light than as an obstinate infidel, and a rebellious subject. This treaty was interrupted by the death of Zisca, who was cut off by the plague, on the sixth of October, 1424, at the castle of Priscow. After the death of this formidable antagonist, Sigismund, in hopes that the courage of the Bohemians would expire with their chieftain, again appealed to arms. But he was disappointed in his expectation. Great occasions produce great men. The heretics chose as the successor to Zisca, Procopius, an officer whose valour and skill they had frequently seen put to the proof. Procopius maintained the contest with courage, conduct, and success, and worsted the imperial forces in various engagements. The intelligence of these continued disasters filled the mind of the pontiff with vexation. Resolving to aid the emperor with the temporal and spiritual power of the church, he proclaimed a crusade against the heretics, and sent a commission to cardinal Beaufort, authorizing him, in quality of legate, to wield the sword of the church, and chastise her rebellious sons. This commission was by no means disagreeable to the turbulent spirit of Beaufort. In pursuance of the instructions which he received from the pontiff, he appropriated to the purposes of the crusade, a tenth part of the revenues which accrued from England to the Roman see.[153] With this money he raised an army of four thousand men, at the head of which he encamped in the neighbourhood of Dover, waiting for a favourable wind to pass over to Flanders. [A. D. 1429.] Here he received letters from the duke