, necessarily alienated the Bohemians to a
yet greater extent. Almost the whole Bohemian nation therefore espoused
the cause of Huss (q.v.). Wenceslas on the occasion of these disputes
displayed the weakness and irresolution that always characterized him,
but Queen Sophia openly favoured the cause of Huss, who for some time
was her confessor. Huss was tried before the council of Constance
(q.v.), to which he had proceeded with a letter of safe conduct given
by Wenceslas's brother Sigismund, king of the Romans. He was declared a
heretic and burnt on the 6th of July 1415. The inevitable and immediate
result of this event was the outbreak of civil war in Bohemia, where
Huss was greatly revered by the large majority of the population. The
nobles of Bohemia and Moravia met at Prague on the 2nd of September
1415, and sent to the council the famed _Protestatio Bohemorum_, in
which they strongly protested against the execution of Huss, "a good,
just and catholic man who had for many years been favourably known in
the Kingdom by his life, conduct and fame, and who had been convicted of
no offence." They further declared that all who affirmed that heresy
existed in Bohemia were "liars, vile traitors and calumniators of
Bohemia and Moravia, the worst of all heretics, full of all evil, sons
of the devil." They finally stated "that they would defend the law of
our Lord Jesus Christ and its pious, humble and steadfast preachers at
the cost of their blood, scorning all fear and all human decrees that
might be contrary to them."[2] This protest was a declaration of war
against the Roman church, and marks the beginning of the Hussite wars.
The council, indeed, summoned the nobles before its tribunal, but they
refused to appear. A large number of the nobles and knights who had met
at Prague formed a confederacy and declared that they consented to
freedom of preaching the word of God on their estates, that they
declined to recognize the authority of the council of Constance, but
would obey the Bohemian bishops and a future pope lawfully elected.
Meanwhile they declared the university of Prague the supreme authority
in all matters of religion. The members of the confederacy attempted,
though unsuccessfully, to induce King Wenceslas to become their leader.
The Romanist nobles, who were not numerous, but some of whom owned vast
estates, now also formed a confederacy, pledging themselves to support
the pope and the council. After the closing of