the council in 1418,
Sigismund, who--Wenceslas being childless--was heir to the Bohemian
throne, sent a letter to his brother, which was practically a manifesto
addressed to the Bohemian people. He threatened with the severest
penalties all who should continue to resist the authority of Rome.
Wenceslas maintained the vacillating attitude that was characteristic of
his whole reign, though Queen Sophia still extended her protection to
the reformers. By doing this, indeed, she incurred the wrath of the
Church to so great an extent that an act of accusation against her was
drawn up at the council of Constance. Intimidated by his brother,
Wenceslas now attempted to stem the current of religious enthusiasm.
Immediately after the death of Huss many priests who refused to
administer communion in the two kinds--now the principal tenet of the
adherents of Huss--had been expelled from their parishes. Wenceslas
decreed that they should be reinstated, and it was only after some
hesitation that he even permitted that religious services according to
the Utraquist doctrine should be held in three of the churches of
Prague. Some of the more advanced reformers left Prague and formed the
party known as the Taborites, from the town of Tabor which became their
centre. Troubles soon broke out at Prague. When on the 30th of July
1419, the Hussite priest, John of Zelivo, was leading a procession
through the streets of Prague, stones were thrown at him and his
followers from the town hall of the "new town." The Hussites, led by
John Zizka (q.v.), stormed the town-hall and threw the magistrates from
its windows. On receiving the news of these riots King Wenceslas was
immediately seized by an attack of apoplexy; a second fit on the 16th of
August ended his life.

Sigismund.

The news of the death of the king caused renewed rioting in Prague and
many other Bohemian cities, from which many Germans, mostly adherents of
the Church of Rome, were expelled. Finally a temporary truce was
concluded, and, early in the following year, Sigismund, who now claimed
the Bohemian crown as successor of his brother, arrived at Kutna Hora
(Kuttenberg). Pope Martin V. on the 1st of March 1420 proclaimed a
crusade against Bohemia, and crusaders from all parts of Europe joined
Sigismund's army. "On the 30th day of June the Hungarian king,
Sigismund, with a large army consisting of men of various countries, as
well as of Bohemians, occupied the castle of Prague,