John Huss and the Hussite Wars - James Aitken Wylie

the army now assembled there numbered, horse
and foot, 130,000 men.
On the 1st of August, 1431, the crusaders
crossed the Bohemian frontier, penetrating through
the great forest which covered the country on the
Bavarian side. They were brilliantly led, as
concerned rank, for at their head marched quite a
host of princes spiritual and temporal. Chief among
these was the legate Julian Cesarini. The very
Catholic Cochlaeus hints that these cardinals and
archbishops might have found worthier
employment, and he even doubts whether the
practice of priests appearing in mail at the head of
armies can be justified by the Levites of old, who
were specially exempt from serving in arms that
they might wholly attend to their service in the
Tabernacle. The feelings of the Hussites as day by
day they received tidings of the numbers,
equipments, and near approach of the host, we can
well imagine. Clouds as terrible had ere this
darkened their sky, but they had seen an
omnipotent Hand suddenly disperse them. They
were prepared, as aforetime, to stand shoulder to
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