John Huss and the Hussite Wars - James Aitken Wylie

the world. A little country and a little army, they
nevertheless were at this hour triumphant over all
the resources of Rome and all the armies of the
Empire. They had but to keep their ground and
remain united, and take care that their patriotism,
kindled at the altar, did not decline, and there was
no power in Europe that would have dared attack
them. From the day that the Bohemian nation sat
down on the Compactata, their prestige waned,
they gained no more victories; and the tone of
public feeling, and the tide of national prosperity,
began to go back. The Calixtines accepted, the
Taborites rejected this arrangement. The
consequence was the deplorable one of an appeal
to arms by the two parties. Formerly, they had
never unsheathed the sword except against a
common enemy, and to add new glory to the glory
already acquired; but now, alas! divided by that
power whose wiles have ever been a hundred times
more formidable than her arms, Bohemian
unsheathed the sword against Bohemian. The
Calixtines were by much the larger party, including
as they did not only the majority of those who had
been dissentients from Rome, but also all the
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