The Four Articles of Prague, issued by…
1420 CE to 1431 CE
The Four Articles of Prague, issued by the proto-Calixtenes in 1420, had set forth a moderate position that calls for freedom of preaching, serving both bread and wine to the laity in communion, limitation of property holdings by the church and clergy, and civil penalties for notorious sinners.
The radical Taborites propose open warfare to subdue God's enemies and the transgressors of church law.
Pope Martin V calls in 1420 for a crusade against the Hussites, thereby escalating the conflict that began the previous autumn.
Zizka, pursuing an essentially defensive strategy, leads the Hussites to additional victories at Kuttenberg in 1421 and at Nebovid in 1422.
The radical Täborite brotherhood, who provide the main military force of the Hussites, leads the Hussite revolution that sweeps Bohemia, accompanied by seizure and destruction of church lands and property.
Crusading armies suffer repeated defeats by the Hussite army, commanded by Täborite leader Jan Zizka, who maintains a defensive stance.
In 1423, however, Zizka switches over to the less radical New Täbor at Hradec Kralove, and from this position manages to contain the civil war dividing the conservative and radical Hussite factions, leading the Täborites to victory at the battles of Horid and Strachov, and further suppressing Ultraquist dissenters in 1424 at Skalic and Malesov.
Täborite leader Jan Zizka, who soon gains control over all of Bohemia, captures Prague in June 1424 but dies on October 11, at about sixty-six, from the bubonic plague.
Following Zizka’s death, a disciple of John Huss in his mid-forties known as Procopius the Great moves from the moderate Hussite Utraquists to lead the radical Täborites.
Procopius, although he himself does not bear arms, pursues an aggressive strategy designed to bring the Catholic crusaders to terms, seeking to force the Romanist-loyalist forces to sue for peace by a series of invasions.
Hussite invasions of Silesia, Saxony, Thuringia, and Hungary force Martin V to convoke the Council of Basel in 1431, where all parties finally agree to negotiate.
Groups
Commodities
Subjects
Regions
Central Europe
View →Subregions
