separate denominations; the moderate, or, as Palacký calls it, the aristocratic party, becoming known as the Calixtines or Praguers, the town and university of Prague being their centre; while the more advanced or democratic party received the name of the Taborites, from that of the new town which was founded near Austi. These local denominations must, as Palacký tells us, not be taken too literally. Prague contained many Taborites, and Austi counted some supporters of the Calixtine party among its inhabitants.
The people of Bohemia had, by this time, so entirely dissociated itself from the doings of the Council of Constance, that—writing of Bohemia only—it is scarcely necessary to notice its further deliberations. The Council had successively deposed John XXIII, Gregory XII, and Benedict XIII, and elected Martin V, who became undisputed Pope. The question of Church reform, which the Council had at first undertaken to discuss, was entirely discarded, and the Council was soon (1418) closed by Pope Martin V.
Before leaving Constance the Pope confirmed all the former decrees of the Council against the Bohemians. He declared all those who still maintained the doctrines, which the Council had condemned, to be heretics. He further exhorted Sigismund to use his influence on his brother Venceslas, to compel him to extirpate heresy in his dominions, and he seems at this moment already to have meditated a crusade against Bohemia.
That country now found itself entirely isolated in Europe, while the larger part of it—for the Germans in Bohemia had always upheld the cause of Rome—was in antagonism with the whole Western world. The separation of Bohemia from Rome may be said to have lasted over two hundred years, though the position of the country became a different one after the rise of Protestantism in Germany.
Sigismund was not long in obeying the Pope's command. In the concluding year of the Council of Constance (1418) he addressed a letter, or rather a public manifesto—for it was widely circulated in Bohemia—to his brother, reminding him of his reiterated promises to allow no heresies in his dominions, in consequence of which promises Sigismund had prevented the intended excommunication of Venceslas. He further warned him of the severe measures and the crusade which were under contemplation to reduce Bohemia to the papal authority; and ended by declaring that should
