Even a summary account of these negotiations, and of the numerous embassies sent by the Council to Prague, and by the Bohemians to Basel, would be beyond the purpose of this book. It will be sufficient to mention one or two of the most important deliberations and their final result.
It is very much to be regretted that we have but scanty information concerning the internal condition of Bohemia immediately after the great victory of Domažlice. Contemporary records contain little beyond accounts of renewed attacks on the neighbouring districts, for the commencement of the negotiations as yet involved no suspension of hostilities. Prokop the Great seems at that moment to have exercised an informal, but none the less real, dictatorship over Bohemia. All the utraquist party (more or less willingly) still recognized him as their leader. Prokop the Great is one of the most prominent characters in Bohemian history. This appears more clearly since the modern historians, beginning with Palacký, commenced to discuss the actions and characters of Žižka, Prokop, and the other leaders of the Bohemian movement as they would those of other statesmen or warriors of that age. The older writers, following the example of Aenaeas Sylvius, generally regarded them as demons or magicians who, with the aid of witchcraft and of the infernal powers, obtained victories that could not otherwise be accounted for. Prokop the Great was distinguished from the other Taborite leaders by his culture and love of literature and learning. Equal to Žižka in his enthusiasm for his nation and his creed, in force of will and in courage, he was his superior in the science of politics. Moreover, he was less of a fanatic than his predecessor. Though differing from the Church of Rome more widely than Žižka, he was more inclined to compromise, and thus sometimes incurred the suspicions of his own partisans. The whole energy of the party of advanced views—both as to religious and social reforms—was personified in this one man, and it was inevitable that the Romish party, the Calixtines (or Praguers), and the utraquist nobility should at last have united to bring about his fall. As already mentioned, the letter of the Council of Basel proposing terms of agreement was on the whole favourably received, though there was some opposition on the part of the Taborites, Prokop the Great at first appearing undecided. A Diet was convoked by the regents at Prague in
