again fell upon the crusaders . Princes , generals , and common soldiers , casting away their armor , fled in all directions . In vain the papal legate , who was the leader of the invasion , endeavored to rally his terrified and disorganized forces .
Despite his utmost endeavors , he himself was swept along in the tide of fugitives . The rout was complete , and again an immense booty fell into the hands of the victors . Thus the second time a vast army , sent forth by the most powerful nations of Europe , a host of brave , warlike men , trained and equipped for battle , fled without a blow before the defenders of a small and hitherto feeble nation . Here was a manifestation of divine power . The invaders were smitten with a supernatural terror . He who overthrew the hosts of Pharaoh in the Red Sea , who put to flight the armies of Midian before Gideon and his three hundred , who in one night laid low the forces of the proud Assyrian , had again stretched out His hand to wither the power of the oppressor . " There were they in great fear , where no fear was : for God hath scattered the bones of him that encampeth against thee : thou hast put them to shame , because God hath despised them ." Psalm 53:5 .
The papal leaders , despairing of conquering by force , at last resorted to diplomacy . A compromise was entered into , that while professing to grant to the Bohemians freedom of conscience , really betrayed them into the power of Rome . The Bohemians had specified four points as the condition of peace with Rome : the free preaching of the Bible ; the right of the whole church to both the bread and the wine in the communion , and the use of the mother tongue in divine worship ; the exclusion of the clergy from all secular offices and authority ; and , in cases of crime , the jurisdiction of the civil courts over clergy and laity alike . The papal authorities at last " agreed that the four articles of the Hussites should be accepted , but that the right of explaining them , that is , of determining their precise import , should belong to the council--in other words , to the pope and the emperor ." -- Wylie , b . 3 , ch . 18 . On this basis a treaty was entered into , and Rome gained by dissimulation and fraud what she had failed to gain by conflict ; for , placing her own interpretation upon the Hussite articles , as upon the Bible , she could pervert their meaning to suit her own purposes .
A large class in Bohemia , seeing that it betrayed their liberties , could not consent to the compact . Dissensions and divisions arose , leading to strife and bloodshed among themselves . In this strife the noble Procopius fell , and the liberties of Bohemia perished . Sigismund , the betrayer of Huss and Jerome , now became king of Bohemia , and regardless of his oath to support the rights of the Bohemians , he proceeded to establish popery . But he had gained little by his subservience to Rome . For twenty years his life had been filled with labors and perils . His armies had been wasted and his treasuries drained by a long and fruitless struggle ; and
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