HUSSITES. The followers of John Huss (q.v.). }honoring him as a martyr, about 450 Bohemian nobles formed a league. protesting against the action of the Council of Constance which had condemned Muss to be burned, and bidding defiance to decrees of bishops and the Pope. The symbol of their confederacy was the cup, the use of which in the Lord', Supper they extended to the laity, as had already been done with the approbation of Huss. King Weneeslas of Bohemia was constrained to grant them the use of many churches. After his death (August. 1419) the majority refused to recognize as King his brother, the Emperor Sigismund (q.v.), who had broken his safe-conduct given to Huss. The so-called 'Hussite wars followed. For eight year: (1420-27) the Hussites, led by their generals Ziska (q.v.) and Pr000pius (q.v.), were victorious against the forces sent against them by the Em peror and the Pope. and in 1429 and 1430 they carried terror into the countries of Germany bor dering on Bohemia. Convents and churches were
reduced to ashes, and priests and monks were slain. From the beginning the Hussites had in cluded two parties—the more conservative, called Calixtines(q.v.), or Utraquists, more in sympathy with the Church. and hoping for an ultimate rec onciliation. and the radical, called (q.v.) . who went much further in rejecting doctrines and practices of the Church. A third faction. inter mediate between the two, called Orphans, also developed. In 1431 the Council of Basel (q.v.) undertook to conciliate the Hussites, and suc ceeded in coining to au agreement with the Calix tines by the 'Compaetata of Prague' in 1433, after which the latter acknowledged Sigismund as King and made peace with the Church. The Taborites and Orphans were completely defeated in a battle near 11;:thinisehbrod, May 30, 14341 and soon dis appeared as a political power, but continued to exist as the Bohemian Brethren (q.v.).