“Cut out the rotten flesh,” repeated Bishop Konrad, tearing off with his teeth a hunk of beef, dripping grease and bloody juices. “You speak well, very well, young Father Nicholaus. It’s a matter of surgery! Iron, sharp iron, is the best medicine for the Hussite cancer. Cut it out! Slaughter the heretics, I say, slaughter them mercilessly!”

The men gathered at the table expressed their approval, mumbling with full mouths and waving the bones they were chewing on. The ox slowly transformed into a skeleton, and Nicholaus of Cusa debunked in turn all the Hussite errors, revealing all the absurdities of Wycliffe’s teachings: denying Transubstantiation, repudiating the existence of purgatory, rejecting the cult of the saints and their images, renouncing auricular confession. He finally reached communion sub utraque specie and debunked that, too.

“Communion for the faithful should only be in the form of bread. For Matthew says: Give us this day our daily bread, and Luke says: He took bread, gave a blessing, broke it and gave it to them. Where is there a mention of wine? Verily, one and only one custom has been passed and confirmed by the Church: that the common man should receive communion under one kind. And that is sufficient for all believers!”

“Amen,” concluded Ludwik of Brzeg, licking his fingers.

“For all I care,” Bishop Konrad roared like a lion, tossing down a bone, “the Hussites can receive it up the arse! Those whoresons want to rob me! They clamour for the absolute secularisation of Church property and for the evangelical poverty of the clergy, which means taking it from us and dividing it up among themselves. Oh, by the Passion of Christ, that cannot be! Over my dead body! But better over their heretical carcasses! May they perish!”

“For now, they live,” said Půta of Častolovice, the Starosta of Kłodzko, whom Reynevan and Scharley had seen scarcely five days before at the joust in Ziębice. “For now, they are alive and well, not turning on each other as was predicted after Žižka’s death.”

“The danger is growing, not diminishing,” thundered Albrecht of Kolditz, Starosta and Hetman of the Duchy of Wrocław-Świdnica. “My spies report closer and closer collaboration between Prague and Korybut with Žižka’s heirs. Lord Půta is right—there is much talk of joint crusades. Whoever expected a miracle after Žižka’s death was mistaken.”