[Ezekiel Bathfire]

July 30, 1419: Today is the 589th anniversary of The First Defenestration of Prague, which marks the rise of Protestantism in central Europe and the realization that the so-called church of Rome was in league with Satan.

The First Defenestration of Prague involved the killing of seven members of the city council by a crowd of radical Czech Hussites on July 30, 1419.

Jan Želivský, a Hussite priest at the church of the Virgin Mary of the Snows, led his congregation on a procession through the streets of Prague to the Town Hall on Charles Square.

The town council members had refused to exchange their Hussite prisoners. While they were marching a stone was thrown at Želivský from the window of the town hall. The mob became enraged at this event and led by Jan Žižka stormed the town hall. Once inside the hall the group threw the judge, the burgomaster, and several members of the town council out of the window and into the street, where they were killed by the fall.

King Wenzel (Václav IV in Czech, Wenceslaus in English), [a protector of the Protestant movement E.B.] upon hearing this news, was so stunned that he died a little time after, supposedly due to the shock, [but more likely of natural causes as he was on a hunting trip E.B.]

The procession was a result of the growing discontent at the inequality between the peasants and the Church, the Church's prelates, and the nobility. This discontentment combined with rising feelings of nationalism and increased the influence of "radical" preachers such as Jan Želivský, who saw the current state of the Catholic Church as a corruption of the Christian faith.

These preachers urged their congregations to action, including taking up arms, to combat these perceived transgressions.

The First Defenestration was thus the turning point between talk and action leading to the prolonged Hussite Wars. The wars broke out shortly afterward and lasted until 1436.

To mark the occasion, Landover usually has a parade of Hummers which drive to the nearest Town Hall with catlix in occupation, however, so successful has this been in the past that the distances involved no longer justify the time spent away from praising God at Landover.