Editing Defenestrations of Prague (section)

==1419 Defenestration of Prague==
The First Defenestration of [[Prague]] involved the killing of several members of the city council by a crowd of [[Czechs|Czech]] [[Hussite]]s on 30 July 1419.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Pichova |first=Hana |date=2023-06-15 |title=Prague as the Site of Defenestration: On the Twentieth Anniversary of Bohumil Hrabal's Death  |url=https://cdr.lib.unc.edu/downloads/3b591k520 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230615123427/https://cdr.lib.unc.edu/downloads/3b591k520 |archive-date=2023-06-15 |access-date=2023-06-15 |website=The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill}}</ref> Jan Želivský, the priest of the [[Church of Our Lady of the Snows (Prague)|Church of the Virgin Mary of the Snows]], led his congregation on a procession through the streets of Prague to the [[New Town Hall (Prague)|New 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 town hall and allegedly hit him.<ref name="Catholic Encyclopedia">{{cite book |last=Wolfsgrüber |first=C. |year=1907 |chapter=The Austro-Hungarian Monarchy |title=The Catholic Encyclopedia |location=New York |publisher=Robert Appleton Company |access-date=11 August 2014 |chapter-url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02121b.htm }}</ref> This enraged the mob and they stormed the town hall. Once inside the hall, the group defenestrated the judge, the [[burgomaster]], and several members of the town council, killing them all.<ref name="Catholic Encyclopedia"/>

The procession was a result of the growing discontent at the contemporary direction of the Church and the inequality between the peasants, the Church's prelates, and the nobility. This discontent combined with rising feelings of nationalism increased the influence of preachers such as Želivský, influenced by [[John Wycliffe]], who saw the state of the Catholic Church as corrupt.{{Citation needed|date=November 2024}}

The First Defenestration was thus the turning point between talk and action leading to the prolonged [[Hussite Wars]]. <gallery mode="nolines" widths="250" heights="250">
File:Prague Praha 2014 Holmstad - Det nye rådhuset - Navomestska Radnice - The New Town Hall - Nove Mesto - First defenestration.JPG|The [[New Town Hall (Prague)|Novoměstská radnice]] ({{Lit|New Town Hall}}), site of the 1419 defenestrations
File:Liebscher, Adolf - Svržení konšelů s Novoměstské radnice 30. července 1419.jpg|Illustrated by Czech history painter [[Adolf Liebscher]] {{Circa|1900}}
</gallery>