his followers against the demands of the Roman Catholic Church for their suppression as heretics. This caused many Germans to withdraw from the University of Prague, and set up their own university at Leipzig. He then met Charles VI of France at Reims, where the two monarchs decided to persuade the rival popes, now Benedict XIII and Boniface IX, to resign, and to end the papal schisms by the election of a new pontiff. Many of the princes were angry at this abandonment of Boniface by Wenceslaus, who had also aroused much indignation by his long absence from Germany and by selling the title of duke of Milan to Gian Galeazzo Visconti. Hus was eventually executed in Konstanz in 1415, and the rest of Wenceslaus' reign in Bohemia featured precursors of the Hussite Wars that would follow his death during the Defenestrations of Prague. Dethronement In view of his troubles in Bohemia, Wenceslaus did not seek a coronation ceremony as Holy Roman Emperor, which did little to endear him to the pope. He also was long absent from the German lands, and thus he didn't impress the Imperial nobility either. Consequently, he faced anger at the Reichstag diets of Nuremberg (1397) and Frankfurt (1398). The four Rhenish electors, Count Palatine Rupert III and the archbishops of Mainz, Cologne and Trier, accused him of failing to maintain the public peace or to resolve the Schism. They demanded that Wenceslaus appear before them to answer to the charges in June 1400. Wenceslaus demurred, in large part because of renewed hostilities in Bohemia. When he failed to appear, the electors meeting at Lahneck Castle declared him deposed on 20 August 1400 on account of "futility, idleness, negligence and ignobility". The next day they chose Rupert as their king at Rhens. Although Wenceslaus refused to acknowledge this successor's decade-long reign, he made no move against Rupert. On 29 June 1402 Wenceslaus was captured by Sigismund, who at first intended to escort him to Rome to have him crowned emperor, but Rupert heard of this plan and tried to prevent the passage to Italy, so that Sigismund had Wenceslaus imprisoned, at first in Schaumberg, and from 16 August in Vienna, in the charge of William, Duke of Austria. On 20 November, Wenceslaus was forced to sign his renunciation of all his powers to Sigismund and the Dukes of Austria. In exchange, the conditions of his