Protestantism in Poland and Bohemia - James Aitken Wylie

thought that; the contest between them and the civil
courts was at an end, and that it had ended
adversely to the spiritual authority; but the bishops
knew better. They had laid the foundation of what
would grow with every successive Synod, and each
new edict, into a body of law, diverse from and in
opposition to the law of the land, and which
presenting itself to the Romanist with a higher
moral sanction, would ultimately, in his eyes,
deprive the civil law of all force, and transfer to
itself the homage of his conscience and the
obedience of his life. The coercive power wielded
by this new code, which was being stealthily put in
operation in the heart of the Polish State, was a
power that could neither be seen nor heard; and
those who were accustomed to execute their
behests through the force of armies, or the majesty
of tribunals, were apt to contemn it as utterly
unable to cope with the power of law; nevertheless,
the result as wrought out in Poland showed that this
influence, apparently so weak, yet penetrating
deeply into the heart and soul, had in it an
omnipotence compared with which the power of
the sword was but feebleness. And farther there
100