Protestantism in Poland and Bohemia - James Aitken Wylie

years, not without glory, and was succeeded on the
throne of Poland by Sigismund III. He was the son
of John, King of Sweden, and grandson of the
renowned Gustavus Vasa. Nurtured by a Romish
mother, Sigismund III. had abandoned the faith of
his famous ancestor, and during his long reign of
well-nigh half a century, he made the grandeur of
Rome his first object, and the power of Poland only
his second. Under such a prince the fortunes of the
nation continued to sink. He was called "the King
of the Jesuits," and so far was he from being
ashamed of the title, that he gloried in it, and strove
to prove himself worthy of it. He surrounded
himself with Jesuit councillors; honors and riches
he showered almost exclusively upon Romanists,
and especially upon those whom interest had
converted, but argument left unconvinced. No
dignity of the State and no post in the public
service was to be obtained, unless the aspirant
made friends of the Fathers. Their colleges and
schools multiplied, their hoards and territorial
domains augmented from year to year. The
education of the youth, and especially the sons of
the nobles, was almost wholly in their hands, and a
103