Protestantism in Poland and Bohemia - James Aitken Wylie

Fables of Aesop. His many acquirements and great
learning were not able to emancipate him from the
thrall of a gloomy asceticism; he grovelled in the
observance of the most austere performances,
scouring himself in the belief that to have his body
streaming with blood and covered with wounds
was more pleasing to the Almighty than to have his
soul adorned with virtues and replenished with
graces. Such was the man who, to use the words of
the historian Krasinski, "deserved the eternal
gratitude of Rome and the curses of his own
country," by introducing the Jesuits into Poland.[1]
Returning from the Council of Trent in 1564,
Hosius saw with alarm the advance which
Protestantism had made in his diocese during his
absence. He immediately addressed himself to the
general of the society, Lainez, requesting him to
send him some members of his order to aid him in
doing what he despaired of accomplishing by his
own single arm. A few of the Fathers were
dispatched from Rome, and being joined by others
from Germany, they were located in Braunsberg, a
little town in the diocese of Hosius, who richly
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