Protestantism in Poland and Bohemia - James Aitken Wylie

consummate their auto- da-fe. At Braunsberg, the
seat of the Bishop of Ermeland, the Lutheran
worship was publicly introduced in 1520, without
the bishop's taking any steps to prevent it. When
reproached by his chapter for his supineness, he
told his canons that the Reformer founded all he
said on Scripture, and any one among them who
deemed himself competent to refute him was at
liberty to do so. At Elbing and many other towns
the light was spreading.
A secret society, composed of the first scholars
of the day, lay and cleric, was formed at Cracow,
the university seat, not so much to propagate the
Protestant doctrines as to investigate the grounds of
their truth. The queen of Sigismund I., Bona
Sforza, was an active member of this society. She
had for her confessor a learned Italian, Father
Lismanini. The Father received most of the
Protestant publications that appeared in the various
countries of Europe, and laid them on the table of
the society, with the view of their being read and
canvassed by the members. The society at a future
period acquired a greater but not a better renown.
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