Protestantism in Poland and Bohemia - James Aitken Wylie

others to enrich also themselves. Conversions were
numerous; and the wanderer who had returned
from the fatal path of heresy to the safe fold of the
Church was taught to express his thanks in some
gift or service to the order by whose instructions
and prayers he had been rescued. The son of a
Protestant father commonly expressed his
penitence by building them a college, or
bequeathing them an estate, or expelling from his
lands the confessors of his father's faith, and
replacing them with the adherents of the Roman
creed. Thus all things were prospering to their
wish. Every day new doors were opening to them.
Their missions and schools were springing up in all
corners of the land. They entered all houses, from
the baron's downward; they sat at all tables, and
listened to all conversations. In all assemblies, for
whatever purpose convened, whether met to mourn
or to make merry, to transact business or to seek
amusement, there were the Jesuits. They were
present at baptisms, at marriages, at funerals, and at
fairs. While their learned men taught the young
nobles in the universities, they had their itinerant
orators, who visited villages, frequented markets,
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