Protestantism in Poland and Bohemia - James Aitken Wylie

the devil, addressed to the members of court,
thanking them for their zeal, and instructing them,
in familiar and loving phrase, how to do their work
and his. Did a minister marry, straightway he was
complimented with an epithalamium from the
ready pen of some Jesuit scribe. Did a Protestant
pastor die, before a few days had passed by, the
leading members of his flock were favored with
letters from their deceased minister, duly dated
from Pandemonium. These effusions were
composed generally in doggerel verse, but they
were barbed with a venomous wit and a coarse
humor. The multitude read, laughed, and believed.
The calumnies, it is true, were refitted by those at
whom they were levelled; but that signified little,
the falsehood was repeated again and again, till at
last, by dint of perseverance and audacity, the
Protestants and their worship were brought into
general hatred and contempt.[2]
The defection of the sons of Radziwill, the
zealous Reformer of whom we have previously
made mention, was a great blow to the
Protestantism of Poland. That family became the
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