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Protestantism in Poland and Bohemia - James Aitken Wylie

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talent or expect large <strong>in</strong>heritances; but when an<br />

<strong>in</strong>dividual neither possesses talents nor has any<br />

expectations, they will not reta<strong>in</strong> him."[5]<br />

Sigismund III., <strong>in</strong> whose reign the Jesuits had<br />

become firmly rooted <strong>in</strong> <strong>Pol<strong>and</strong></strong>, died <strong>in</strong> 1632, <strong>and</strong><br />

was succeeded by his eldest son Vladislav IV.<br />

Vladislav hated the disciples of Loyola as much as<br />

his father had loved <strong>and</strong> courted them, <strong>and</strong> he<br />

strove to the utmost of his power to counteract the<br />

evil effects of his father's partiality for the order.<br />

He restra<strong>in</strong>ed the persecution by mob riots; he was<br />

able, <strong>in</strong> some <strong>in</strong>stances, to visit with punishment<br />

the r<strong>in</strong>gleaders <strong>in</strong> the burn<strong>in</strong>g down of Protestant<br />

churches <strong>and</strong> schools; but that spirit of <strong>in</strong>tolerance<br />

<strong>and</strong> bigotry which was now diffused throughout the<br />

nation, <strong>and</strong> <strong>in</strong> which, with few exceptions, noble<br />

<strong>and</strong> peasant shared alike, he could not lay; <strong>and</strong><br />

when he went to his grave, those bitter hatreds <strong>and</strong><br />

evil passions which had been engendered dur<strong>in</strong>g<br />

his father's long occupancy of the throne, <strong>and</strong> only<br />

slightly repressed dur<strong>in</strong>g his own short reign, broke<br />

out afresh <strong>in</strong> all their violence.<br />

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