Protestantism in Poland and Bohemia - James Aitken Wylie

in prison.[15]
Finding that, in spite of the banishment of
pastors, and the execution of nobles, Protestantism
was still extending, Ferdinand called the Jesuits to
his aid. The first to arrive was Wenzel Sturm, who
had been trained by Ignatius Loyola himself. Sturm
was learned, courteous, adroit, and soon made
himself popular in Prague, where he labored, with
a success equal to his zeal, to revive the decaying
cause of Rome. He was soon joined by a yet more
celebrated member of the order, Canisius, and a
large and sumptuous edifice having been assigned
them as a college, they began to train priests who
might be able to take their place in the pulpit as
well as at the altar; "for at that time," says Pessina,
a Romish writer, "there were so few orthodox
priests that, had it not been for the Jesuits, the
Catholic religion would have been suppressed in
Bohemia."[16] The Jesuits grew powerful in
Prague. They eschewed public disputations; they
affected great zeal. for the instruction of youth in
the sciences; and their fame for learning drew
crowds of pupils around them. When they had
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