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Protestantism in Poland and Bohemia - James Aitken Wylie

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through Cracow. The pilgrims assembled ill a<br />

suburban church, to hear a farewell mass, <strong>and</strong> then<br />

set forth, s<strong>in</strong>g<strong>in</strong>g a sacred hymn, some tak<strong>in</strong>g the<br />

road to the College of Goldberg, <strong>in</strong> Silesia, <strong>and</strong><br />

others go<strong>in</strong>g on to the newly-erected University of<br />

Konigsberg, <strong>in</strong> Prussia. The first-named school was<br />

under the direction of Frankendorf, one of the most<br />

em<strong>in</strong>ent of Melancthon's pupils; Konigsberg, a<br />

creation of Albert, Duke of Prussia, was already<br />

fulfill<strong>in</strong>g its founder's <strong>in</strong>tention, which was the<br />

diffusion of scriptural knowledge. In both<br />

sem<strong>in</strong>aries the predom<strong>in</strong>at<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong>fluences were<br />

Protestant. The consequence was that almost all<br />

these students returned to their homes imbued with<br />

the Reformed doctr<strong>in</strong>e, <strong>and</strong> powerfully contributed<br />

to spread it <strong>in</strong> <strong>Pol<strong>and</strong></strong>.<br />

So stood the movement when Sigismund<br />

Augustus ascended the throne <strong>in</strong> 1548. Protestant<br />

truth was widely spread throughout the k<strong>in</strong>gdom.<br />

In the towns of Polish Prussia, where many<br />

Germans resided, the Reformation was received <strong>in</strong><br />

its Lutheran expression; <strong>in</strong> the rest of <strong>Pol<strong>and</strong></strong> it was<br />

embraced <strong>in</strong> its Calv<strong>in</strong>istic form. Many powerful<br />

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