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Protestantism in Poland and Bohemia - James Aitken Wylie

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The first edict of proscription fell ma<strong>in</strong>ly upon<br />

the Calv<strong>in</strong>istic clergy <strong>and</strong> the m<strong>in</strong>isters of the<br />

United Brethren. The Lutheran pastors were left<br />

unmolested as yet. Ferd<strong>in</strong><strong>and</strong> II hesitated to give<br />

offense to the Elector of Saxony by driv<strong>in</strong>g his coreligionists<br />

out of his dom<strong>in</strong>ions. But the Jesuits<br />

took the alarm when they saw the Calv<strong>in</strong>ists, who<br />

had been deprived of their own pastors, flock<strong>in</strong>g to<br />

the churches of the Lutheran clergy. They<br />

compla<strong>in</strong>ed to the monarch that the work was only<br />

half done, that the pestilence could not be arrested<br />

till every Protestant m<strong>in</strong>ister had been banished<br />

from the h<strong>in</strong>d, <strong>and</strong> the urgencies of the Fathers at<br />

length prevailed over the fears of the k<strong>in</strong>g.<br />

Ferd<strong>in</strong><strong>and</strong> issued an order that the Lutheran<br />

m<strong>in</strong>isters should follow their brethren of the<br />

Calv<strong>in</strong>istic <strong>and</strong> Moravian Communion <strong>in</strong>to exile.<br />

The Elector of Saxony remonstrated aga<strong>in</strong>st this<br />

violence, <strong>and</strong> was politely told that it was very far<br />

<strong>in</strong>deed from be<strong>in</strong>g the fact that the Lutheran clergy<br />

had been banished -- they had only received a<br />

"gracious dismissal."[4]<br />

216

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