Protestantism in Poland and Bohemia - James Aitken Wylie

intercourse with some Bohemian Protestants at
Prague, who instructed him in the doctrines of the
Reformation, which he embraced in the Genevan
form. From that time his influence and wealth --
both of which were vast -- were devoted to the
cause of his country's Reformation. He summoned
to his help Vergerius [24] from Italy. He supported
many learned Protestants. He defrayed the expense
of the printing of the first Protestant Bible at Brest,
in Lithuania, in 1563. He diffused works written in
defense of the Reformed faith. He erected a
magnificent church and college at Vilna, the capital
of Lithuania, and in many other ways fostered the
Reformed Church in that powerful province where
he exercised almost royal authority. Numbers of
the priests now embraced the Protestant faith.
"Almost the whole of the Roman Catholic nobles,"
says Krasinski, "including the first families of the
land, and a great number of those who had
belonged to the Eastern Church, became
Protestants; so that in the diocese of Samogitia
there were only eight Roman Catholic clergymen
remaining. The Reformed worship was established
not only in the estates of the nobles, but also in
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