Protestantism in Poland and Bohemia - James Aitken Wylie

There follows a long and brilliant list of
palatines, nobles, superintendents, pastors, elders,
and deacons belonging to all the three
communions, who, forgetting the party-questions
that had divided them, gathered round this one
standard, and giving their hands to one another,
and lifting them up to heaven, vowed henceforward
to be one and to contend only against the common
foe. This was one of the triumphs of Protestantism.
Its spirit now gloriously prevailed over the pride of
church, the rivalry of party, and the narrowness of
bigotry, and in this victory gave an augury -- alas!
never to be fulfilled -- of a yet greater triumph in
days to come, by which this was to be completed
and crowned.
Three years later (1573) a great Protestant
Convocation was held at Cracow. It was presided
over by John Firley, Grand Marshal of Poland, a
leading member of the Calvinistic communion, and
the most influential grandee of the kingdom. The
regulations enacted by this Synod sufficiently show
the goal at which it was anxious to arrive. It aimed
75