Protestantism in Poland and Bohemia - James Aitken Wylie

the organisation of its Church at the beginning, and
in a sense all throughout, differed in different
provinces. Other causes, besides the want of a great
leader, contributed to this diversity in respect of
ecclesiastical government. The nobles were
allowed to give what order they pleased to the
Protestant churches which they erected on their
lands, but the same liberty was not extended to the
inhabitants of towns, and hence very considerable
diversity in the ecclesiastical arrangements. This
diversity was still farther increased by the
circumstance that not one, but three Confessions
had gained ground in Poland -- the Bohemian, the
Genevan, and the Lutheran. The necessity of a
more perfect organ-isation soon came to be felt,
and repeated attempts were made at. successive
Synods to unify the Church's government. A great
step was taken in this direction at the Synod of
Kosmin, in 1555, when a union was concluded
between the Bohemian and Genevan Confessions;
and a still greater advance was made in 1570, as we
have narrated in the preceding chapter, when at the
Synod of Sandomir the three Protestant Churches
of Poland -- the Bohemian, the Genevan, and the
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