Protestantism in Poland and Bohemia - James Aitken Wylie

convened in each district. Although the members
sat along with the pastors, all questions of faith and
doctrine were left to be determined exclusively by
the latter. Once a year a Provincial Synod was held,
in which each district was represented by a Clerical
Senior, two Con-Seniors, or assistants, and four
Civil Seniors; thus giving a slight predominance to
the lay element in the Synod. Nevertheless,
ministers, although not delegated by the Local
Synods, could sit and vote on equal terms with
others in the Provincial Synod.
The Grand Synod of the nation, or Convocation
of the Polish Church, met at no stated times. It
assembled only when the emergence of some great
question called for its decision. These great
gatherings, of course, could take place only so long
as the Union of Sandomir, which bound in one
Church all the Protestant Confessions of Poland,
existed, and that unhappily was only from 1570 to
1595. After the expiry of these twenty-five years
those great national gatherings, which had so
impressively attested the strength and grandeur of
Protestantism in Poland, were seen no more. Such
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