Protestantism in Poland and Bohemia - James Aitken Wylie

Bathory that he should never be able to maintain,
himself on the throne of Poland unless he made a
public profession of the Roman faith. The
Protestant deputies, to their dismay, next morning
beheld Stephen Bathory, in whom they had placed
their hopes of triumph, devoutly kneeling at
mass.[1] The new reign had opened with no
auspicious omen!
Nevertheless, although a pervert, Bathory did
not become a zealot. He repressed all attempts at
persecution, and tried to hold the balance with
tolerable impartiality between the two parties. But
he sowed seeds destined to yield tempests in the
future. The Jesuits, as we shall afterwards see, had
already entered Poland, and as the Fathers were
able to persuade the king that they were the zealous
cultivators and the most efficient teachers of
science and letters, Bathory, who was a patron of
literature, took them under his patronage, and built
colleges and seminaries for their use, endowing
them with lands and heritages. Among other
institutions he founded the University of Vilna,
which became the chief seat of the Fathers in
96