A Secret Society.

There was in Poland a party which held a middle ground between enthusiasm on the one side and opposition to it on the other. The educated classes were very generally at this time in a state of doubt, hesitating between the two doctrines. A secret society was formed, composed of well-informed men, both laymen and churchmen, whose object was to read and to discuss the evangelical publications. The queen herself, Bona Sforza, was one of these investigators. She had for her confessor a learned Italian monk, one Lismanini, who received all the antipapistical books published in the various countries of Europe, and transmitted them to the society of examiners. The queen was sometimes present at the conferences. It was not till a later day, however, that this association rose into far greater importance.[[629]]

The number of people decided in favor of reform was continually increasing. The university, the library, the cathedral, and even the bishop’s palace resounded with theological discussions between the partisans of tradition and those of Holy Scripture. The students especially were enthusiastic for Luther. The bishop, alarmed and bent on applying some remedy, summoned a professor whose ultramontane orthodoxy was unimpeachable, and explained his fears to him. The professor, all afire with zeal, ascended the pulpit and delivered before the students several very animated sermons against Luther and his Reformation.[[630]] But it was to no purpose that he did so. The doctrine thus attacked was constantly propagated farther and wider. Fabian de Lusignan, bishop of Ermeland in the palatinate of Marienburg, was friendly to it; and other bishops besides were believed to have leanings to Wittenberg.

A fresh circumstance occurred to give this doctrine powerful support. Albert, duke of Prussia Proper, whose seat was at Königsberg, had been enlightened, as we have noticed, by the preaching of Osiander at Nürnberg; and he had become the protector of evangelical doctrine in the towns of Poland in his neighborhood. Luther rejoicing at the news wrote to the bishop of Samland—‘In Albert, that illustrious hero, you have a prince full of zeal for the Gospel; and now the people of Prussia, who perhaps had never known the Gospel, or at least had only heard a falsified version of it, are in possession of it in all its brightness.’[[631]]

Ere long the Reformation reached Livonia, and Luther was filled with joy to hear that ‘God was there also beginning his marvellous works.’ Luther was, so to speak, the bishop of the new churches, and his powerful words came to them to guide and strengthen. In August, 1523, he wrote to the Christians of Riga, Revel, and other places in that country—‘Be sure there will come wolves who will want to lead you back into Egypt, to the devilish and false worship. From this Christ has delivered you. Take heed therefore that ye be not carried away. Be assured that Christ alone is eternally our Lord, our priest, our teacher, our bishop, our Saviour, and our comforter, against sin, against sorrow, against death, and against every thing that is hurtful to us.’[[632]]

Directing our attention further to the east and the north, we see Russia, of which we shall have something to say in connection with Poland, and which did not see till a later day any disciples of the Reformation, and these almost all foreigners. Nevertheless, at the time of Luther’s rising against the captivity of the Church, there was also in these lands a movement in the direction of the Bible. The sacred writings, transcribed by ignorant copyists, had been gradually altered, and the sense had been corrupted. In 1520, the Czar Vassili Ivanovich applied to the monks of Mount Athos to send him a doctor competent to restore the true text. Maximus, a Greek monk, well acquainted with the Greek and the Slavonic languages, arrived at Moscow. He was received with much respect, and he spent ten years in correcting the Slave version by the original text. But the Russian priests, ignorant and superstitious, were jealous of his superiority. They accused him of altering the sacred books with a view to introduce a new doctrine; and the doctor was consigned to a convent.[[633]] The Greek or Russian Church unhappily remained outside the circle of the Reformation.

CHAPTER VII.
THE POLISH REFORMER.
(1524-1527.)

In Poland, hitherto, it is only secondary workers, if we may so speak, that we have met with. The country was, however, to possess in one of her own sons a man worthy to rank with the reformers, and whose ambition it would be to see his native land enlightened by the Gospel. Unhappily, during his best years, the storm of persecution drove him to a distance from her.

John Alasco.

At the beginning of the sixteenth century, there was in Poland a noble and wealthy family, whose rare privilege it was to count among its members several distinguished men. The foremost of these, John, baron Alasco, was archbishop of Gnesen (Gniezno), capital of Great Poland, and at the same time primate of the kingdom. He was a man endowed with a noble character, a friend of the sciences, devoted to his country, the legislation of which he had striven to improve, in favor at court, and an avowed enemy to the Reformation. He had three nephews, brothers, who were very distinguished men in their day. The eldest, Stanislaus, was minister plenipotentiary of Poland in France under Francis I.; and he discharged the same functions at the court of Austria. Yaroslav (or Jerome), a learned and eminent writer, was active also in political affairs, and played an important part in the disputes between Austria and Turkey. The third brother was named John, like his uncle, and was born at Warsaw in 1499. He dedicated himself to the priesthood, studied with distinction, under the superintendence of the primate, and according to some authorities was intended to succeed him.[[634]]