cious effects on the political as well as social state of the country. The enlightened statesmen who had appeared during the reign of Sigismund III— the Zamoyskis, the Sapiehas, the Zalkiewskis, whose efforts counterbalanced for a time the baneful effects of that fatal reign, as well as some excellent authors who wrote during the same period — were educated under another system; for that of the Jesuits could not produce any political or literary character with enlarged views. Some exceptions there were to this general rule ; but the views of enlightened men could not be but utterly lost on a public which, in- stead of advancing in the paths of knowledge, were train- ed to forget the science and wisdom of itsancestors. It was therefore no wonder that sound notions of law and right became obscured, and gave wav to absurd preju- dices of privilege and caste, by which liberty degenerated into licentiousness; while the state of the peasantry was degraded into that of predial servitude.'
"Not contented with secretly imbuing the minds of the people with Romanist principles, the Jesuits connived at the ill-treatment to which manv Protestants were sub- jected, and the courts of justice being wholly under Jes-
I uit influence, it was vain for the injured to look for legal redress. Riotous mobs with complete impunity destroyed the Protestant churches in Cracow, Posen, Wilna, and other places. The natural result of the adverse circum- stances in which Protestants were placed under this long but disastrous reign was that their numbers were daily diminished, and what was, perhaps, more melancholy still, those who held fast to Reformed principles were divided into contending factions; and although the Consensus of Sandomir maintained an apparent union for a time, that covenant even was finally dissolved by the Lutherans. An attempt was made without effect to arrange a union between the Protestants and the Greek Church at a meet- ing convened at Wilna in 1599, and although a confedera- tion fir mutual defence was concluded, it led to no prac- tical results.
"At the close of the long reign of Sigismund III the cause of Protestantism was in a state of the deepest de- pression. But his son and successor, Wladislas IV, was a person of a very different character, and so opposed to the Jesuits that he would not allow a single member of
: that order to be near his court. He distributed offices and rewards solely according to merit, and, being naturally of a mild disposition, he discountenanced all persecution on account of religion. He endeavored in vain to effect a general reconciliation, or at least a mutual understand- ing, between the contending parties, by means of a relig- ious discussion held at Thorn in 1044. But the early death of this benevolent monarch changed the whole as- pect of affairs. His brother, John Casimir, who succeed- ed him, had been a Jesuit and a cardinal; but I he pope had relieved him from his vows on his election to the throne. From a monarch who had formerly been a Rom- ish ecclesiastic the Protestants had everything to fear and little to expect. The consequence was that the ut- most discontent began to prevail among all classes, and the country having been invaded by Charles Gustavus, king of Sweden, the people were disposed to place him upon the throne of Poland. Elated, however, by the suc- cess of his arms, that haughty monarch declined to ac- cept the sovereignty in any other mode than by conquest, whereupon the Poles, rising as one man, drove him from the country. Peace was restored by the treaty of Oliva in 1060; but not until the Protestants had suffered much during the war. The king had taken refuge in Silesia during the Swedish invasion, and on his return to Poland he committed himself to the special care of the Virgin Mary, vowing that he would convert the heretics by force ifnecessary. A considerable number of Protestants still remained after all the persecutions to which they had been exposed, and among them were several influential families, who, besides, were supported by the interest of the Protestant princes throughout Europe. The king, therefore, judged it best to direct the whole force of his persecution against the Socinians, whom he banished from the kingdom,' declaring it to be henceforth a capital crime to propagate or even profess Socinianism in Poland.
"The ranks of the Protestants were now completely broken, and the Roman clergy acquired and exercised nearly uncontrolled power. John Sobieski, during his short reign, endeavored to put an end to religious perse- cution ; but he found himself unable to maintain the laws which still acknowledged a perfect equality of religious confessions. Augustus II, also, who succeeded to the throne in 1090, confirmed, in the usual manner, the rights and liberties of the Protestants, but with the addition of a new condition, that he should never grant them sena- torial or any other important dignities and offices. This monarch had renounced Lutheranism in order to obtain the crown of Poland, and now that he had secured his ob- ject, he allowed the Romish bishops to treat the heretics as they chose. Augustus having been expelled by Charles XII of Sweden, Stanislaus Leszczynski was elected in 1704. and the accession of this enlightened monarch re- vived the hopes of the Protestants. The treaty of alliance concluded between Stanislaus and the Swedish sovereign guaranteed to the Protestants of Poland the rights and liberties secured to them by the laws of their country,