Faustus Socinus, and became strong, in particular among the higher classes. The intestine divisions among the Protestants afforded in various ways a great advantage to their antagonists. An able, accomplished, and indefatigable defender of Catholicism was found in Hosius, Bishop of Culm, and, after 1551, of Ermeland. On the Protestant side, conspicuous for his efforts in behalf of union, as well as for his general character and diversified labors, was John à Lasco. Born of a wealthy and aristocratic family in Poland, he was destined for the priesthood, and after completing his studies in his native country, he resorted to foreign universities, especially Lonvain and Basel. At Basel he was intimate with Erasmus, and for a time an inmate of his house. For eleven years, from the year 1526, he labored to establish in Poland a reformation after the Erasmian type. Finding his exertions fruitless, he left his country, took a more decided position on the Protestant side, and for a number of years superintended the organization of the Protestant Church in East Friesland. After the Smalcaldic war and the passage of the Interim, he went to England, where he was brought into a close relation with Cranmer, and took charge of the church of foreign residents, first in London and then, from 1553 to 1556, in Frankfort. After the Polish Diet in 1556 had granted a free exercise of the Protestant religion in the houses of individual noblemen, Lasco was called back to his country by King Sigismund. Here he labored to promote unity between the Calvinists and Lutherans, and for the spread of the Protestant faith. He died in 1560. Ten years after, the Lutherans, influenced by counsel from Wittenberg, where the school of Melancthon then had sway, joined with the Swiss and the Brethren, at the Synod of Sendomir, in the adoption of a common creed. This Confession is consonant with the Calvinistic view of the sacrament, but it carefully avoids language that might give offense to Lutherans;

and it includes an explicit sanction of the Saxon Confes. sion, which had been prepared to be sent to the Council of Trent. After the death of Sigismund in 1572, the crown became elective, and the sovereigns were obliged to assent to the "Pax Dissidentium," which guaranteed equality of rights to all churches in the kingdom. Under the term "Dissidents were included the Catholics as well as the other religious bodies. The Duke of Anjou, afterwards Henry III. of France, on being elected King of Poland, in 1573, found it impossible to escape from taking solemn oaths to protect the Protestant religion against persecution and aggression. But the royal power was so much weakened that, although the monarchs might effect much by the bestowal of honors and offices, the fate of Protestantism depended mainly on the disposition of the nobles. To detach these from the Protestant side and to gain them over to the Catholic Church, through institutions of education and by other influences, formed one prime object of the Jesuits; to whom, in connection with the fatal divisions and quarrels of Protestants, the Catholic reaction was to be indebted for its great success in Poland.

Numerous Germans were settled in Hungary, by whom the doctrines and the writings of Luther were brought into that country. Bohemian Brethren, and Waldenses yet more, contributed to the favorable reception of Protestantism by the people among whom they dwelt. Hungarian students not only resorted to the universities of Poland, but went to Wittenberg also, and returned to disseminate the principles which they had learned from Luther and Melancthon. It was in vain that the new faith was forbidden. A savage law against Lutherans, which was passed at the Diet of Ofen, in 1523, did not stop the

1 The Consensus Poloniæ or Sendomirensis is in Niemeyer, Collectio Confessionum, p. 553. Krasinski, Hist. of the Ref. in Poland, 1. c. ix.

CIVIL WARS IN HUNGARY.

189

progress of the Protestant movement. It emanated from the people, and silently spread with great rapidity. In 1523, the Protestants were the prevailing party in Hermannstadt, and two years after, the five royal free cities in Upper Hungary adopted the Reformation. The new views were embraced also by powerful nobles. At the beginning of the sixteenth century, princes of the Slavonic House of Jagellon reigned in the three kingdoms of Poland, Bohemia, and Hungary. But they found it for their interest to connect themselves, by matrimonial alliances, with the ruling family in Austria.2 Louis II., in 1526, attempted to stem the great invasion of the Turks, under Soliman, with an insufficient force, and perished after his great defeat at Mohacs. Ferdinand of Austria claimed the thrones of Bohemia and Hungary, which the death of Louis left vacant. By prudent management, he succeeded in procuring his election as King of Bohemia, against his ambitious competitor, the Duke of Bavaria. In Hungary he entered into war with a rival aspirant to the crown, one of the great magnates, John of Zápolya, voivode of Transylvania. Both Ferdinand and Zápolya found it expedient to denounce the Protestants, in order to secure the support of the bishops. But neither found it possible, in the circumstances in which they were placed, to engage in persecution. During this domestic conflict, the Reformation advanced in the portions of Hungary not occupied by the Turks. By the peace of 1538, Ferdinand gained the throne. John was to retain Transylvania, and a part of Upper Hungary, during his life. After his death, his Queen, Isabella, clung to his possessions, and this was the occasion of a continuance of war. whole Saxon population of Transylvania adopted the Augsburg Confession; the Synod of Erdöd, in Hungary, issued a like declaration. Even the widow of Louis favored the Lutheran doctrine. Queen Isabella, in 1557, 1 Gieseler, IV. i. 2, § 16. 2 Ranke, Deutsch. Geschichte, ii. 286 seq.

The

granted to the adherents of the Augsburg Confession, equal political rights with the Catholics. Hungary, like Poland, was a severe sufferer through the strife of Protestants among themselves. The Swiss doctrine of the Eucharist found favor, especially among the native Hungarians. It derived increased popularity after the adoption of it by Matthew Devay, who was the most eminent of the Protestant leaders. After studying at Cracow, he resided for a time at Wittenberg, in the family of Luther; and, after his return to his country, became a very successful preacher of the Lutheran doctrines. He was more than once imprisoned, but did not cease, by preaching and by his publications, to promote the Protestant cause. In 1533, he published a Magyar translation of the Epistles of St. Paul, and three years afterwards, a version of the Gospels. Devay had been intimate with Melancthon, who preached in Latin to him and to other students who did not understand German; and he was well acquainted with Grynæus and other Swiss Reformers. About the year 1540, Devay began to promulgate the Calvinistic view of the Sacrament, to the amazement and disgust of Luther, who expressed his surprise in letters to Hungarians. In 1557, or 1558, a Calvinistic creed was adopted by a Synod at Czenger. The Calvinistic doctrine ultimately prevailed and established itself among the Magyar Protestants. In Transylvania, the Unitarians were numerous, and they were granted toleration in 1571; so that four legalized forms of religion existed there. Notwithstanding the unhappy contest of Lutherans and Calvinists, Protestantism continued to gain ground in Hungary, through the reigns of Ferdinand I. and Maximilian II., and for a long time under Rudolph

1 Herzog, Real-Encycl., vol. xix. Lampe, Hist. Eccl. Ref. in Hungaria et Transylvania (1728), p. 72.

2 Confessio Czengerinn, in Niemeyer, p. 542. In 1556 all of the Hungarian Calvinistic churches submitted to the Confessio Helvetica.

PREVALENCE OF PROTESTANTISM.

191

II. Only three magnates remained in the old Church. But Hungary was to furnish a field on which the Catholic Reaction, under the management of the Jesuits, would exert its power with marked success.1

1 At an early date, there were numerous followers of Luther in the Netherlands; but it will be more convenient to narrate the progress of Protestantism in other countries, after describing the rise of Calvinism