Page:Nicolae Iorga - My American lectures.djvu/59



The celebrated Jesuit who was the apostle to the Muscovites, Possevino, came to this country and later gave a most interesting description of its inhabitants. But the greater part of the nobility remained true to Calvinism, and the Saxons were never to be tempted to abandon the Tutheran creed, while the so-called catholic bishop had no adherents through whom to mould the new generation in his own form.

In Poland the scope of the Jesuits was much greater. Under the guidance of the Papal Nuncio a large school was established at Lemberg and the superior sent his emissaries forth in all directions, also employing such of the Uniate Ruthenes who could usefully act as links with the Roumanians.

Certain of such missionaries, aided by a Venetian of Albanian origin, Bartolomeo Bruti, who was counsellor to that infirm prince, Peter the Tame, won over Moldavia, seeking to drive out the Lutheran faith from the scattered German villages of that province. Peter himself averred that he was a true son of the Roman church, and at the same time his brother in Bucharest, Alexander, husband of a Perote, whose mother and sister were also Catholics, was considered a complete and steadfast convert to the Latin faith.

But to attain even greater successes means were found to benefit by the relations of the Holy See with the German emperor Rudolph the Second, then on the point of assailing the Turks. The new crusade was well looked upon by Pope Clement VIII, whose flatterers assured him that Constantinople reconquered would soon be a Clementine.

A host of followers of the Holy War came to the Danube to initiate, encourage and conduct operations, including a Spaniard, one Alonso Carrillo, confessor to the young Transylvanian; the Nuncio Malaspina was accredited