While Devay was in Saxony, the Reformation was making great progress in Hungary. The two kings had expected to destroy it, but an invisible power, greater than that of courts, was widely extending it; and that old saying in the Gospel was fulfilled—_My strength is made perfect in weakness_. A powerful magnate, Peter Perenyi, who had embraced the Gospel a year before, had declared with his sons Francis, George, and Gabriel for the doctrine of Luther. The son of Emerick, the former palatine of Hungary, he had just been made vayvode of Transylvania, and he possessed numerous castles in the northern part of the kingdom. It was at the court of Queen Mary, in the time of King Louis, that he had been enlightened, by means of the frequent conversations which he had held with the ministers Kopaczy and Szeray. Not content with allowing the evangelical doctrine to spread in his demesnes, he exerted himself personally to provide pious pastors for the people. Other magnates also, particularly Laelany, Massaly, and Caspar Dragfi, had been converted to Protestantism by the teachings of the ministers Osztoraï and Derezki. Dragfi’s father was in his day vayvode of Transylvania; and King Ladislaus had honored his nuptials with his presence. The son, now a young man of two-and-twenty, sent for evangelical divines to his estates; and Ovar, Isengen, Erdoeil and numerous villages were reformed by their preaching. It was to no purpose that the bishops threatened this young and decided Christian; he cared nothing about it, but gave his protection to all those who were persecuted for the faith. Some women likewise promoted the extension of the Reformation. The widow of Peter Jarit, a venerated woman who had the most ardent love for the Gospel, maintained preachers on her vast estates, so that all the country which lay between the rivers Maros and Koeroes was brought through her influence to the profession of the faith. The palatine Thomas Nadasdy, Francis Revay, Bebek, the Podmanitzkys, Zobor, Balassa, Batory, Pongratz, Illeshazy, Eszterhazy, Zriny, Nyary, Batthyani, the counts of Salm and Hommona, with many other nobles and magnates, heard the Word of God as the sovereign voice of the Church. The townsmen did the same, and the greater number of the towns embraced the Reformation.[554] [Sidenote: Slackening Of Persecution.]