The growing interest on the part of the people in the Reformation, the aggressive character of the movement, and the increasing defections among the clergy created consternation among the Polish bishops. These high church dignitaries began now to feel that it was not safe any more to rely on the lower clergy. The synod of 1547, therefore, charged the bishops not to allow any priest to preach without a special permit from the bishop of the given diocese. Bishops that were careless in observing and enforcing this synodical ruling were to be fined 100 “grzywień.”[117] _Third Period, 1548-1573: Triumph and Dominance._--As the Reformation in Poland was steadily gathering strength and growing in influence, King Sigismund I died on Easter Sunday, April 1, 1548, and was succeeded by his son Sigismund Augustus, crowned since 1530 to succeed his father as king of Poland. Sigismund Augustus was a truly religious man, believing sincerely in the fundamentals of the Christian religion, but indifferent to the forms in which they were to be expressed. He adhered to the Church of Rome as the state church in which he had been brought up and to whose forms of worship he had become accustomed. At the same time he associated closely with Protestants, read Protestant books, and took part in discussions on theological questions. Calvin, as we have seen, had dedicated his Commentary on the Mass to him. Among his closest and most intimate friends were Protestants like Nicholas Radziwill the Black, grand hetman of Lithuania and brother-in-law of the young king, and Francis Lismanini, at one time private confessor of the king’s mother.[118] It is not to be wondered at, therefore, that the Roman See and the Polish clergy were considerably apprehensive of the future of the Catholic Church in Poland, while the Protestants, on the other hand, looked forward with confidence, counting on the support of the young king. Just as soon as the news of the death of the old king reached the Pope, he at once dispatched to Poland a legate in the person of the Abbot Hieronimus Martinengo to carry to the young king his condolences, his congratulations, and his apostolic blessing, and to secure from him assurances of his loyalty to the Church of Rome and of his purpose to follow, in religious matters, in the footsteps of his father. The nuncio arrived in Poland in August, 1548. The king received him cordially, assured him of his respect for the Apostolic See, and advising him not to wait for the meeting of the next Diet, dismissed him.[119]