existed Protestant congregations composed not only of Germans, but also of Italian, French, English, and Scotch religious refugees.[264] The Scotch congregations were naturally Calvinistic, and some of them were still in existence by the middle of the eighteenth century. Such names as Gordon, Hyson, Sinclair, Pipe, Leigh, French and Ross still appeared on the Calvinistic rolls at that time.[265] In this connection it is worth noting that while in liberal England hundreds of persons were executed for their religious convictions in the course of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, in Poland there was only one such execution, that of an eighty year old lady in the city of Cracow in 1539.[266] The remarkably rapid spread of the Reformation in Poland was, therefore, due in no small measure to Polish religious toleration. Finally, in our study of the social causes of the growth of the Reformation in Poland, we must by no means overlook the fact that the Polish religious reformation was a class movement. It was accepted, adhered to, and championed by the upper classes of Polish society; in the cities by the commercial population, largely German, and throughout the country by the nobility, the large magnates and the well-to-do gentry, particularly the large magnates. This was due to the circumstance that both of these classes were in close contact with the outside world and with new movements abroad; the first chiefly through commercial intercourse, the second through educational, social, and diplomatic relations. This class aspect of the movement was both its strength and its weakness. The fact that the Reformation won to itself, and was accepted by, the most alert, socially most influential, and politically most powerful classes constituted its strength. It lent the movement a certain dignity and prestige, made it unavoidably popular, and assured to it rapid spread and certain victory. In its strength, however, lay also its weakness. The Polish Reformation remained an upper class religion. It did not filter through down to the masses of the population; it did not grip, transform, and revitalize the people. This circumstance harbored the movement’s inevitable doom from the very beginning, however glorious that beginning might have been and however phenomenal the development. The Renaissance, the art of printing, the influence of foreign universities, religious toleration, and the aristocratic character of the Polish Reformation,--these were, then, some of the most important social causes of the growth of the Reformation in Poland. [181] Roman Pilat, History of Polish Literature (Historja literatury polskiej), Lwów, 1909, vol. ii, No. 1 p. 24. [182] Peter Chmielowski, History of Polish Literature (Historja literatury polskiej), Lwów, vol. i, pp. 90-91. [183] Stanislaus Kot, Andrew Frycz Modrzewski, Cracow, 1919, pp. 13-15. [184] Chmielowski, vol. i, pp. 197-202.