When the German reformers tried, by way of the Yugoslavs, to reach
Rome, they found a printing-press at Urach, from which, between 1561
and 1564, a number of books in Glagolitic characters (and in Cyrillic,
a special form thereof) were issued. The most cultivated of the
Glagolitic clergy in Istria and the Croatian littoral, such as Antony
Dalmatin, Primus Trubar the Slovene and George Juri[vs]i['c], were
enthusiastic in seconding the press and in seeking, as writers, to
disseminate Protestantism in the Slav world. One of their most notable
fellow-workers was Matthew Vlaci['c] (Mathias Flacius Illyricus),
professor at the Universities of Wittenberg, Jena, Strassbourg and
Antwerp, a veritable encyclopaedist of the Reformation, and, with
Luther and Melanchthon, one of its leaders. A very distinguished man,
who had already, about 1550, joined the Protestant Church, was Peter
Paul Vergerius; before 1550 he had twice been Papal Nuncio in Germany,
a bishop in Croatia and afterwards in Istria. The rank and file of the
Glagolitic clergy received these books with joy, for the Roman
hierarchy, which had small liking for this truly national Church,
would have been glad to see it perish in ignorance, with no books and
no culture. By the way, the lower clergy remained what they had
been--a national clergy. They availed themselves of these Glagolitic
books from the Protestant press, but for that reason were not going to
become Protestants. Theological subtleties were repugnant to them, and
before and after the Council of Trent they married and lived a family
life.