Szafraniec sat upright. “United by a union, the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania is a power extending from the Baltic to Crimea,” he said proudly. “A force which routed and annihilated the arrogant Teutonic Order at the battle of Grunwald. It is a force which holds in check the savage Tamerlanes, Mehmets and other sons of Belial. But such a powerful entity is at the same time a union of two churches, the Latin and the Greek, and inside such a powerful entity are differences in the dogma of faith: the question of filioque, Communion bread, the sacraments, clerical celibacy, et cetera. The Polish crown stands loyally by the Roman faith, yet Lithuania and Ruthenia have the right to practise their religion, there is absolute equality between the two creeds. The rights are the same for all the lands of the kingdom, there are no differences between the Ruthenian nobility and the Polish—”

“Whom are you deceiving, Sir Piotr?” asked Prokop, looking up and twisting his moustache, “yourself or me? Perhaps you’d like things to be so, but they are not. Lofty words about equality and tolerance sound beautiful in the mouths of scholars in Krakow lecture halls. But you won’t hear those words outside; the walls of the academy muffle them. Outside university walls, theory ends and practice begins. Polish practice, that is the Roman Church. And what are Orthodox Catholics to the Church of Rome? A pagan sect, schismatics and heretics who fled from the true fold, infected by shameful errors and offences. Men of the ilk of your Oleśnicki speak loudly about the incorporation of Lithuania and Ruthenia into the Crown, even by force, and precisely owing to the inferiority of the Ruthenians and their faith. Is that your union? With nations incorporated by force?

“What guarantee is there that you will not treat us—Czechs who receive the Chalice—just the same in a union with Poland? That you won’t want to convert us by force, rechristen us, bring us back to the bosom by compulsion and violence? Where’s the guarantee that you won’t want to transform Bohemia after the Russian fashion, using the method of divide and rule, turning us into ‘bad’ schismatics and ‘good’ Uniates? Dividing us either into the faithful who deserve respect, dignity and privileges or into dissenters whose lot is contempt, discrimination, oppression and persecution? Well? Lord Chamberlain? Answer that!”

“Not everything is ideal in Poland,” Spytek answered instead of Szafraniec, who kept silent. “You are right in that, M’Lord Prokop. We also see it. And are pondering changes. I guarantee to you we are.”