"Students from Wittenberg brought the reforming message early to Danzig and Cracow, but here as elsewhere national sentiments directly affected the course of the reform movement. Partly because of Polish political traditions, partly because of long-standing ties with France, and partly because of a growing antipathy toward Germans, the Poles took much more strongly to Calvinism and Calvinistic sects. It's worth pointing out, too, that the Hussites had flourished in western Poland, so the country had a long tradition of dissatisfaction with the clergy. Moreover, the country also had a long tradition of religious toleration: many Jews had fled thither from persecutions in the West, and there was even an Islamic Tatar population in Lithuania. In the event, a number of different reform churches took root in Poland, especially during the 1540s and 1550s. While ideas and enclaves could be found everywhere, different flavors of Protestantism flourished in different regions of Poland, for exactly the same reason they did in Germany: due to the preferences and protection of the local nobility."