Editing Polonization (section)

==== Church and education ====
The spread of Polish culture was channelled through the Catholic Church. A large part of the Lithuanian clergy were Poles, either of Polish descent or from Polish families settled in Lithuania. Of the 123 known canons of Vilnius, only slightly more than half (66) were ethnic Lithuanians, and most of the others were of Polish origin.{{sfn|Frost|2015|p=317}} The role of the church was important because it had a monopoly on teaching. By 1550, 11 schools were established in the Samogitian diocese and 85 in the Vilnius diocese.{{sfn|Frost|2015|p=318}} In 1528 the diocese of Vilnius decreed that the language of instruction of religious texts should be Polish and Lithuanian.{{Sfn|Frost|2015|p=318}} Latin was taught exclusively in Polish, so children who did not know this language were taught Polish first.{{sfn|Trimonienė|2006|p=553}} Lithuanians went to Kraków to study, in 1409 professor of theology founded a dormitory for students from Grand Duchy{{sfn|Suchecki|1983|p=60}} Overall 366 Lithuanian students studied in Kraków between 1430 and 1560.{{sfn|Frost|2015|p=318}} In the 16th-century students from Lithuania were coming to Kraków already considerably Polonized. In 1513, Lithuanian students were accused of mocking the plain Polish speech of their colleagues from Mazovia before the university court.{{sfn|Trimonienė|2006|p=552}}

Polish had the advantage over Ruthenian and Lithuanian that its vocabulary, being influenced by Latin, allowed more abstract thoughts to be expressed. Moreover, its proximity to the Ruthenian language made its adoption all the more natural.{{sfn|Frost|2015|p=318-319}} The Reformation, on the one hand, accelerated the development of literatures in Lithuanian, on the other hand, it contributed to an even faster spread of the Polish language. The Calvinist magnate [[Mikołaj "the Black" Radziwiłł]] published in [[Brest Litovsk|Brest]] a [[Brest Bible|Polish translation]] of the Bible for the use of Lithuanian Calvinists.{{sfn|Trimonienė|2006|p=554}}