The reign of Sigismund marked the beginning of religious persecution during the Counter-Reformation and the downfall of Protestantism in Poland–Lithuania. His hate towards Evangelicals coupled with the advice of Jesuit priests led to repressions and the eventual demise of the Polish Brethren decades later; their expulsion from Poland in 1658 contributed to the spread of Unitarianism across the globe. The Polish Reformed Church, once a thriving institution and community, began to fall. Akin actions were undertaken against other minorities in the country. Sigismund's contempt for Eastern Orthodoxy was equally strong; it was his initiative that the native Ruthenian peoples inhabiting the eastern lands of the Commonwealth be forcibly converted to Catholicism, which laid the foundation for the modern Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. However, in Sweden the policies had an adverse effect; the Protestant Reformation in Northern Europe continued and anti-Catholic sentiment strengthened.