The 16th and 17th centuries were a period of Protestant influence in the area. Bełżyce became a Protestant, Polish Brethren centre of Lesser Poland. In 1558 a Catholic church was given away and transferred into a Protestant one by Andrzej Bzicki, the town mayor. The Protestant “regime” was so well developed that the mayor issued a directive to residents to take part in services under the punishment of fine or even imprisonment. In 1575, an intellectual religious exchange took place between Rabbi Jacob Nachman of Belzyce and Martin Czechowic of Lublin. The next two centuries were a period of permanent religious riot (with Catholic attempt to retake the church in about 1630), the Cossacks assaults while Khmelnytsky’s uprising (massacre of Jews), fires and plagues of cholera and typhoid fever. A new Catholic church was built in 1670 (the old one was given back in 1654) and 113 years later there are no more Protestants in the town, as their church burned in 1783.