About  this  time  a  new  spirit  came  over  men's  minds  which
shook  the  Papacy  to  its  foundation,  and  threatened  to  overthrow
the  whole  Catholic  faith  hitherto  subsisting.     Luther,  Zwingle

•  Most  of  the  biographers  friendly  to  the  Jesuits  affirm,  indeed  that
Ignatius  Loyola  also  obtained  in  Paris  the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Theology  but
the  most  minute  inspection  of  the  University  register  from  1520  to  1537
disproves  this.
t  These  spiritual  exercises  {exercitia  spiritualia)  are  more  fully  detailed
in  the  hook  already  mentioned,  bearing  the  title  Liber  Exercitiorum
Spiritualium.  Ignatius  attached  great  importance  thereto,  and  required
them  to  be  thoroughly  studied.  ^


THE    VICISSITUDES   OF    THE    NEW    SAINT.  23

and  other  reformers  now  raised  their  powerful  voices,  and  as  a
Catholic  author  expresses  it,  "  invited  peoples  and  princes  to  a
great  hunt  of  the  Roman  Church."  Almost  the  whole  of  Germany
answered  the  cry,  and  even  England  and  Switzerland,  as  well  as
the  Scandinavian  countries,  did  the  same.  Italy,  too,  lent  an
ear  to  the  seductive  voice,  and  France  was  not  without  its  many
thousands  who  hailed  it  with  loud  acclamations.  In  short,  the
Reformation  threatened  a  great,  the  greatest  part,  indeed,  of  the
Catholic  world,  and  the  downfall  of  Rome  seemed  to  be  inevit-
able.
