Moreover,  was  not  powerful  Bavaria,  and  were  not  all  of  the
Catholic  Principalities,  on  their  side  ?  and  what  was  even  of  still
greater  consequence,  were  not  the  Protestants  themselves  divided
into  two  parties,  who  were  so  inimical  towards  each  other  that
their  large  numerical  preponderance  was  not  by  any  means  a
real  one,  but  existed  only  on  paper  ?  Certainly  the  division  of
Evangelicals  into  the  two  sects  of  Lutherans  and  Calvinists
must,  of  itself,  be  a  great  advantage  for  Catholicism,  and  when
once  an  established  hatred  had  been  thoroughly  roused  between
'them,  or,  at  least,  when  such  a  feeling  was  known  to  exist,
unanimity  could  never  again  be  brought  about  among  them;
and  then,  indeed,  would  they  not  be  weakened  by  at  least  one
half?  Such  was  the  remarkably  shrewd  calculation  respecting
the  situation  made  by  the  Jesuits,  and  the  honour  of  the  dis-
covery or,  at  any  rate,  of  its  practical  application,  was  due,
before  all  other  able  heads,  to  Father  Peter  Canisius,  to  whom
I  have  already  made  frequent  allusion.  The  mode  in  which
he  proceeded  to  carry  out  his  projects  was,  besides,  not  open
or  straightforward ;  his  means  were  rather  sly  and  stealthy,  like
the  steps  of  a  cat.  At  the  period  that  the  operations  of  the
Jesuits  in  Germany  began,  almost  all  religious  education  was  in
the  hands  of  the  Protestants,  and  those  for  the  most  part  firmly
adhered  to  the  catechism  of  Luther,  which,  indeed,  reflected  the
Evangelical  faith  in  short,  clear,  and  distinct  formulas.  Every
one,  even  among  the  common  people,  could  easily  under-
stand his  catechism,  and  on  that  account  it  was  to  be  found
in  every  school  and  almost  in  every  family.  It  might  weU  be
a£Srmed,  indeed,  that  the  great  extension  to  which  Protestantism
had  at  that  time  attained  was  in  no  small  degree  to  be  attri-
buted to  that  popularly  written  little  religious  book.  But  how
was  it  now,  in  this  respect,  in  the  Catholic  world  ?  Ah  !  they  did
not  possess  any  work  at  all  approaching  to  it,  but  the  whole  of
their  religious  instruction  was  confined  entirely  to  the  public
devotional  exercises  prescribed  by  the  priesthood,  namely,  the
Mass,  the  Creed,  and  the  Lord's  Prayer,  along  with  processions.
