enote: Condition of Catholicism.] Very different was it with
Catholicism. It possessed an organization which concentrated in the hand
of one man irresistible power, and included all the southern countries
of Europe not Mohammedan. It could enforce its policy by the armies and
fleets of obedient kings. It is not surprising, when this state of
things is considered, that the spread of the Reformation was limited to
its first fervour--that the men who saw its origin saw also its
culmination. It is not to be wondered at that, with the political
weakening arising from a tendency to subdivision and disintegration on
one side, and the preparing of a complete and effective organization
against the danger that was threatening on the other, the issue should
have turned out as it did.

[Sidenote: The means of resistance resorted to by Rome.] Rome, awaking
at last to her danger, met the Reformation with four weapons--a
counter-reformation, an increased vigour in the Inquisition, the
institution of the Jesuits, and a greater embellishment of worship. The
disposition of the northern nations was to a simplification of worship,
that of the south to adorn it with whatever could captivate the senses.
Ranke asserts that the composition of the mass of Marcellus by
Palestrina, 1560, had a wonderful effect in the revival of religion;
there can be no doubt that it constituted an epoch in devotion.
[Sidenote: A counter-reformation.] But of all these, the first and best
was a moral change which she instantly imposed upon herself. Henceforth
it was her intention that in the chair of St. Peter should never again
be seen atheists, poisoners, thieves, murderers, blasphemers,
adulterers, but men, who, if they were sometimes found, as must be the
case, considering the infirmities of humanity, incompetent to deal with
the great trials which often befell them, were yet of such personal
purity, holiness of life, and uprightness of intention as to command
profound respect. Those scandals that hitherto had everywhere disgraced
her began to disappear, a true reformation, but not a schism, occurring
through all ecclesiastical grades. Had Protestantism produced no other
result than this, it would have been an unspeakable blessing to the
world.

[Sidenote: The Inquisition brought into activity.] By another very
different means the Italian power sought to insure its domination--by an
increased activity of the Inquisition. It is difficult to understand how
men