But in truth there is nothing surprising about it.

Catholicism was and remained a unit, while its opponents were eventually broken up into hundreds of warring and politically impotent organizations.

Religious faith became distorted into a weapon for selfish and greedy territorial aggrandizement in the hands of Protestant princes.

"Cujus regio ejus religio" was the taunt hurled in the face of the imploring Calvinists of France and the Low Countries by the arrogant Lutherans of Germany.

Such a sword smote the principle of religious freedom and mutual toleration into the dust, and rendered them comparatively weak in the conflict with the ancient and splendidly organized church.
The Huguenots of France, notwithstanding the protection grudgingly afforded them by their former chieftain, were dejected and discomfited by his apostasy, and Henry, placed in a fearfully false position, was an object of suspicion to both friends and foes.