174.] There is no need to trace the further history of the Jesuits.

Their part in the Counter-Reformation has rather been exaggerated than insufficiently recognized.

Though it was incontestably considerable, we cannot now concede, as Macaulay in his random way conceded to this Company, the _spolia opima_ of down-beaten Protestantism.

Without the ecclesiastical reform which originated in the Tridentine Council; without the gold and sword of Spain; without the stakes and prisons of the Inquisition; without the warfare against thought conducted by the Congregation of the Index; the Jesuits alone could not have masterfully governed the Catholic revival.

That revival was a movement of world-historical importance, in which they participated.