Scotland was upon the point of declaring herself Protestant.

The Huguenots were growing stronger every year in France, the Queen Mother, Catherine de'Medici, being at that time inclined to favor them.

The Confession of Augsburg had long been recognized in Germany.

The whole of Scandinavia, with Denmark, was lost to Catholicism.

The Low Countries, in spite of Philip, Alva, and the Inquisition, remained intractable.