In the Franco-German War the French expected ultramontane sympathies in Germany.

No means were spared to excite Catholic sentiment against the Protestants.

No vilification was spared.
They were spoken of as atheists; they were declared incapable of being honest men; their sects were pointed out as indicating that their secession was in a state of dissolution.

"The followers of Luther are the most abandoned men in all Europe." Even the pope himself, presuming that the whole world had forgotten all history, did not hesitate to say, "Let the German people understand that no other Church but that of Rome is the Church of freedom and progress." Meantime, among the clergy of Germany a party was organized to remonstrate against, and even resist, the papal usurpation.

It protested against "a man being placed on the throne of God," against a vice-God of any kind, nor would it yield its scientific convictions to ecclesiastical authority.