Some did not hesitate to accuse the pope himself of being a heretic.

Against these insubordinates excommunications began to be fulminated, and at length it was demanded that certain professors and teachers should be removed from their offices, and infallibilists substituted.

With this demand the Prussian Government declined to comply.
The Prussian Government had earnestly desired to remain on amicable terms with the papacy; it had no wish to enter on a theological quarrel; but gradually the conviction was forced upon it that the question was not a religious but a political one--whether the power of the state should be used against the state.

A teacher in a gymnasium had been excommunicated; the government, on being required to dismiss him, refused.

The Church authorities denounced this as an attack upon faith.
The emperor sustained his minister.