So difficult is the path of orthodoxy to find! In 1557 the Zwinglian leader M.Schenck wrote to Thomas Blaurer that the error of the papists was rather to be borne than that of the Saxons.
Nevertheless Calvinism continued to grow in Germany at the expense of Lutheranism.

Especially after the Formula of Concord the "Philippists" went over in large numbers to the Calvinists.
[Sidenote: Effect on the nation] The worst thing about these distressing controversies was that they seemed to absorb the whole energies of the nation.

No period is less productive in modern German history than the age immediately following the triumph of the Reformation.

The movement, which had begun so liberally and hopefully, became, temporarily at least, narrower and more bigoted than Catholicism.

It seemed as if Erasmus had been quite right when he said that where Lutheranism reigned culture perished.