The theater was also made a means of propaganda, and an effective one.
Picardy continued to be the stronghold of the Protestants throughout this period, though they were also strong at Meaux and throughout the north-east, at Orleans, in Normandy, and in Dauphine.

Great progress was also made in the south, which later became the most Protestant of all the sections of France.
[Sidenote: Catholic measures] Catholics continued to rely on force.

There was a counter-propaganda, emanating from the University of Paris, but it was feeble.

The Jesuits, in the reign of Henry II, had one college at Paris and two in Auvergne; otherwise there was hardly any intellectual effort made to overcome the reformers.

Indeed, the Catholics hardly had the munitions for such a combat.