Even so, the greater part of the territory which had been lost was never regained. Speaking with a certain geographical freedom, the northern half of Europe remained Protestant, while the southern half stayed Catholic.
But when we translate the result of the Reformation into the language of pictures, the actual changes which took place in Europe become more clearly revealed.
During the Middle Ages there had been one universal spiritual and intellectual prison-house.
The Protestant rebellion had ruined the old building and out of part of the available material it had constructed a jail of its own.
After the year 1517 there are therefore two dungeons, one reserved exclusively for the Catholics, the other for the Protestants.
At least that had been the original plan.
But the Protestants, who did not have the advantage of centuries of training along the lines of persecution and repression, failed to make their lockup dissenter-proof.
Through windows and chimneys and cellar-doors a large number of the unruly inmates escaped.
Ere long the entire building was a wreck.
At night the miscreants came and took away whole cartloads of stones and beams and iron bars which they used the next morning to build a little fortress of their own. But although this had the outward appearance of that original jail, constructed a thousand years before by Gregory the Great and Innocent III, it lacked the necessary inner strength.