It is important to inquire what was the state of the French Church at this period. It is impossible, of course, for us to enter into extended details, but we can hardly understand either Fénelon or his times without knowing something about the ecclesiastical religious questions which were then agitating the public mind. Religion was by no means in a stagnant state, or treated with indifference and apathy; it everywhere excited keenest attention. No subject was more eagerly discussed or occupied a larger share of thought. Besides the general controversy between Protestants and Romanists, there were many divisions in the ranks of the latter. There was fierce conflict between the Jesuits and Jansenists, also between the Gallicans and Ultramontanists. For a full recital of the story our readers will be obliged to consult Church histories and cyclopedias. Of the Jesuits little need here be said; their history is very well known. Established by Ignatius Loyola in 1540, the system was, in the period we are considering, something over a hundred years old, and numbering about fifteen thousand members, of whom half were priests. Its leading purposes were the overthrow of Protestantism and the strengthening of the papacy. It had a magnificent organization, it largely controlled the education of the youth of the better classes of society, and it was intensely zealous in missionary operations, Francis Xavier, so illustrious in this matter, being one of its original founders. In politics it often favored popular rights, especially if it would benefit the papacy by reducing the power of the sovereign; yet it usually secured control over the princes by obtaining their ear in the confessional. In doctrine it was opposed to Augustinianism, and in ethics became notorious for most dangerous looseness. It should not be forgotten, however, that the order had at all times many members eminent for piety and strict morality, some of the highest saints being numbered with them. In France the important office of confessor to the king was filled by members of this order under Henry IV, Louis XIII, XIV, XV; and, of course, in this way an enormous influence was exercised upon the royal policy at home and abroad. The connivance of these confessors with the scandalous lives of the kings did more than anything else to undermine respect for the Roman Catholic Church and for religion in general among the educated classes. Between the Jesuits and Jansenists there was fierce war.