The law against the Jesuits as printed in the decree of July 5, 1872, reads as follows: "The Order of the Company of Jesus, being excluded from the German Empire, it is no longer lawful for the members of that Order to continue to exercise any office of the Order itself, above all in the church and in the school; nor is it permitted to them to preach missions; within six months at the most the houses of the Company of Jesus must be closed." Following the issue of this decree the Catholics everywhere were subjected to a most humiliating espionage. Jesuits were discovered everywhere and denounced to the authorities. Not only secular priests, but laymen and officials of the army were accused. The decree gave the Jesuits six months; but in many places their persecution began immediately. Colleges, houses and churches were closed; the Jesuits were forbidden to preach, to hear confessions and even to say Mass. With the Jesuits were included also the Redemptorists, the Lazarists, and the Brothers and Sisters of the Christian Schools; even the pious congregations directed by these Orders were dispersed as being affiliated with the Jesuits. The Bishops of Germany assembled at Fulda on September 20, 1872, and protested against the persecutions. They made use of the occasion to defend the noble attitude of Bishop Krementz of Ermland, to reproach the Government for its open favoritism in the case of the Old Catholics, to declare that Bishop Namszanowski had fulfilled his duty. They deplored this new offense against the Church through the persecution of the Company of Jesus and of other Orders. In their summing up they declared that "the principles herein expressed by us will always be the criterion of our actions, and we are ready for that end to make the greatest sacrifices, even that of our lives."