the alarming news that there were only three hundred Catholic divines in the whole of Hungary, whereas in Italy that number was the average for a single town. It seemed as though Hungary would rapidly become exclusively Protestant.
It was at this moment, which threatened imminent danger to the Catholic Church, that Peter Pázmány appeared (1570-1637). Under his guidance, Catholicism regained nearly all it had so suddenly lost. We might almost say that Pázmány was born in a Protestant country and died in a Catholic one. His parents were Protestants, but Nagyvárad, where they dwelt, to a great degree predestined him to his future vocation, for it was the headquarters of the Jesuits. The first Hungarian Jesuit, Szánto, lived and preached in that town, and it was he who converted the parents of Pázmány. Their son entered the Order, and when twenty-one years of age went to Rome. Here he was most powerfully impressed by the great Jesuit writer and orator, Bellarmin. He resolved to become the Bellarmin of Hungary, and to restore its former greatness to the Catholic religion. He devoted his indomitable energy, his wonderful gift of eloquence, and his brilliant literary style to that end. He rose rapidly in fame and influence. At the age of forty-six he was the highest ecclesiastical dignitary of the land, the Archbishop of Esztergom. He also acquired great influence at the court of Vienna.
The Emperor Ferdinand II. sent him on an important secret mission to Rome. This was at the time of the Thirty Years War, when the whole of Europe was divided into two vast camps of embittered enemies. Cardinal Richelieu, the great adversary of the Habsburg
