Dr. John Rao shows that Catholics, as usual, were slow in awakening to the real significance of the Protestant assault. Eck and Fisher were among the few early thinkers who understood the menace. Many dioceses, principalities, and cities fell to the Protestants without much thought or resistance. Slowly, however, reformers began to pull the Papacy away from its purely political obsessions and show it that a serious internal shakeup was needed to fight the rebellion.