By their fruits
Do men gather? As grapes are not wont to be produced by or gathered off thorns, nor figs off thistles, so in like manner, no good or sweet fruit can be collected from heresy,or heretics, but only harsh and thorny fruit. This fruit is of two kinds—1. Of false doctrine; 2. Of bad morals and wickedness. Luther and Calvin have given examples in this age. For Luther teaches that vows are not binding upon the religious: that man does not possess free will, that he is the slave of necessity, that he must sin: that faith alone justifies: that good works have no merit before God. Calvin teaches that God is the author of evils: that Christ despaired on the Cross, that He felt the pains of hell, &c.; which things are downright blasphemy, and contrary to the natural law and to reason. Calvin also maintained that the Faith, by which he meant his own perversion of it, should be defended and propagated by force of arms, even by the slaughter of lawful princes and kings, of bishops, priests, and Catholics who opposed it. Whence we have heard of, and almost seen with our eyes in England, France, and Germany, so many murders, robberies, banishments of priests and Catholics, and a vast deluge of iniquity, and as it were a universal conflagration of goodness. We have seen the Blessed Sacraments profaned, the Holy Sacrifice abolished, vows broken, the saints contemned, churches burnt, the sacred canons set at nought, virgins violated, and all such like. For, as John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, who, with Thomas More, was a glorious martyr in England under Henry VIII., truly says, “Lust is at once the mother and the child of heresy.” (Cornelius a Lapide)
Can any sentient man deny that virtually everything has continually grown worse during modernity in the world and in the One True Holy Roman Catholic and Apostolic Church?
In music we men sound the depths of depravity plunging into ever greater depths and even popular music shows that the fruit of artistic expression has become decadent, debased, and discordant - hear the descent in just one song about fruit...
It can not be denied that in many areas of life we have suffered a severe and catastrophic decline in many measurables of cultural and spiritual life but one has to be careful about swallowing whole the idea that decadence, depravity, and execrable sin can be attributed to any Ecumenical Council as its fruit for we have seen such evil events before in epic execrable ecclesiastical epochs.
Satan may never be underestimated - nor even misunderestimated as Saint George said - but he must be given his due; he has used the matter available to him to render and wound The Body of Christ, tearing members away from it and "The Fruits" argument has been the low hanging fruit that many have angrily consumed and had their minds poisoned against His Church.
Yes, there can be no doubt that the world is evil and insane and we Christian Catholics will never have what some men where Blessed to have - The High Middle Ages but, behold: And He who sat on the throne, said: Behold, I make all things new. (Apoc. 21)
We can step away from the maddening crowds and step out of this execrable epic epoch and into a Holy Place to spend time time with Jesus and He will give you His peace if you are properly disposed for it and He will quicken your soul and revivify your life.
The other alternative for those who reference the fruits of the Council is that Mons. Lefebvre was a heretic because he signed the documents of the council they think is heretical.
How can a heretic be the leader of a movement that will restore Tradition?