For perfidy and atrocity it has no equal in the annals of the world.
The desperate attempt in which the papacy had been engaged to put down its opponents by instigating civil wars, massacres, and assassinations, proved to be altogether abortive.

Nor had the Council of Trent any better result.

Ostensibly summoned to correct, illustrate, and fix with perspicacity the doctrine of the Church, to restore the vigor of its discipline, and to reform the lives of its ministers, it was so manipulated that a large majority of its members were Italians, and under the influence of the pope.

Hence the Protestants could not possibly accept its decisions.
The issue of the Reformation was the acceptance by all the Protestant Churches of the dogma that the Bible is a sufficient guide for every Christian man.

Tradition was rejected, and the right of private interpretation assured.