Entirely ineffective for the purpose of securing universal concord, it did in reality separate Protestant from Catholic Europe, and establish Papal authority over the Church of Rome.

When the Council met, the Papacy was no part of orthodox Catholicism, and Henry VIII.

never dreamt that in repudiating the jurisdiction of the Pope he severed himself from the Catholic Church.

If Luther had been only a heretic, the Council might have put him down.

But he had behind him the bulk of the laity, and Cardinal Contarini told Paul III.