But it was characteristic of the members of this school that they had no will to withhold allegiance from the Pope as chief of Christendom.

They shrank with horror from the thought of encouraging a schism or of severing themselves from the communion of Catholics.

The essential difference between Italian and Teutonic thinkers on such subjects at this epoch seems to have been this: Italians could not cease to be Catholics without at the same time ceasing to be Christians.

They could not accommodate their faith to any of the compromises suggested by the Reformation.

Even when they left their country in a spirit of rebellion, they felt ill at ease both with Lutherans and Calvinists.