again Luther had expressed his supreme contempt for the authority of
General Councils, though he professed to be not unwilling to submit
the matters in dispute to a body of men selected by the civil rulers.
In 1532-3 Pope and Emperor met at Bologna to discuss the situation,
and messengers were despatched to see on what terms the Protestants
would consent to attend the Council. The members of the Schmalkaldic
League refused (1533) to accept the conditions proposed by the Pope,
namely, that the Council should be constituted according to the plan
hitherto followed in regard to such assemblies, and that all should
pledge themselves beforehand to accept its decrees.[31]

Clement VII. died in September (1534) and was succeeded by Paul III.
(1534-49). He convoked a General Council to meet at Mantua in 1537,
but the League refused once more to attend (1535). Even had there been
no other difficulties in the way, the war that broke out with renewed
bitterness between Charles V. and Francis I. would have made it
impossible for such a body to meet with any hope of success. The
helpless condition of the Emperor, confronted, as he was, on the one
side by the French and on the other by the Turks, raised the hopes of
the Protestant party, and made them more determined than ever to
attend no Council in which the authority of the bishops or the
jurisdiction of the Pope should be recognised. Moreover, each year
brought new accessions to their ranks. The appearance of organised
Christian bodies, completely national in character, accepting the
civil rulers as their head, and conceding to them full power to deal
as they liked with ecclesiastical property, created a deep impression
on several princes and free cities, and made them not averse to giving
the new religion a fair trial. In 1530, the Elector of Saxony, Philip
of Hesse and the rulers of Ansbach, Anhalt, Brunswick-Luneburg,
Bayreuth, East Friesland, and a few of the larger cities had gone over