His202

1530 - French threat seemingly over - Charles bathing in the light of that triumph - he was desperate to get an army together - and this meant 'making friends' with some of the more powerful protestants - especially the Schmalkaldians.

The Hapsburg territories would be the first to be hit by any muslin invasion - this is the key to the protestant

Contarini - humanist, liberal scholar and was prepared to negotiate. Luther's keen follower - Philip Melanchthon also arrived to make some solution.

Conciliatory mood. All parties went into this Diet of 1541 talking of unity. (The idea that there could be a solution they just needed to strive for it.)

Issues:

Primacy of the Pope
Clerical marriages
significance of the sacraments of baptism and of course, especially, communion.
And so the debate continued...

So the Diet of Regensburg did not overcome the hurdle.

Emperor Charles continued to press Pope Paul III to get the council going.

After three diets all of these issues could not be resolved.

However in 1542 war broke out again between Francis I and Charles V. (These stories... are like... running on a treadmill - you get nowhere and you keep encountering the same problems and the same task).

There is a different mood.
The difference is now the main players are 25 years older and more experienced. And there are new players.

New generation of leaders under consolidated protestant Germany - rather than intellectualise the reform movement like zwingli and others - it is not a political game.

The Schmalkaldian league broke up. The French were subdued. The Turks were at bay. The Pope was on the same page, finally - and had gotten the council of Trent under way. Luther died. Henry the 8th also died. And so Charles, and the Catholic Church seemed as though they would surely triumph. While Charles' campaign was successful and the war was won - protestants still survived and were important.

The council of Trent was not going to plan. Protestant leaders were largely not there. The meetings usually broke up in hatred. Increasing tension between Pope Paul III and Charles.

Thankfully for Charles - Paul died in 1549. Julius III - council of Trent II.

Rift was growing between Charles and Ferdinand - it was based on the idea of who would inherit Charles' power after his death.

by its third session the Council of Trent was finally doing what it was meant to be doing.