About the same time Martin Luther was in the full course of his protest against the papal supremacy and had already burnt the pope's bull at Worms. The two opponents were girding themselves for the struggle; and what the Church of Rome was losing by the defection of the Augustinian was being counterbalanced by the conversion of the founder of the Society of Jesus.
Siricius (384-389), Leo the Great (440-461), and Gelasius (492-496) left little for their successors to add to the arguments in favour of the papal supremacy.
It was a capital offence in the eyes of the State to disagree with the teachings of the Church, and these, it must be remembered, included a recognition of the papal supremacy.
The theory of the papal supremacy held by the Curia was thus at least called in question.
In 1269 Charles of Sicily, aided by John of Thessaly, made war with the alleged purpose of restoring Baldwin to the throne of Constantinople, and pressed Michael so hard that he consented to send deputies to the council of Lyons (1274) and there accept the papal supremacy.
