In full consciousness of his high-priestly dignity he set his face against these and all similar attempts; and his zeal and firmness in defending the authority and rights of the Holy See against the attacks of the conciliar and national parties within the Church deserve double recognition, in view of the eminently difficult circumstances of that period.
Europe had sinned in the face of God; otherwise Jerusalem would never have fallen; and the idea of a spiritual reform from within, as the necessary corollary and accompaniment of the expedition of Christianity without, breathes in some of the papal letters, just as, during the conciliar movement, the causa reformationis was blended with the causa unionis.
By means of this series of conciliar courts the unity of the Church is secured and made manifest; the combined, simultaneous effort of the whole is made possible; and disputes, instead of being fought out where they arise, are carried for settle ment to a larger and higher judicatory, free from local feeling and prejudice.
Even although the episcopal organization was retained, the conception of " tradition," of the conciliar powers, of the " characters" of the priest, of the celibate life, of purgatory, of " good works," &c. - all these serve clearly to differentiate the teaching of the English Church before and after the Reformation.
By the Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges (1438) it had secured the advantages of the conciliar movement.