The Conciliar Movement

The main accomplishment of the Council of Constance was the superiority of the state over the church. The world of Henry VIII was born at the Council of Constance. When the Reformation came, some of the countries of Europe had gained exactly what France had gained with the pragmatic sanctions. They had concordats from the Vatican giving them freedom to control the church within their realms. It was only those countries where this freedom to control the church by the state did not exist that the Reformation took place, because only there were the rulers interested in breaking the power of the Vatican.