ABSTRACT
For some time it had been evident that the chances for the continued unity o f Western Christianity were small. Though the Church of Rome still emphasized universalist claims it was becoming increasingly obvious that it had outlived the functions that had made it uniquely valuable in earlier centuries. Then, as the only international organization, it had provided an impoverished and backward Europe with a sophisticated administrative structure and with it educated personnel, drawn from many countries but all speaking the international language o f Latin. However, as Europe had grown more prosperous and regional cultures had become able to supply their own requirements, the need for this sort o f an international organization had diminished. Heresies and reform movements o f all kinds challenged the Church. The fifteenth-century conciliar movement might have allowed the Church to accommodate itself to the growing centrifugal forces in Christendom while still preserving an overall unity but the defeat of conciliarism and the obsession o f the papacy with Italian politics left the Church unable to adapt to new and difficult circumstances.
