On the 4th of December, 1563, the Council of Trent finally adjourned, eighteen years after it first came together. The attempts of a portion of the prelates composing it to reform and purify the Roman Church had been almost wholly thwarted by the influence of the Popes. It adopted a series of articles, to each one of which was attached an anathema, cursing all who refused to accept it. They contained the doctrines of priestly celibacy, purgatory, masses for the dead, worship of saints, pictures and relics, absolution, fasts, and censorship of books--thus making an eternal chasm between Catholicism and Protestantism. At the close of the Council the Cardinal of Lorraine cried out: "Accursed be all heretics!" and all present answered: "Accursed! accursed!" until the building rang. In Italy, Spain and Poland, the articles were accepted at once, but the Catholics in France, Germany and Hungary were dissatisfied with many of the declarations, and the Church, in those countries, was compelled to overlook a great deal of quiet disobedience. [Sidenote: 1559.] At this time, although the Catholics had a majority in the Diet (since there were nearly 100 priestly members), the great majority of the German people had become Protestants. In all Northern Germany, except Westphalia, very few Catholic congregations were left: even the Archbishops of Bremen and Magdeburg, and the Bishops of Lübeck, Verden and Halberstadt had joined the Reformation. In the priestly territories of Cologne, Treves, Mayence, Worms and Strasburg, the population was divided; the Palatinate of the Rhine, Baden and Würtemberg were almost entirely Protestant, and even in Upper-Austria and Styria the Catholics were in a minority. Bavaria was the main stay of Rome: her princes, of the house of Wittelsbach, were the most zealous and obedient champions of the Pope in all Germany. The Roman Church, however, had not given up the struggle: she was quietly and shrewdly preparing for one more desperate effort to recover her lost ground, and the Protestants, instead of perceiving the danger and uniting themselves more closely, were quarrelling among themselves concerning theological questions upon which they have never yet agreed.