Fifth Question: Why do the texts of the Council and those of the Magisterium since the Council not use the title of “Church” with regard to those Christian Communities born out of the Reformation of the sixteenth century?
Response: According to Catholic doctrine, these Communities do not enjoy apostolic succession in the sacrament of Orders, and are, therefore, deprived of a constitutive element of the Church. These ecclesial Communities which, specifically because of the absence of the sacramental priesthood, have not preserved the genuine and integral substance of the Eucharistic Mystery[19] cannot, according to Catholic doctrine, be called “Churches” in the proper sense.[20]
According to my history book the Roman Church really didn’t take over things until sometime in the 6th Century. What’s really outstanding is the seat of the Roman catholic church was in dispute centuries after when the church at Constantinopal and the one at Rome spent a lot of time excommunicating one another. The Greek Orthodox church plus a few others were on the sidelines egging them on.