THE Pope has paid tribute to the "fruitful cooperation" with the Church of Scotland.

The leader of the Catholic Church met Right Reverend Derek Browning in the Vatican, 500 years after the moment that led to the Reformation.

He said the two churches had grown in "mutual understanding, trust and cooperation" after "long centuries of estrangement and conflict".

"It is my prayerful hope that the journey to visible unity will continue daily and bear rich fruits for the future, as it has in the recent past," he said.

The origins of Protestantism date back to 1517, when a German monk protested against the Catholic hierarchy.