The Council of Trent, the nineteenth (or, according to another reckoning, the eighteenth) of the ecumenical councils recognized by the Roman Catholic Church, takes its name from the place where it was held, a city in the southern and Italian part of the Tyrol (73 m. n.w. of Venice), and lasted, with interruptions, from Dec. 13, 1545, to Dec. 4, 1563. From a doctrinal and disciplinary point of view, it was the most important council in the history of the Roman church, fixing her distinctive faith and practise in relation to the Protestant Evangelical churches. Its decrees were supplemented by the Vatican Council of 1870.
In reply to the bull Exsurge Domine of Leo X. (1520) Luther had burned the document and appealed to a general council. From 1522 German diets joined in the appeal, and Charles V. seconded and pressed it as a means of settling 1 the controversy started by the Reformation and of reunifying the Church. After the deliverances of Pius II. in his bull Execrabilis (1460) and his reply to the University of Cologne (1463), setting aside the theory of the supremacy of general councils laid down by the Council of Constance (see Constance, Council of), it was the papal policy to avoid councils and the free discussions they developed. Unable, however, to resist the urgency of Charles V., Paul III., after proposing Mantua as the place of meeting, convened the council as exclusively Roman at Trent (at that time a free city of the Holy Roman Em pire under a prince-bishop), on Dec. 13, 1545; it was transferred to Bologna in Mar., 1547 from fear
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The object of the council was twofold: (1) to condemn the principles and doctrines of Protestantism, and to define the doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church on all disputed points. It is true the emperor intended it to be a strictly general or truly ecumenical council, at which the Protestants should have a fair hearing. He secured, during the council's second period, 1551-52, an invitation, twice given, to the Protestants to be present, and the council issued a letter of safe-conduct (thirteenth session) and offered them the right of discussion, but denied them a vote. Melanchthon and Johann Brenz, with some other German Lutherans, actually started in 1552 on the journey to Trent. Brenz offered a confession, and Melanchthon, who got no farther than Nuremberg, took with him the irenic statement known as the Confessio Saxonica. But the refusal to give to the Protestants the right to vote and the consternation produced by the success of Maurice in his campaign against Charles V. in 1552 effectually put an end to Protestant cooperation. (2) To effect a reformation in discipline or administration. This object had been one of the causes calling forth the reformatory councils, and had been lightly touched upon by the Fifth Lateran under Julius II. and Leo X. The corrupt administration of the Church was one of the secondary causes of the Reformation. Twenty-five public sessions were held, but nearly half of them were spent in solemn formalities. The chief work was done in committees or congregations. The entire management was in the hands of the papal legatee. The court of Rome, by diplomacy and intrigue, outwitted all the liberal elements. The council abolished some crying abuses, and introduced or recommended disciplinary reforms affecting the sale of indulgences, the morals of convents, the education of the clergy, the non-residence of bishops, and the careless fulmination of censures, and forbade the duel. These deliverances had a salutary influence on the church. But in regard to the department of doctrine, although liberal evangelical sentiments were uttered by some of the ablest members in favor of the supreme authority of the Scriptures, and justification by faith, no concession whatever was made to Protestantism. The doctrinal decisions of the council are divided into decrees (decreta), which contain the positive statement of the Roman dogmas, and into short canons (canones), which condemn the dissenting Protestant views with the concluding "anathema sit." They are stated with great clearness, precision, and wisdom. The decree on justification betrays special ability and theological circumspection. The Protestant doctrines, however, are almost always exhibited in an exaggerated form, and mixed up with real heresies, which Protestants condemn as emphatically as the Church of Rome.
The doctrinal acts are as follows: after reaffirming the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed (third session), the decree was passed (fourth session) placing the Apocrypha on a par with the other books of the canon and coordinating church tradition with the Scriptures as a rule of faith. The Vulgate translation was affirmed to be authoritative for the text of Scripture. Justification (sixth session) was declared to be offered upon the basis of faith and good works as opposed to the Protestant doctrine of faith alone, and faith was treated as a progressive work. The sacramental character of the seven sacraments was affirmed and the eucharist pronounced a veritable propitiatory sacrifice as well as a sacrament, in which the bread and wine were converted into the body and blood of Christ (thirteenth and twenty-second sessions). It is to be offered for dead and living alike and in giving to the apostles the command "do this in remembrance of me," Christ conferred upon them a sacerdotal power. The practise of withholding the cup from the laity was confirmed (twenty-first session) as one which the Church had commanded from of old for good and sufficient reasons; yet in certain cases the pope was made the supreme arbiter as to whether the rule should be strictly maintained. Ordination (twenty-third session) was given an indelible character. The priesthood of the New Testament takes the place of the Levitical priesthood. To the performance of its functions, the consent of the people is not necessary. In the decrees on marriage (twenty-fourth session) the excellence of the celibate state was reaffirmed, concubinage condemned, and the validity of marriage made dependent upon its being performed before a priest and two witnesses. In the case of a divorce the right of the innocent party to marry again is denied so long as the guilty party is alive, even though the other have committed adultery. In the twenty-fifth and last session,
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On adjourning, the synod begged the supreme pontiff to ratify all its decrees and definitions. Thus petition was complied with by Pius IV., Jan. 26, 1564, in a bull which enjoins strict obedience upon all Roman Catholics, and forbids, under pain of excommunication, all unauthorized interpretation, reserving this to the pope alone, and threatening the disobedient with "the indignation of Almighty God and of his blessed apostles, Peter and Paul." Pins appointed a commission of cardinals to assist him in interpreting and enforcing the decrees. The Index libraritum prohibitorum was announced 1564, and the following books were issued with the papal imprimatur: the Profession of the Tridentine Faith and the Tridentine Catechism (1566), the Breviary (1568), the Missal (1570), and the Vulgate (1590, and then 1592). The decrees of the council were acknowledged in Italy, Portugal, Poland, and by the Roman Catholic princes of Germany at the diet of 1566. Philip II. accepted them for Spain, Netherland, and Sicily so far as they did not infringe on the royal prerogative. In France they were officially recognized by the king only in their doctrinal parts. The disciplinary sections received official recognition at provincial synods and were enforced by the bishops. No attempt was made to introduce it into England. Pius IV. sent the decrees to Mary, queen of Scots, with a letter dated June 13, 1564, requesting her to publish them in Scotland; but she dared not do it in the face of John Knox and the Reformation.
The canons and decrees of the council have been published very often and in many languages (for a large list consult British Museum Catalogue, under "Trent, Council of"). The first issue was by P. Manutius (Rome, 1564). The best Latin editions are by J. Le Plat (Antwerp, 1779), and by F. Schulte and A. L. Richter (Leipsic, 1853). Other good editions are in vol. vii. of the Acta et decreta conciliorum recentiorum. Collectio Lacensis (7 vols., Freiburg, 1870-90), reissued as as independent volume (1892); Concilium Tridentinum: Diariorum, actorum, epastularum, . . . collectio, ed. S. Merkle (4 vols., Freiburg, 1901 sqq.; only vols. i.-iv. have as yet appeared); not to overlook Mansi, Concilia, xxxv. 345 sqq. Note also Mirbt, Quellen, 2d ed, pp. 202-255. The best English edition is by J. Waterworth (London, 1848; With Essays on the External and Internal History of the Council). The original acts and debates of the council, as prepared by its general secretary, Bishop Angelo Massarelli, in six large folio volumes, are deposited in the Vatican library, and remained there unpublished for more than 300 years, and were brought to light, though only in part, by Augustin Theiner, priest of the oratory (d. 1874), in Acta genuina sancti et aecumenici Concilii Tridentini nunc primum integre edita (2 vols., Leipsic, 1874). Most of the official documents and private reports, however, which bear upon the council, were made known in the sixteenth century and since. The most complete collection of them is that of J. Le Plat, Monumentorum ad historicam Concilii Tridentini collectio (7 vols., Louvain, 1781-87). New materials were brought to light by J. Mendham, Memoirs of the Council of Trent (London, 1834-36), from the manuscript history of Cardinal Paleotto; more recently by T. Sickel, Actenstücke aus österreichischen Archiven (Vienna, 1872); by J. J. I. von Döllinger (Ungedruckte Berichtownd Tagebücher zur Geschichte des Concilii von Trient (2 parts, Nördlingen, 1876); and A. von Druffel, Monumenta Tridentina (Munich, 1884-97). See also Tridentine Profession of Faith.
Bibliography: Fundamental for the history of the council are the accounts by two Roman Catholics of very different spirit: (1) that of the liberal Fra Paolo (Pietro] Sarpi of Venice, Istoria del Concilio Tridentino , London, 1819, often republished, e.g., 4 vols., Florence, 1858, best ed. by P. F. Le Courayer, 3 vols., Amsterdam, 1751, in French, 2 vols., London, 1736, Eng. transl. of the original by Sir N. Brent, London, 1619, and another, 1676, Germ. working over of the matter by D. J. T. L. Danz, Jena, 1846; (2) that of Cardinal Sforza Pallavicino, Istoria del Concilio di Trento, 2 vols., Rome, 1656-57, issued also Rome, 1665, Milan, 1717, Lat. transl. by J. B. Giattino, 3 parts, Antwerp, 1670, Fr. transl., 3 vols., Montrouge, 1844-45 (for criticism of these cf. Rankes, Popes, iii. 46-79; and J. N. Brischer, Beurtheilung der Controversen Sarpi'a und Pallavicini's in der Geschichte den Trienter Concils, TĂĽbingen, 1844). Further accounts or discussions are: C. A. Salig, Hist. des tridentinischen Conciliums, 3 vols., Halle, 1741-45 (Protestant); I. H. Wessenberg, Die grossen Kirchenversammlung den 15. und 16. Jahrhunderten, Constance, 1840 (Roman Catholic); L. F. Bungener, Hist. du concile de Trente, 2 vols., Paris, 1847, Eng. transl., 2d ed., Edinburgh, 1853, New York, 1855 (Protestant); T. A. Buckley, Hist. of the Council of Trent, London, 1852; idem, The Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent, with a Supplement, containing the Condemnation of the Early Reformers, and other Matters, ib. 1851 (Protestant); W. C. Brownlee, Doctrinal Decrees and Canons of the Council of Trent, with Preface and Notes, New York, 1857 (Roman Catholic); E. B. Pussy, Eirenicon, Oxford, 1865 (Protestant); W. Arthur, The Pope, the Kings, and the People, 2 vols., London, 1877 (one of the best); J. C. L. Gieseler, Text-Book of Church History, ed. H. B. Smith, v. 21-58, New York, 1880 (excellent sketch); C. Dejob, De l'influence du concile de Trente sur la littĂ©rature et les beaux-arts, Paris, 1884; D. Laines, Disputationes Tridentinae,. 2 vols., Innsbruck, 1886 (Roman Catholic); T. R. Evans, Council of Trent, London, 1888 (Protestant polemic); R. F. Littledale, Hist. of the Council of Trent, London, 1888 (Protestant); J. A. Froude, Lectures on the Council of Trent, London, 1896 (posthumous; Protestant, brilliant but partisan, and as issued in unrevised shape unreliable); G. Wolf, Deutsche Geschichte im Zeitalter der Gegenreformation, Berlin, 1899; A. R. Pennington, Counter-Reformation in Europe, London, 1901; J. G. Mayer, Das Konzil von Trent und die Gegenreformation in der Schweiz, 2 vols., Stans, 1900-01; J. Susta, Die römische Curie und das Concil von Trient, Vienna, 1904; Cambridge Modern History, vol. iii. passim, New York, 1905; R. Mumm, Die Polemik des Martin Chemnitz gegen das konzil von Trient, Leipsic, 1905; J. Hergenröther, Handbuch der allgemeinen Kirchengageschichte, ed. J. P. Kirsch, Freiburg, 1909 (Roman Catholic); J. Hesner, Die Entstehungageschichte des Trienter Rachtfertigungadekretes, Paderborn, 1909; L. Carcereri, Il Concilio di Trento, Bologna, 1910; Die römische KurĂe und das Konzil von Trient unter Pius IV., Vienna, 1911;
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1 I. Occasion, Sessions, and Attendance.
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