What happened at the Council of Trent?

In December 1545 the General Council so long looked for, and so long promised, opened its sittings — it was the famous Council of Trent. It soon became evident that the pope meant to carry everything his own way. He called his cardinals and appointed a certain number of them with others to watch carefully the movements of the council, and to act accordingly, and to see that nothing went wrong. He also desired that swift posts should be arranged between Trent and Rome that he might have the earliest information. The subject of reform was put off from time to time — discussing all sorts of subjects in preference to that: indeed, as was foreseen, the pope did just as he liked. The council was adjourned from time to time; but was professedly continued till December 1563, that is nineteen years; though at times there were present but a few Italian and Spanish prelates, and as a whole it became entirely a Roman Catholic council, and established what was to be and what was not to be the faith of that church. And to this council Roman Catholics now turn for a decision on any article of their faith.

In December 1545 the General Council, so long called for, and which was to settle the question of the Reformation, was opened at Trent; but the pope managed to get the council entirely into his own hands and to do almost entirely as he pleased. It continued with intervals for eighteen years, and its decrees and its catechism, so called, are constantly appealed to as the standard of the Roman Catholic religion.

The Council of Trent

At the famous Council of Trent, which met in 1545, and continued its sittings till 1563, during which the events we have rapidly described were in progress, the laws of the Roman Catholic church were more accurately defined, and measures were devised for the more effectual suppression of heresy. Their deliberations and decisions must have been greatly affected by the general state of Europe at that particular moment. But as the original object and character of this council have been already noticed, we need only add what has not been previously mentioned.

What particularly distinguished this council was not the framing of new laws, but undertaking to define and fix the doctrines of the Romish church in a more accurate manner than had ever before been attempted, and to confirm them by the sanction of its authority. "The Trentine fathers," says Mosheim, "authorized nothing new; but it is equally true, that they authorized much, hitherto thought, from its want of any sufficient authority, open to individual acceptance or rejection. To these divines, therefore, forming a body chiefly Italian and Spanish, sitting in the sixteenth century .... is the church of Rome indebted for the formal authentification of her peculiar creed." By the servility of the indigent Italian bishops, the popes acquired such influence in the council, that they dictated all its decrees, and framed them, not with any intention of healing the divisions, reforming the ancient abuses, restoring unity and concord to the church, but to establish their own dominion. "Doctrines, " says Scott "which had hitherto been considered as mere private opinions, open to discussion, were now absurdly made articles of faith, and required to be received on pain of excommunication. Rites-which had formerly been observed only in deference to custom-supposed to be ancient, were established by the decrees of the church, and declared to be essential parts of its worship."*

XX. Trent, in 1545-63, to condemn the Reformation. At this council was settled what was to be the future doctrine of the church of Rome; and its Catechism is now always appealed to as the standard authority of that church.

One of the major battle cries of the Protestant Reformation was sola scriptura "Scripture alone." The reformers rejected many Roman Catholic traditions and practices and argued for a Church that would base its doctrines and practice strictly on what the Bible teaches. But at the Council of Trent (1545 - 1563), the Roman Catholic Church rebuffed this teaching and retained the right and power to interpret the Holy Scriptures according to what it believed the Bible says.

During Vatican Council II (1962‑1965), the claims of Trent were simply upheld in a little different form. Among the Vatican Council II documents is the "Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation" (Dei Verbum). A careful reading of the Del Verbum shows that the Roman Catholic Church believes that the apostles passed on their authority to succeeding bishops in the churches of the first century and the centuries that followed. As the years went by, the Church added certain teachings based on what it calls Sacred Tradition. Because the bishops supposedly possessed the same apostolic insight and wisdom as the apostles, the traditions they began to pass on were given equal weight with Scripture. Instead of sola scriptura (the Bible alone), the Catholic Church assumed and claimed the correct approach to be Scripture plus tradition.

Until the Church of Rome went so far as dogmatically to raise the Apocrypha to the same level as the Books of the Hebrew Canon, it would seem that Jerome's views retained some hold upon the more enlightened theologians of that communion. Westcott (p.253) cites Cardinal Cajetan, Luther's opponent at Augsburg in 1518, who in his 'Commentary on all the Authentic Historical Books of the Old Testament' (1532), inscribed to Clement VII, says, 'The language of Councils and Doctors must alike be revised by the judgment of Jerome.' But with ripening opposition to the Reform movement, the Council of Trent (1546) canonized all the contents of the Vulgate as now issued, including that is, the Apocrypha, with the exception of 3 and 4 Esdras (as they are usually called), and the Prayer of Manasses.

The council resolved to refuse that any part of the public service should be in the mother tongue. They ratified all the popish doctrines condemned by the Protestants; strict inquisition was to be made for all who absented themselves from the Mass; all who received the Lord's supper after the Protestant forms were to be excommunicated.

In the meantime the Council of Trent had been holding its sessions, but, as we have seen, avoiding as much as possible the correcting of abuses — abuses which even every conscientious Catholic was compelled to see, to deplore, and wish to see removed. The Emperor began to despair of seeing peace restored by this council of the pope; he therefore resolved on doing what he could to bring about an agreement. At the Diet of Augsburg in 1548 he produced a Confession of Faith, drawn up with a view that all could subscribe to it, until a free general council should definitely settle the matters in dispute. Three theologians had been selected: two Catholics and a Reformer.

The Council of Trent broke up in alarm at the success of Maurice, and did not meet again for ten years.

In December, 1545, after so many years of intrigue, dissimulation, and dispute, the long-promised council assembled at Trent, and continued its sittings till 1563.*