Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent

Context

In 1517 a German Augustinian monk, Martin Luther, issued his Ninety-five Theses, which, among other things, questioned the Catholic Church’s practice of selling indulgences. This quasirebellion grew quickly, attracting followers and new ideas, and the Church was unable to suppress the movement. The unstable political situation in Europe and, more important, the development of printing helped disseminate Luther’s ideas.

After unsuccessful attempts to force Luther to recant his views, the Church excommunicated him in 1521. Thanks to the numerous friends in Germany, Luther avoided prison and possibly being burned at the stake, and he continued to publish, translating the Bible into German, and to broaden his group of followers. In his writings he questioned not only the sale of indulgences but also Church tradition, the practice of various sacraments, and papal authority. His ideas spread quickly and stimulated rebellion against the Church and against the feudal system. Numerous priests, theologians, and self-proclaimed prophets started challenging the dogmas of the Church. Radical religious thinkers incited the poor, and a peasant rebellion known as the Peasants’ War broke out in German territories. The rebellion was suppressed with extreme cruelty, and its leaders were tortured, executed, and burned at the stake. Yet the religious movement could not be stopped.

Soon other representatives of fresh religious ideas followed Luther, who worked on the improvement of his religion. Among them were Philipp Melanchton in German lands and Huldrych Zwingli and John Calvin in Switzerland. These men established their own religious congregations and questioned the authority of the Church of Rome. In 1525 Albert of Brandenburg, the grand master of the Teutonic Order (an order formed to defend and expand the Roman Catholic faith), converted to Lutheranism, along with all of Prussia, and acquired the new title of Duke of Prussia. The order ceased to exist in Prussia, which was secularized and became the first Protestant state in Europe. Soon other states followed: Sweden in 1527, Denmark and Norway in 1536, and Scotland in 1560. In 1534 King Henry VIII of England, hitherto a faithful Roman Catholic rewarded by the pope with the title “Defender of the Faith,” broke relations with Rome over a dispute to annul his marriage with Catherine of Aragon. England established its own national church.

Heresies were not new or unusual in the Church and, in fact, were part of Church history in antiquity, but up to this point the Church was able to control and suppress them. This time, though, the extent and dynamics of the protest were too broad to control, and the widespread use of printing made it impossible for the Church to confiscate and destroy new writings that questioned traditional Church teachings. The propagators of new faiths soon started to be called Protestants, while they themselves preferred to think of their actions as a reform of the Church. Hence, the movement is referred to as either the Reformation or Protestantism.

When analyzing the new religious movements of the sixteenth century, three aspects are of vital importance: the doctrinal demands of the reformers, the extent of the protest, and the reaction of the pope and of the Church to these events. There was no single doctrinal proposal among the reformers. Each of them read the Bible in a slightly different way and formed his own conclusions. But some of their dogmas were similar. All reformers decided to base their teachings solely on the Bible, rejecting the teaching and traditions of the Catholic Church. Based on their interpretation of the Bible, Luther and others questioned the meaning of the sacraments, maintaining that Jesus Christ established only two: baptism and the Eucharist. In effect five sacraments were refuted: penance (confession), confirmation, marriage, holy orders, and extreme unction (or the last rites). Other doctrinal differences followed, with considerable diversity among protesters themselves.

The religious protest found many followers throughout Europe, and all attempts to stop it proved futile. Some states chose to convert to new religions; others, like Spain and various Italian states, remained loyal to the Church. Poland-Lithuania effectively tolerated almost all old and new Christian denominations. Europe became a religiously vivid, diverse, and dynamic scene. If a certain state remained Roman Catholic, it often controlled the situation by using the new Sacrum Officium, more popularly known as the Inquisition, an institution formed by the pope to control the purity of religion. Protestants, labeled as heretics, were arrested, tortured, tried, and burned at the stake. Where the state was not able to control the situation, religious disputes turned into religious wars.

The initial reaction of the Church to Luther, backed by the Holy Roman Emperor, was simple and traditional. Those responsible for questioning the doctrines of the Church should be arrested, brought before a religious tribunal, and forced to recant their heresies. Their works were to be destroyed and put on a special list of prohibited texts. The way these individuals would be treated would depend on the examination of each case. Punishment could range from simple penance to prohibition against teaching and conferring sacraments to death at the stake. At no moment did the pope see a need for or possibility of debating Luther and the others. In the political situation of that time, such a policy was doomed to fail. The Roman See could neither stop reformation nor turn its tide.

Facing a deep crisis, the Church had to react. Discussions concerning potential action focused on two major possibilities: to undertake a decided reform of the existing Church and its teachings or stage a strong counterattack against the heresies. Several attempts were undertaken to summon a council, the highest authority of the Roman Catholic Church—in 1535 in Mantua or Verona and in 1538 in Vicenza—but they failed. Finally, in 1545 Pope Paul III announced the opening of the Council of Trent, whose duty was to work out a satisfactory and efficient answer to the situation that had developed in the preceding thirty years. That the council was to meet in a German town was not accidental. It was the proposal of many priests and politicians, who wanted the council to debate outside the influence of Rome, the pope, and the cardinals.

On December 13, 1545, the Council opened in Trent, in the Holy Roman Empire. Almost one hundred delegates were present. From the very beginning the council entered a discussion about what it should accomplish. Was it to be focused on the questions of faith and reform of the Church, as the Holy Roman Emperor wanted, or the question of unity of the Church and Protestants, according to the will of the pope? In the end, contrary to papal wishes, both issues were discussed simultaneously, and appropriate decisions were prepared. The council met in sessions, each of which usually ended with the formulation and acceptance of certain decrees accompanied by canons. The first four sessions were devoted solely to issues of dogma. From the fifth session on, the council discussed dogmatic problems along with the issue of the reform of the Church.

The eighth session decided on the transfer of the council to Bologna due to war between France and the Holy Roman Emperor. Since not all deputies agreed to move to Italy and some remained in Trent, the council was on the edge of being broken up. In the end Pope Paul III suspended the council in February 1548. It was the next pope, Julius III, who resumed the council in 1551, but for less than a year. Once again the war and the conflict between France and the Holy Roman Empire prevented the council from continuing its work. This time the council did not meet for almost ten years. Paul IV, who succeeded Julius III and Marcellus II, was dogmatic and did not understand the changes that were taking place around him. His strict measures against Protestants were not even respected in Catholic countries. The council did not meet during his rule.

It was Pius IV who finally resumed the council in January 1562 and brought it happily to an end. Again it met in Trent and only eight sessions were needed to terminate work in December 1563. During the twenty-fifth (and last) session all decrees and canons of the Council, starting with the ones prepared in 1546, were read and approved by all but one participant (over 250 cardinals, bishops, and other priests). The council was officially closed and its decrees were presented to the pope for approval. On January 22, 1564, the pope, Pius IV, officially approved the work of the council. The decrees and canons passed and approved during the twenty-five sessions over almost eighteen years became an official document of the Roman Catholic Church.