The Council of Trent, "in session off and on for
eighteen years from 1545 to 1563, was one of the most important councils
in the history of the Roman Catholic Church" (1). The Council made many
decisions for the church during its years in session in an effort to
establish the traditions and doctrines of the church, as well as to
correct the corruption within it. In part, is was a response to issues
raised by the Protestant Reformers, but it was also part of a period of
Catholic renewal which had begun many years before. The Council itself was
mainly composed of three different groups of people, Jesuits, papal
supporters, and Italian delegates. However, only cardinals, bishops, and
heads of religious orders could speak and vote during its full sessions.
Protestants were even invited to send representatives.
During the first session, from December 1545 until March
1547, the Council discussed such matters as the relationship of scripture
and tradition, the canon of scriptural books and the doctrines of original
sin and justification. They also proposed church administration reforms.
In 1547 the Council moved out of Trent to escape the plague. While in
another city, they discussed the sacraments. However, they waited until
they returned to Trent to make any decisions. This way the Protestants
would be more available to participate if they chose to do so.
The second session, which lasted from May 1, 1551, until
April 28, 1552, was where the council actually finalized all of the
decisions discussed during the period outside of Trent in the four years
previous.
After this session, the Council took ten years off due
to war in Germany, so the third and final session did not begin until
January 18, 1562. It lasted until December 4, 1563. The documents
regarding the character of the Mass, the Holy Orders and education of the
clergy, the sacrament of marriage, purgatory, and other disciplinary
decrees were issued during this last session.
In all, the Council of Trent conducted twenty-five
formal sessions. Seventeen of these were actually substantive, and the
others were merely ceremonial. The Council, rather than the Pope, was in
charge of instituting reforms. This was because the people believed that
the papacy was incapable of fixing things and was also too corrupt to do
so (2). The Council "offered no sympathy to the Protestants and thus
accepted the split in Christian Europe as an unfortunate fact of life" due
to the fact that the Catholics and Protestants held different views
regarding the Word of God (3). The Council believed that both the Bible
and the traditions of the church were the Word of God, but the Protestants
believed that only the Bible was the true Word of God. Also, the Council
held the belief that only the traditional Catholic Bible, called the
Vulgate, was right and official, and thus, they rejected all other
versions. This did not go over very well with those of other
denominations. They "agreed that salvation should be sought by faith and
good works, not by faith alone; they also reaffirmed the seven sacraments"
(3) which all worked together to lay the foundations for present day Roman
Catholic thought and policies.
Each session of the Council was carried out in much the
same manner. First, the theologians and canonists discussed the draft of a
particular decree while the Fathers listened. Then, the Fathers met alone
and debated until they agreed on how the final text should read. After
both of these had been done, there was a "session" where the text was
publicly "read out, formally voted upon, and promulgated as the Council's
decree" (2), thus ending the duties of the Council for that session.
The Council of Trent defined the differences between the
Catholic and Protestant positions and, by formalizing the ideals,
doctrines, and laws of the church, reinvigorated the Roman Catholic
Church.
