| DECLARATIONS
OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT
FOURTH SESSION: DECREE CONCERNING THE CANONICAL SCRIPTURES: "If
anyone does not accept as sacred and canonical the aforesaid books in
their entirety and with all their parts [the 66 books of the Bible plus
12 apocryphal books, being two of Paralipomenon, two of Esdras, Tobias,
Judith, Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus, Baruch, Sophonias, two of Macabees], as
they have been accustomed to be read in the Catholic Church and as they
are contained in the old Latin Vulgate Edition, and knowingly and
deliberately rejects the aforesaid traditions, LET HIM BE ANATHEMA."
SIXTH SESSION, CANONS CONCERNING JUSTIFICATION:
"If anyone says that justifying faith is nothing else than confidence in
divine mercy, which remits sins for Christ's sake, or that it is this
confidence alone that justifies us, LET HIM BE ANATHEMA" (Canons
Concerning Justification, Canon 12).
SIXTH SESSION, CANONS CONCERNING JUSTIFICATION:
"If anyone says that the justice received is not preserved and also not
increased before God through good works, but that those works are merely
the fruits and signs of justification obtained, but not the cause of its
increase, LET HIM BE ANATHEMA" (Canons Concerning Justification, Canon
24).
SIXTH SESSION, CANONS CONCERNING JUSTIFICATION:
"If anyone says that the Catholic doctrine of justification as set forth
by the holy council in the present decree, derogates in some respect
from the glory of God or the merits of our Lord Jesus Christ, and does
not rather illustrate the truth of our faith and no less the glory of
God and of Christ Jesus, LET HIM BE ANATHEMA" (Canons Concerning
Justification, Canon 33).
SEVENTH SESSION, CANONS ON BAPTISM:
"If anyone says that in the Roman Church, which is the mother and
mistress of all churches, there is not the true doctrine concerning the
sacrament of baptism, LET HIM BE ANATHEMA" (Canons on Baptism, Canon 3).
SEVENTH SESSION, CANONS ON BAPTISM:
"If anyone says that baptism is optional, that is, not necessary for
salvation, LET HIM BE ANATHEMA" (Canons on Baptism, Canon 5).
SEVENTH SESSION, CANONS ON BAPTISM:
"If anyone says that children, because they have not the act of
believing, are not after having received baptism to be numbered among
the faithful, and that for this reason are to be rebaptized when they
have reached the years of discretion; or that it is better that the
baptism of such be omitted than that, while not believing by their own
act, they should be baptized in the faith of the Church alone, LET HIM
BE ANATHEMA" (Canons on Baptism, Canon 13).
SEVENTH SESSION, CANONS ON CONFIRMATON:
"If anyone says that the confirmation of those baptized is an empty
ceremony and not a true and proper sacrament; or that of old it was
nothing more than a sort of instruction, whereby those approaching
adolescence gave an account of their faith to the Church, LET HIM BE
ANATHEMA" (Canons on Confirmation, Canon 1).
THIRTEENTH SESSION, CANONS ON THE MOST HOLY
SACRAMENT OF THE EUCHARIST: "If anyone denies that in the
sacrament of the most Holy Eucharist are contained truly, really and
substantially the body and blood together with the soul and divinity of
our Lord Jesus Christ, and consequently the whole Christ, but says that
He is in it only as in a sign, or figure or force, LET HIM BE ANATHEMA"
(Canons on the Most Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist, Canon 1).
THIRTEENTH SESSION, CANONS ON THE MOST HOLY
SACRAMENT OF THE EUCHARIST: "If anyone says that Christ
received in the Eucharist is received spiritually only and not also
sacramentally and really, LET HIM BE ANATHEMA" (Canons on the Most Holy
Sacrament of the Eucharist, Canon 8).
FOURTEENTH SESSION, CANONS CONCERNING THE MOST
HOLY SACRAMENT OF PENANCE: "If anyone says that in the Catholic
Church penance is not truly and properly a sacrament instituted by
Christ the Lord for reconciling the faithful of God as often as they
fall into sin after baptism, LET HIM BE ANATHEMA" (Canons Concerning the
Most Holy Sacrament of Penance, Canon 1).
FOURTEENTH SESSION, CANONS CONCERNING THE MOST
HOLY SACRAMENT OF PENANCE: "If anyone denies that sacramental
confession was instituted by divine law or is necessary to salvation; or
says that the manner of confessing secretly to a priest alone, which the
Catholic Church has always observed from the beginning and still
observes, is at variance with the institution and command of Christ and
is a human contrivance, LET HIM BE ANATHEMA" (Canons Concerning the Most
Holy Sacrament of Penance, Canon 7).
FOURTEENTH SESSION, CANONS CONCERNING THE MOST
HOLY SACRAMENT OF PENANCE: "If anyone says that the confession
of all sins as it is observed in the Church is impossible and is a human
tradition to be abolished by pious people; or that each and all of the
faithful of Christ or either sex are not bound thereto once a year in
accordance with the constitution of the great Lateran Council, and that
for this reason the faithful of Christ are to be persuaded not to
confess during Lent, LET HIM BE ANATHEMA" (Canons Concerning the Most
Holy Sacrament of Penance, Canon 8).
FOURTEENTH SESSION, CANONS CONCERNING THE MOST
HOLY SACRAMENT OF PENANCE: "If anyone says that God always
pardons the whole penalty together with the guilt and that the
satisfaction of penitents is nothing else than the faith by which they
perceive that Christ has satisfied for them, LET HIM BE ANATHEMA"
(Canons Concerning the Most Holy Sacrament of Penance, Canon 8).
TWENTY-SECOND SESSION, CANONS ON THE SACRIFICE
OF THE MASS: "If anyone says that in the mass a true and real
sacrifice is not offered to God; or that to be offered is nothing else
than that Christ is given to us to eat, LET HIM BE ANATHEMA" (Canons on
the Sacrifice of the Mass, Canon 1).
TWENTY-SECOND SESSION, CANONS ON THE SACRIFICE
OF THE MASS: "If anyone says that by those words, Do this for a
commemoration of me, Christ did not institute the Apostles priests; or
did not ordain that they and other priests should offer His own body and
blood, LET HIM BE ANATHEMA" (Canons on the Sacrifice of the Mass, Canon
2).
TWENTY-SECOND SESSION, CANONS ON THE SACRIFICE
OF THE MASS: "If anyone says that the sacrifice of the mass is
one only of praise and thanksgiving; or that it is a mere commemoration
of the sacrifice consummated on the cross but not a propitiatory one; or
that it profits him only who receives, and ought not to be offered for
the living and the dead, for sins, punishments, satisfactions, and other
necessities, LET HIM BE ANATHEMA" (Canons on the Sacrifice of the Mass,
Canon 3).
TWENTY-SECOND SESSION, CANONS ON THE SACRIFICE
OF THE MASS: "If anyone says that it is a deception to
celebrate masses in honor of the saints and in order to obtain their
intercession with God, as the Church intends, LET HIM BE ANATHEMA"
(Canons on the Sacrifice of the Mass, Canon 5).
TWENTY-THIRD SESSION, CANONS ON THE SACRAMENT
OF ORDER: "If anyone says that there is not in the New
Testament a visible and external priesthood, or that there is no power
of consecrating and offering the true body and blood of the Lord and of
forgiving and retaining sins, but only the office and bare ministry of
preaching the Gospel; or that those who do not preach are not priests at
all, LET HIM BE ANATHEMA" (Canons on the Sacrifice of the Mass, Canon
1).
TWENTY-THIRD SESSION, CANONS ON THE SACRAMENT
OF ORDER: "If anyone says that the bishops who are chosen by
the authority of the Roman pontiff are not true and legitimate bishops,
but merely human deception, LET HIM BE ANATHEMA" (Canons on the
Sacrifice of the Mass, Canon 8).
TWENTY-FIFTH SESSION, DECREE ON PURGATORY:
"Since the Catholic Church, instructed by the Holy Ghost, has, following
the sacred writings and the ancient tradition of the Fathers, taught in
sacred councils and very recently in this ecumenical council that there
is a purgatory, and that the souls there detained are aided by the
suffrages of the faithful and chiefly by the acceptable sacrifice of the
altar, the holy council commands the bishops that they strive diligently
to the end that the sound doctrine of purgatory, transmitted by the
Fathers and sacred councils, be believed and maintained by the faithful
of Christ, and be everywhere taught and preached."
TWENTY-FIFTH SESSION, ON THE INVOCATION,
VENERATION, AND RELICS OF SAINTS, AND ON SACRED IMAGES: "The
holy council commands all bishops and others who hold the office of
teaching and have charge of the cura animarum, that in accordance with
the usage of the Catholic and Apostolic Church, received from the
primitive times of the Christian religion, and with the unanimous
teaching of the holy Fathers and the decrees of sacred councils, they
above all instruct the faithful diligently in matters relating to
intercession and invocation of the saints, the veneration of relics, and
the legitimate use of images, teaching them that the saints who reign
together with Christ offer up their prayers to God for men, that it is
good and beneficial suppliantly to invoke them and to have recourse to
their prayers, assistance and support in order to obtain favors from God
through His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who alone is our redeemer and
savior; and that they think impiously who deny that the saints who enjoy
eternal happiness in heaven are to be invoked, or who assert that they
do not pray for men, or that our invocation of them to pray for each of
us individually is idolatry, or that it is opposed to the word of God
and inconsistent with the honor of the one mediator of God and men,
Jesus Christ, or that it is foolish to pray vocally or mentally to those
who reign in heaven."
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