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Handout #160 |
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Definitions and decisions of the Council of Trent |
| As a rule, in each area the Council set out an explanation
which was often followed, in the case of dogmatic definitions, by
condemnations of the opposing view. In most cases we can see that
Protestant affirmations were being attacked.
On Holy Scripture and tradition The Holy Council, following the example of the orthodox Fathers, receives and venerates with equal pious affection and reverence, all the books both of the New and the Old Testaments, since one God is the author of both, together with the said traditions, as well those pertaining to morals as having been given either from the lips of Christ or by the dictation of the Holy Spirit and preserved by unbroken succession in the Catholic Church. (Fourth session, 8 April 1546 A.D. 61 voters.) On justification If anyone says that man can be justified before God by his own works, which are done either in the strength of human nature or through the teaching of the law, apart from the divine grace of Jesus Christ, let him be anathema. If anyone says that the free will of man, moved and aroused by God, does not co-operate at all by responding to the awakening call of God, so as to dispose and prepare itself for the acquisition of the grace of justification, nor can it refuse that grace, if it so will but it does nothing at all, like some inanimate are thing and is completely passive, let them be anathema. (Sixth session, 13 January 1547 A.D., 70 voters.) On the sacraments If anyone says that the sacraments of the new law were not all instituted by Jesus Christ, or that there are more or less than seven, or that any of the seven is not truly and strictly speaking a sacrament, let them be anathema.(Seventh session, 3 March 1547 A.D., 73 voters.) On the Eucharist If anyone denies that in the venerable sacrament of the eucharist the whole Christ is contained under each species and in each separate part of each species, let them be anathema. (Thirteenth session, 11October 1551A.D., 54 voters.) On the mass If anyone says that the rite of the Roman Church in which part of the canon and the words of consecration are recited in a low voice, must be condemned, or that the mass may only be celebrated in the vulgar tongue, let them be anathema. (Twenty-second session, 17 September, 1562 A.D., 183 voters.) On the priesthood If anyone says that there is no visible and external priesthood in the New Testament, or that there is no power to consecrate, to offer the true body and the true blood of the Lord and to forgive or retain sins, but only a function and a simple ministry of the preaching of the Gospel; or that those who do not preach are no longer priests, let them be anathema. (Twenty-third session, 15 July 1563 A.D., 237 voters.) On the foundation ofseminaries Unless young people are well educated, they can easily be led astray towards the pleasures of the world. Also, unless they are trained in piety and religion at the tenderest age, when vicious habits have not yet entirely taken hold of them, it is impossible for them to persevere in a perfect fashion in church discipline without very great and special protection from Almighty God. The Holy Council therefore ordains that all cathedral churches, metropolitan churches and others superior to them, each according to its means and the size of its diocese, shall be required and obliged to nurture and bring up in piety a certain number of children of the city, the diocese or (if there are not enough of them) the province and to train them in church discipline, in a college which the bishop shall choose for this purpose close to the churches or in another suitable place. (Twenty-third session, 15 July 1563 A.D., 237 voters.) On marriage If anyone undertakes to contract marriage other than in the presence of the parish priest or some other priest authorized b the parish priest or the ordinary, and before two or three witnesses, the Holy Council declares them absolutely incompetent to make a contract of this kind and declares that such contracts are null and void. (Twenty-fourth session, 11 November 1563 A.D. 231 voters.) A selection of texts from the Council, including the first four quoted above, can be found in H. D. Bettenson, Documents of the Christian Church, OUP 1963. |
