Page:Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent Buckley.djvu/150

 to have dawned upon things; and the Christian commonwealth, before so beaten down and afflicted, began to lift up its head; of a sudden such tumults, such wars blazed forth through the craft of the enemy of mankind, that the council was most inconveniently compelled as it were to pause, and to interrupt its course, and all hope of further progress was taken away at that time; and so far was the holy synod from finding a remedy for the evils and troubles of the Christian world, that, contrary to its own intention, it irritated rather than appeased the minds of many. Whereas, therefore, the said holy synod perceived that all places, and especially Germany, were blazing with arms and discords; that almost all the German bishops, and especially the electoral princes, had withdrawn from the council, in order to provide for their own churches; it resolved not to struggle against so great a necessity, but to be silent until better times; that so the fathers, who could not now act, might return to their own churches to take care of their own sheep, and no longer wear away their time in idleness, useless in both respects. And so, seeing that the state of the times has so required, it decrees that the progress of this œcumenical Synod of Trent shall be suspended during two years, as it doth by this present decree suspend it; under this condition, however, that if things be sooner set at peace, and the former tranquillity return, which it hopes will before long happen, through the blessing of God the best and greatest, the progress of the council shall be considered to ave its full force, power, and authority. But if, which may God avert, the lawful impediments aforesaid shall not have been removed at the expiration of the two years, the said suspension shall, as soon as they shall have ceased, be thereupon understood to be removed, and the council shall be, and shall be understood to be, restored to its own force and vigour, without another fresh convocation thereof, the consent and authority of his Holiness, and of the holy Apostolic See, having been given to this decree.

Meanwhile, however, this holy synod exhorts all Christian princes, and all prelates, that they observe, and respectively cause to be observed, as far as concerns them, in their own kingdoms, dominions, and churches, all and each of the