Page:Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent Buckley.djvu/296

Rh taken touching the explanation of our faith and the correction of morals, but I know not whether ever more diligently and distinctly. Here, especially during this two last years, we have had [assembled] not only the fathers, but the ambassadors of all people and nations, in which the truth of the Catholic religion is acknowledged. And what men! If we consider their learning, most erudite; if their experience, most skilled; if their intellects, most penetrating; if their piety, most religious; if their life, most innocent. Such also was the number, that, if the present straits of the Christian world be considered, this synod appears to be more numerous than any of those which have been held heretofore. Here were the individual wounds of all laid open, here was their conversation of life exposed, nought was dissembled. The arguments and reasons of our adversaries were treated of in such a manner, that their cause not ours, then seemed to be the one at stake. Some matters were discussed a third and even a fourth time; the dispute was often carried on with the greatest contention, with that design, forsooth, that as gold by the fire, so might the strength and sinews of truth be approved by certain struggles, as it were, of truth. For what discord could exist between those who were of one mind, and who regarded one object?

Since matters stand thus, although (as I said at the beginning) it were greatly to be wished that these things could have been treated of in the presence of those on whose account they have chiefly been discussed; nevertheless, such provision has been made for the safety and health of those absent, that it would seem that, had they been present, provision could have been made in no other manner. Let them humbly, as becometh a Christian man, read what we have ordained touching our faith, and, if any light shall shine upon them, let them not turn away their faces; and, if they have heard the voice of the Lord, let them not harden their hearts; and, if they wish to return to the common embrace of Mother Church, from which they have torn themselves, let them not doubt that all clemency and mercy will be afforded them. But that, most august fathers, is the chiefest mode of conciliating the minds that dissent from us, and of retaining those who consent in faith and duty, if