Page:Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent Buckley.djvu/33

 &c.

BULL OF INDICTION OF THE SACRED ŒCUMENICAL AND GENERAL COUNCIL OF TRENT,

Under the Sovereign Pontiff Paul III.

, bishop, servant of the servants of God, for the future memory hereof.

At the beginning of this our pontificate, which, not on account of our own merits, but, of its own great goodness, the providence of Almighty God hath committed unto us, already perceiving into what disturbances of the times, and unto how many embarrassments of almost all our affairs, our pastoral care and watchfulness were called; we desired, indeed, to remedy the evils of the Christian commonwealth, with which it had long been afflicted and well-nigh overwhelmed; but we also, as men compassed with infirmity, perceived that our strength was unequal to take upon us so great a burthen. For, whereas we saw that there was need of peace to deliver and preserve the commonwealth from the many impending dangers, we found all things replete with