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 the very countries where the Protestant heresy had been most vigorously combated—a great mass of discontent had accumulated; and France already showed a strong inclination to attempt an independent settlement of her ecclesiastical difficulties in a national council. Pius IV. saw himself constrained to take these circumstances into account. On the 29th of November 1560 he announced the convocation of the council; and on the 18th of January 1562 it was actually reopened (sessio xvii.). The presidency was entrusted to Cardinal Gonzaga, assisted by Cardinals Hosius, bishop of Ermeland, Seripando, Simonetta, and Marc de Altemps, bishop of Constance. The Protestants indeed were also invited but the Evangelical princes, assembled in Naumburg, withheld their assent—a result which was only to be expected. In order to enhance the synod’s freedom of action, France and the emperor Ferdinand required that it should rank as a new council, and were able to adduce in support of their claim the fact that the resolutions of the two former periods had not yet been formally recognized. Pius IV., however, designated it a continuation of the earlier meetings. Ferdinand, in addition to regulations for the amendment of the clergy and the monastic system, demanded above all the legalization of the marriage of the priesthood and the concession of the “lay chalice, ” as he feared further defections to Protestantism. France and Spain laid stress on the recognition of the divine right of the episcopate, and its independence with regard to the pope. These episcopal tendencies were backed by a request that the bishops should reside in their sees—a position which Pius IV. acknowledged to be de iure divino; though, as it would have implied the annihilation of the Roman Curia, he refused to declare it as such. In consequence of these reformatory aspirations, the position of the pope and the council was for a while full of peril. But the papal diplomacy was quite competent to shatter an opposition which at no time presented an absolutely unbroken front, and by concessions, threats and the utilization of political and politico-ecclesiastical dissensions, to break the force of the attack. In the third period of the council, which, as a result of these feuds, witnessed no session from September 1562 to July 1563, doctrinal resolutions were also passed concerning the Lord’s Supper sub utraque specie (sessio xxi., July 16, 1562), the sacrifice of the Mass (sessio xxii., September 27, 1562), the sacrament of ordination (sessio xxiii., July 15, 1563), the sacrament of marriage (sessio xxiv., November 11, 1563), and Purgatory, the worship of saints, relics and images (December, 3, 1563). On the 4th of December 1563 the synod closed.

The dogmatic decisions of the Council of Trent make no attempt at embracing the whole doctrinal system of the Roman Catholic Church, but present a selection of the most vital doctrines, partly chosen as a counterblast to Protestantism, and formulated throughout with a View to that creed and its objections. From the discussions of the council it is evident that pronounced differences of opinion existed within it even on most important subjects, and that these differences were not reconciled. Hence came the necessity for reticence, equivocations and temporizing formulae. Since, moreover, the council issued its pronouncements without any reference to the decisions of earlier councils, and omitted to emphasize its relation to these, it in fact suppressed these earlier decisions, and posed not as continuing, but as superseding them.

The reformatory enactments touch on numerous phases of ecclesiastical life—administration, discipline, appointment to spiritual offices, the marriage law (decretum de reformatione matrimonii “Tametsif,” sessio xxiv.), the duties of the clergy, and so forth. The resolutions include many that marked an advance; but the opportunity for a comprehensive and thorough reformation of the life of the Church—the necessity of which was recognized in the Catholic Church itself—was not embraced. No alteration of the abuses which obtained in the Curia was effected, and no annulment of the customs, so lucrative to that body and deleterious to others, was attempted. The question of the annates, for instance, was not so much as broached.

The Council of Trent in fact enjoyed only at certain appearance of independence. For the freedom of speech which had been accorded was exercised under the supervision of papal legates, who maintained a decisive influence over the proceedings and could count on a certain majority in consequence of the overwhelming number of Italians. That the synod figured as the responsible author of its own decrees (sancta oecumenica et generalis tridentina synodus in spiritu sancto legitime congregata) proves very little, since the following clause reads praesidentibus apostolicae sedis legatis; while the legates and the pope, expressly refused to sanction an application of the words of the Council of Constance—universalem ecclesiam repraesentans. The whole course of the council was determined by the presupposition that it had no autonomous standing, and that its labours were simply transacted under the commission and guidance of the pope. This was not merely a claim put forward by the Roman see at the time: it was acknowledged by the attitude of the synod throughout. The legates confined the right of discussion to the subjects propounded by the pope, and their position was that he was in no way bound by the vote of the majority. In difficult cases the synod itself left the decision to him, as in the question of clandestine marriages and the administration of the Lord’s Supper sub utraque specie. Further, at the close of the sessions a resolution was adopted, by the terms of which all the enactments of the council de morum reformatione atque ecclesiastica disciplina were subject to the limitation that the papal authority should not be prejudiced thereby (sessio xxv. cap. 21). Finally, every doubt as to the papal supremacy is removed when we consider that the Tridentine Fathers sought for all their enactments and decisions the ratification (confirmatio) of the pope, which was conferred by Pius IV. in the bull Benedictus Deus (January 26, 1564). Again, in its last meeting (sessio xxv.), the synod transferred to the pope a number of tasks for which their own time had proved inadequate. These comprised the compilation of a catalogue of forbidden books, a catechism, and an edition of the missal and the breviary. Thus the council presented the Holy See with a further opportunity of extending its influence and diffusing its views. The ten rules de libris prohibitis, published by Pius IV. in the bull Dominici gregis custodiae (March 24, 1564), became of great importance for the whole spiritual life of the Roman Catholic Church: for they were an attempt to exclude pernicious influences, and, in practice, led to a censorship which has been more potent for evil than good. These regulations were modified by Leo XIII. in his Constitution Officiorum ac munerum (January 24, 1897). Acting on a suggestion of the council (sessio xxiv. c. 2; sessio xxv. c. 2), Pius IV. published a short conspectus of the articles of faith, as determined at Trent, in the bull Injunctum nobis (November 13, 1564). This so-called Professio fidei tridentinae, however, goes beyond the doctrinal resolutions of the synod, as it contains a number of clauses dealing with the Church and the position of the pope within the Church-subjects which were deliberately ignored in the discussions at Trent. In 1877 this confession—binding on every Roman Catholic priest—was supplemented by a pronouncement on the dogma of papal infallibility.

The great and increasing need of a manual for the instruction of the people gave rise in the first half of the 16th century to numerous catechisms At the period of the council, that composed by the Jesuit Peter Canisius, father-Confessor of the emperor Ferdinand, enjoyed the widest vogue. 'It failed, however, to receive the sanction of the synod, which preferred to undertake the task itself; and, as that body left its labours unfinished, the pope was entrusted with the compilation of a textbook. Pius V. appointed a commission (Leonardo Marini, Egidio Foscarari, Francisco Fureiro and Murio Calini) under the presidency of three cardinals, among them Charles Borromeo; and this commission discharged its duties with such rapidity that the Catechismus a decreto concilii tridentini ad parochos was published in Rome as early as the year 1568. The book is designed for the use of the cleric, not the layman. The Missale romanum, moreover, underwent revision: also the Breviarium romanum, the daily devotional work of the Roman priest. The