Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 23.djvu/570

Rh legates put them off, alleging the pressure of other business, notably the question of communion in both kinds, which was, in fact, being discussed and decided in accordance with the views of the Italians and Spaniards, and against those of the French and Germans. In the twenty-first session (July 16, 1562) a decree couched in four dogmatic chapters and four canons was promulgated upon it, to the following purport: laymen, and priests other than the actual celebrant, are not bound by divine right to communicate in both kinds; the church has full power to make what changes it pleases in the mode of administering sacraments; the whole sacrament of the Eucharist is received entire under either kind singly; and little children are not bound to communicate. The canons pronounce anathemas against maintainers of the contrary propositions. At the same time a decree upon reformation was enacted, most of the clauses dealing with the duties of bishops in the matters of ordination, patronage, division, and union of benefices, discipline of ineffective parish priests, and visitation of monasteries, but a more permanent interest attaches to the ninth and concluding chapter of the decree, whereby the name and office of the "questors of alms," that is to say, the vendors of indulgences, are abolished on the ground of the impossibility of other wise putting a stop to the abuses and depravity of their proceedings. All privileges and customs to the contrary, even if of time immemorial, are rescinded; the publication of indulgences is confined thenceforth to the ordinaries of each place, assisted by two members of the chapter; and these same officers are directed to collect the alms and charitable donations of the people, but forbidden to receive any commission or payment for so doing. This decree is a virtual confession of the justice of the agitation against Tetzel and his fellows which served as the signal for beginning the great religious strife of the 16th century; and it is noticeable that it was the pope's own voice against the system which decided the action of the council, wherein a powerful minority was found to defend it. Several weighty matters then came before the congregations, that of resi-lence again being pressed by the Spaniards, while the imperial and Bavarian ambassadors renewed their requisition for permissive communion in both kinds (for the decree on that subject lad gone no further than to declare it unnecessary, and had not explicitly forbidden it), and the French ambassador not only supported them in their demand, but added on his own part that in France they desired vernacular services, the abolition of image worship, and permission for the clergy to marry. The nuncio Visconti wrote to the pope in great alarm, expressing apprehensions at the very free language employed by the fathers of the council on these matters, the probability of their conceding the emperor's demands, and of similar ones being advanced thereupon, all making in the same direction. An intrigue to compel the resignation of Cardinal Gonzaga, who was not thought sufficiently opposed to these measures, and who was far less peremptory in his presidency of the council and use of the closure than Crescenzio had been, was set on foot, and defeated only by the strong representations made at Rome by the archbishop of Lanciano, who said that there was already so much division in the council that it could but just hold together, and would almost certainly be broken up by any step of the kind. The next subject which was brought on for consideration was the sacrifice of the Mass, and the debates thereon were very animated, disclosing considerable variety of opinion amongst the theologians, no fewer than five clearly distinct views of the tenet, apart from mere verbal or minor differences, being adduced and argued for. As sixty French bishops, to be accompanied by twelve theologians, and headed by Charles de Guise, cardinal of Lorraine, were under orders to repair to Trent, the French ambassador pressed the legates to postpone the next session till their arrival, as De 1 Isle, ambassador at Rome, did the pope; but each replied evasively, referring the applicant to the other. The question of communion in both kinds was also very warmly dis cussed, and the council was warned that a negative decision would lead to the secession of multitudes who had not yet broken with the Roman Church; but the Jesuit Laynez, who was the chief advocate for refusal, replied that to diminish the church would not destroy it, and that anything was better than concession in the matter. The numbers in the division taken on the question were as follows: 29 were in favour of granting communion in both kinds; 31 agreed thereto, but desired the execution of the decree to be left to the pope's discretion; 38 were for total refusal; 24 strove to evade responsibility by referring the matter to the pope entirely; 19 were willing to make the concession to the Bohemians and Hungarians, but would refuse it to all others; 14 asked for a postponement; and 11 remained neutral, declining to vote any way being a total of 166 suffrages, so split up as to make it impracticable to frame a decree. In this difficulty, the legate seized the opportunity of persuading the council to refer the matter to the pope's decision, thereby at once checkmating the reforming section, and indirectly ruling the vexed point of the relative superiority of pope and council in favour of the former, and so virtually reversing those decrees of Constance and Basel which had long been thorns in the side of the Roman curia. In point of fact, the pope had written some time before to the legates, recommending them to yield to the emperor's demand of the chalice for the laity, but they had replied that it would be impolitic to make it a conciliar act, and that it would be more expedient to frame a mere general declaration that it might be proper to make the con cession in certain cases, but that the pope should be the sole judge of them. In the twenty-second session (September 17, 1562) the decree on the sacrifice of the Mass was promulgated in nine chapters and as many canons, directed for the most part against current Protestant objections to the doctrine and ceremonial of the Missal. Rules to secure greater order and reverence in the celebration of Mass, and for the suppression of sundry superstitious observances connected therewith, were also enacted, besides some minor reforms of little note, and a decree referring to the pope the whole question of the concession of the chalice. The meagreness and insignificance of the reforms enacted thus far caused much dis pleasure in France, and the king directed his ambassador to press once more for delay till the arrival of the French, German, and Polish bishops who were expected at Trent, as the emperor also instructed his envoy. But the pope was busy in recruiting the Italian majority, and was unfavourable to this request, lest the Italians should be outvoted by the new-comers; yet so contentious were the debates on the sacrament of orders, and on the nature and ex tent of the rights of bishops notably whether they were inherently above priests, and whether they were necessarily subject to the Pope, deriving their jurisdiction and other powers solely through elegation from him, or if they were not of Divine institution, and his colleagues rather than his deputies (which hitter thesis was steadily maintained by the Spaniards) that it proved impossible to frame the decrees and hold the session before the arrival of the cardinal of Lorraine, who reached Trent on November 13, 1562, accompanied by fourteen bishops, three abbots, and eighteen theologians. The discussions, further complicated with the question of residence, were renewed hereupon, and long before any signs of agreement were visible the French ambassadors laid before the legates a schedule of reform in thirty-four articles, requiring, not only the removal of various abuses in patronage, and the punishment of negligence on the part of the parochial and monastic clergy, but also that vernacular services should be permitted, and communion in both kinds enjoined, while all abuses and superstitions connected with image-worship, indulgences, pilgrimages, and relics should be summarily abolished. Lorraine, on being asked how far he agreed with these demands, said that lie disapproved of some of them, but that if he had not consented to take charge of them in their actual form, they would have been made still more drastic. No definite action was taken upon them either at Trent or at Rome, and the proceedings dragged on ineffectively for some months longer. On March 2, 1563, Cardinal Gonzaga, first legate, died, and was speedily followed by Cardinal Seripando. The imperial and French ambassadors endeavoured to get the cardinal of Lorraine named as first legate and president, but he was not acceptable at Rome, and the post was given to Cardinal Morone, with whom Cardinal Navagero was associated, to fill the place of Seripando. All these events delayed the twenty-third session until July 15, 1563, nearly ten months later than the preceding one. A decree on the sacrament of orders, in four chapters and eight canons, laid do.vn that there is a sacrificial priesthood of the New Testament, instituted by Christ; that there have been seven orders in the Christian ministry from the earliest times; that holy order is a sacrament; that orders are indelible; that bishops are superior to priests; that a call from the laity, or from any secular authority, is unnecessary as a title to ordination, and that a merely lay call is invalid, while bishops appointed solely by the pope, without the intervention of any other persons, are validly created. A decree of eighteen chapters on reformation, enacting, amongst much else, penalties for non-residence on the part of beneficiaries, and providing for the erection of those theological seminaries which have ever since been the nurseries of the Latin clergy, was also promulgated in this session. The congregations which followed it were occupied chiefly with the question of matrimony, which had been mooted earlier, but with no definite result, and with framing a scheme to repress the encroachments of the civil power upon the church in most countries, one clause of which proposed to exempt all ecclesiastics from civil jurisdiction in all cases whatever, and from the payment of taxes, with penalty of excommunication upon such civil authorities as contravened this ruling. This was never pushed to the stage of promulgation, but it was successful as a manifestation against the reforming party in the council, and actually drove the French ambassadors away, since they judged their further presence useless in such a temper of the assembly. Yet it was itself by no means agreed or harmonious. The old disputes about the claim of the council to represent the church universal, about the proposing clause, limiting the initiative to the legates, and about the need of reform in the Roman curia itself were renewed, and that with much acrimony, but with no practical result. In the twenty-fourth session (November 11, 1563) a decree on matrimony, couched in ten chapters and eleven canons,