The Council of Trent, a general council of the Catholic Church called by Pope Paul III, met with three goals: to reunite European Christians, to define a Catholic response to Protestant doctrinal challenges, and to pursue necessary reforms from within the church.
Because of the religious turmoil of the 16th century and the challenges to Catholicism posed by the Reeormation, clerics had called for a council of the church since the 1520s. Had a council met at such an early date, it is possible that some of the reformers who would later break from the Catholic Church might have participated, but no council met in the 1520s. When the Council of Trent first convened in December 1545, 28 years had passed since Martin Luther had first protested against the sale of indulgences. The divisions between Catholics and Protestants had become so established that there was no hope of reconciliation.
The council met in three sessions, from 1545 to 1547, 1551 to 1552, and 1562 to 1563. It was attended almost solely by Catholic representatives, most of whom were bishops or theologians. A few Protestant delegates arrived at the second session of the council in 1552, but their presence had no effect. Protestants no longer accepted the authority of a church council to settle disputes, and many Protestants suspected that the council was the work of the Antichrist. The council thus failed in its first goal. It was too late to reunite the Christian churches of Europe.
The council was more active in pursuing its other two goals, but these goals seemed to conflict. The pope wanted a speedy condemnation of what he viewed as Protestant heresies. The Holy Roman Emperor Charles V wanted the church to address the abuses that had helped provoke the Reformation. Because these goals were so different, the council proceeded slowly, alternating between theological issues and reform issues.
In its theological statements the Council of Trent clarified and reformulated Catholic positions and attacked Protestant ones. By doing so it drew the lines between the rival faiths more clearly. The council reaffirmed traditional Catholic practices, including the veneration of saints, the use of indulgences, and the celibacy of the clergy. It affirmed the power of the seven sacraments, which most Protestants sought to reduce to two, and restated the Catholic belief in the existence of purgatory.
Among the most important issues discussed by the council was the question of justification—of how human beings can attain salvation. Luther argued that human nature was so distorted by sin that no human actions, or works, had value toward salvation. Human beings could not in any way earn the right to eternal life but must instead rely on faith in God’s promise of redemption. The Catholic Church had traditionally rejected the view that any human being could earn salvation, but it held that works had some value toward justification. Salvation came only from the grace of God, but a human being could participate in his or her own redemption by cultivating a disposition to receive grace and voluntarily accepting it from God.
As the council rejected Protestant understandings of justification, it also repudiated Protestant ideas about authority. While Luther and other reformers accepted only the authority of Scripture (sola scriptura), the Council of Trent declared that legitimate authority derived both from scripture and from the traditions of the church, including the rulings of councils and the declarations of popes.
In matters of church reform, the council sought to end some of the abuses to which reformers had objected. Perhaps its most important achievement lay in strengthening the position of bishops within their dioceses. Bishops received greater authority over priests and members of religious orders within their jurisdiction and were commanded to establish schools and seminaries within their territories to promote the training of new priests. Reformers had long objected to bishops who presided over a diocese but lived somewhere else, and bishops were now required to reside within their diocese and to preach regularly.
The Council of Trent was the Catholic Church’s answer to the Reformation. It did not promote reconciliation among Christians, nor did it immediately end abuses within the church. However, by clearly distinguishing Catholic beliefs from Protestant and by beginning to reform the church from within, it strengthened the church in an era of continuing religious controversy.
Further reading: Elisabeth G. Gleason, “Catholic Reformation, Counterreformation and Papal Reform in the Sixteenth Century,” in Handbook of European History, 1400-1600: Late Middle Ages, Renaissance and Reformation, vol. 2, ed. Thomas A. Brady, Jr., Heiko A. Oberman, and James D. Tracy (Leiden, The Netherlands: E. J. Brill, 1995), 317-345; Hans J. Hillerbrand, ed., The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Reformation (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996); John C. Olin, Catholic Reform: From Cardinal Ximenes to the Council of Trent, 1495-1563 (New York: Fordham University Press, 1990); Steven Ozment, The Age of Reform, 1250-1550 (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1980).
—Martha K. Robinson
World History
