TRENT, COUNCIL OF. The Council of Trent 1563) has a long antecedent history of great significance for the fortunes of the Catholic Church. During the 15th and the earlier half of the 16th century, the conception of an "ecumenical coun cil" remained an ideal of which the realization was expected to provide a solution for the serious ecclesiastical difficulties which were then prevalent. The emperor Charles V. urged on the papacy the necessity of convening a general assembly of the church. The passive resistance of the Curia was so stubborn that the decisive step was postponed time and again. But the goal was finally attained, and this result was the work of Charles, aided by three powerful cardinals.
The bull Laetare Hierusalem (November 19, fixed the meeting of the council for March 15, 1545, in Trent, and assigned it three tasks: (I) the pacification of the religious dispute by doctrinal decisions, (2) the reform of ecclesiastical abuses, (3) the discussion of a crusade against the infidels.
The opening of the council was deferred once again. To wards the end of May 1545, twenty bishops were collected at Trent ; but there was no sign of action, and the papal legates— Del Monte, Corvinus and Reginald Pole—delayed the inaugura tion, the emperor and the pope being at cross purposes as to procedure. In the eyes of Paul III. the council was simply the means by which he expected to secure a condemnation of the Protestant heresy, in hopes that he would then be in a position to impose the sentence of the Church upon them by force. For him the question of ecclesiastical reform possessed no interest whatever. In contrast to this, Charles demanded that these very reforms should be given precedence, and the decisions on points of dogma postponed till he should have compelled the Protestants to send representatives to the council. The pope, however, alarmed by the threat of a colloquy in Germany, at last ordered the synod to be opened (December 13, The procedure adopted secured the predominance of the Roman chair from the first. As the voting was not to be by nations, as at Constance, but by individuals, the last word remained with the Italians, who were in the majority.
The council began its work in the region of dogma by defining the doctrines of the Church with reference to the most important controversial points—a procedure which frustrated the emperor's hopes for a reconciliation with the Protestants. The doctrines
dealt with, up to March were the Holy Scriptures and tra dition (sessio iv.), original sin (sessio v.), justification (sessio vi.), and the sacraments in general, and baptism and confirmation in particular (sessio vii.). In March the council was moved to Bologna on the pretext that an epidemic was raging in Trent (sessio viii.), though, at the imperial command, part of the bish ops remained behind. But on the 2nd of June the council of Bo logna resolved (sessio x.) to adjourn its labours. At the Diet of Augsburg the emperor secured a modus vivendi, leavened by the Catholic spirit, between the adherents of either religion; and this provisory settlement—the so-called Interim of Augs burg—was promulgated as a law of the empire (June 3, 1548), and declared binding till the council should reassemble. But the con fusion of ecclesiastical affairs had grown worse confounded through the refusal of the pope to continue the council, when his death (November 1 o, 1549) changed the situation.
Pope Julius III., the former legate Del Monte, caused the council to resume its labours on May 1, 1551 (sessio xi.), under the presidency of Cardinal Crescentio. The personnel was, for the most part, different; and the new members included the Jesuits, Laynez and Salmeron. The French clergy had not a single dele gate, while the Spanish bishops maintained an independent at titude under the aegis of the emperor, and Protestant deputies were on this occasion required to appear at Trent. Their partici pation, however, was useless, for the discussion of doctrine on the basis of Holy Writ was from the Catholic standpoint impossible; and the revolt of the elector Maurice of Saxony (March 20, 1552) compelled the emperor to leave Innsbruck, and dissolved the conclave. Its dogmatic labours were confined to doctrinal decrees on the Lord's Supper (sessio xiii.), and on the sacraments of penance and extreme unction (sessio xiv.). On April 28, 1552, the sittings were suspended.