“How far were the aims and achievements of the
Council of Trent influenced by the Protestant Reformation?”
Most certainly, there is no
doubt that the Protestant Reformation had impacted upon the Council of Trent
and its subsequent decisions. The Catholic Church’s continual corruption had to
be stopped, in order for revival to be achieved, and the Popes would have to
lead the example in order to achieve this. When the Council of Trent was
finally called it served as a catalyst for further reform, as it was generally
believed at the time that a general council of the church would save her as an
institution. The Council of Trent was part of The Roman Catholic Church’s
response to the Protestant Reformation. It served as an ecumenical council of
the Catholic Church, it clarified Catholic doctrine and promulgated reforms:
fixing the number of sacraments, issuing decrees on clerical morals and
ordering the establishment of seminaries. In addition, the Council of Trent,
(1545-63), led a doctrinal attack on Lutheranism and clarified Catholic
orthodoxy. It helped to establish new reforming religious orders, especially
the Jesuits, for missionary work, and the Inquisition was received to root out
heresy. Furthermore Catholic monarchs, such as Charles v and Philip II of
Spain, campaigned against Protestant states, taking direct action to quash
them. At the heart of the issues discussed by the General Council in 1545, were
its aims to remove clerical abuses and define the Catholic doctrine.
Luther demanded in1520 the calling
of a general Church Council in order to reassess the methods in which the
Church taught how salvation was gained. Luther wanted the Catholic Church to
accept his reading of St Paul, otherwise known as ‘justification by faith and
faith alone’. Even Charles V the Emperor had hoped for a general Council to be
called in order to deal with the Protestant and Lutheran issues once and for
all. Pope Paul III in 1536 became convinced that only a general council of the
Church would rescue the organisation. At the time it was widely held that
Germany would become completely Protestant and Henry VIII had already made the
break with Rome. Protestant ideas seemed to be spreading to the Northern
Italian towns too. This served as a motive for the Catholic Church to make its
priority for the key aims of the Council of Trent to focus and distinguish
between Protestant and Catholic beliefs. For instance, the teaching on
transubstantiation was reinforced, as was, the importance of priests, belief in
purgatory and the central importance of the papacy.
The single most important agency
in the renewal of Catholicism in the sixteenth century was the general council
held at Trent. Trent’s work was particularly important in the clarification of
Catholic belief, codifying it in clear and authoritative statements that put
clear water between the Catholic and the Protestant Churches. And it would be
easy to believe that this work of definition was carried out in a defiant
spirit of Counter-reformation and of establishing as Catholic, what was not
Protestant. For instance the primary Protestant reformer, Martin Luther, laid
down that there were only two sacraments-rites conferring the holiness of
divine grace on the believer-baptism and the Eucharist, the only pair, he
claimed, that were validated in the Gospels of the New Testament. The Council
of Trent, in contrast, ruled that there were seven sacraments ranging from
baptism at the beginning of life to a final anointing at its end. In actual
fact was Trent aiming to counter the Protestants? It could be suggested that it
was not. As the decisions under taken at the Council of Trent were made in such
areas, shaped, even pre-determined, by decisions of a series of late medieval
councils commencing at Constance in 1414 and concluding at the Lateran in Rome
in 1512, or perhaps even at Trent himself, being considered as the last of the
medieval councils. It was the general council at Florence in 1538 that had
determined that there were ‘seven sacraments of New Law’ and it was Trent that
simply reaffirmed what had already been pronounced.
By 1545 the dangers of not
calling a Council seemed even greater, for the two great Catholic powers were
no longer at war and King Francis I, had pledge himself to further the
Emperor’s plan for a Council. As previously politics had conspired to prevent
the Council meeting. As the French King Francis I was less keen on a general
council because he wanted the Protestants to continue to make life difficult
for Charles V. Pope Paul III did not aim to achieve reconciliation with the
Protestants. The controversies and disputation of the reformation had made it
clear that there was insufficient certainly on too many debatable points. A
General Council could only deal with dogmatic definitions, on the scale
necessary for reform. By 1540 it had become clear the sympathy for the
Reformation was growing south of the Alps. The Church was fearful of schism in
Italian cities like Naples, Milan and Venice. It was therefore essential to
provide an authoritative statement on justification and other matters where
Protestants had departed from Catholic orthodoxy.
The Catholic Church took the instrumental decision of adopting a militant role, because so much of Europe had been lost to the reformers. On of the central reasons was Luther’s criticism of the Church because of its deeply rooted corruption and abuses over Indulgences. The Church addressed these issues head–on, in the form of: Setting up seminaries in all of the churches diocese, therefore setting high standards of behaviour for the clergy. The Bishops as a result had to remain within their diocese and oversee all that went on. In addition pluralism was stamped out, along with the reasserting of doctrine, providing clarity of thought and action. The Council of Trent set an agenda, in which priests and bishops could clearly work towards. As at the beginning of the sixteenth century reform was haphazard and chaotic, being solely driven by individuals. This had been in reaction to Protestant reformers condemning corruption in the Church; they had been challenging orthodox, beliefs and the denounced papal supremacy over the church. The Council of Trent was therefore bound to be influenced by Protestantism, not lease because delegates were aware of its appeal and explicit threat to the survival of Catholic churches in Europe.
The papacy had an alternative reason for calling for the Council of Trent, which was proving to the civilised world that the papacy had changed its attitude and now were motivated towards reform. One of the main concerns for the papacy was the challenge to its authority over the church. As a result the papacy was anxious to assert its supremacy over the church and it did through calling the council. The Council of Trent was the brainchild of the papacy. It was about reasserting papal authority and providing clear and definitive leadership. The Catholic Churches response to the Protestant threat needed to be coordinated. Trent needed to be put into and required the backing of successive Popes. There had been as sense of urgency, as Protestantism had been spreading south beyond the Alps, it was an all or nothing attitude. There was some willingness at first to reach a compromise, although Lutheran delegates the second session, the Catholic majority rejected any compromise with the Protestants; thus many of the Tridentine decrees reflected traditional beliefs and practices. Trent as a result reaffirmed traditional Catholic belief and practices.
Continue to Part 2
Continue to Part 2