The Roman Catholic Church
Council of Trent
Council of Trent (1545-1563)
Longest general council and the last one until 1869. Although the popes for a long time resisted calls for one, in the end they supported Trent and it became one of the foundations of the Catholic Reformation.
At the outset, the same tension arose as had plagued earlier councils, between the need for reform and the need for statements on doctrine and practice. Key players thought reform of abuses should come first, or even that such reforms would be sufficient to reply to the heretics, and that dogma did not need to be addressed. Catholic ideals were fine, they argued, it was Catholic practice that needed repair. Most realized that both needed to be addressed and the fight was over which should come first. The course actually followed saw articles on belief appear alongside reform articles.
It took a long time even to get the council called, for a succession of popes had opposed it. It was held at Trent because it was something like neutral ground. It was dominated by Italians and by Spaniards. Few attendees were from north of the Alps. This led Protestants to condemn the council from the start as not being truly a general council and therefore not having the authority to issue decrees.
The council was transferred to Bolognia in 1547 because of an outbreak of typhus in Trent. The Spanish delegates refused to move, and Paul III suspended the council in 1549. These maneuverings gave further reason for the Protestants to reject it, making it thereby an even more purely Roman Catholic council.
Julius III re-opened it at Trent in 1551. Four years had passed with little to show, but at least the business had begun and had not been derailed by the strong political winds.
At this second assemblage an attempt was made to deal directly with the Protestants. They were invited to state their case at Trent, but none accepted. Instead, they countered with demands: that all earlier decisions must be voided, that the debate be heard by neutral judges rather than by the Council, that essentially the Protestants be given equal voice in the deliberations. Most of the negotiations were held during the four-year hiatus. As the Council got under way once again in late 1551, no Protestant had agreed to attend. Trenth would be about reforming Catholicism, not about re-unifying the Church.
In any case, the Protestants were soon distracted by events elsewhere. The second Schmalkaldic War broke out in March 1552. Rapid and dramatic victories by Maurice of Saxony, who advanced as far as Innsbruck, put the German Protestants in a stronger position; so strong, in fact, that the Council again dissolved, fearing a Protestant army might descend on the city.
This time, the hiatus lasted for ten years, not so much because of a threat from the Protestants as because of papal weakness and indifference. Julius III had dissolved the Council and was disinclined to call it again. Pauls IV was caught up in other matters and saw no need for a general council. His successor, Pius IV, became pope in 1559 and was able to re-convene the Council, again at Trent, in early 1562. The final session was held in December 1563. In total, therefore, the Counil of Trent was about six years long.
Accomplishments of Trent
That's still an exceptionally long general council, and was enough time to accomplish an exceptional amount of work. The Council affirmed the doctrine of the Real Presence in the eucharist, rejecting Protestant interpretations. It affirmed the validity of penance and of extreme unction. It restricted communion in both kinds to the celebrant, and affirmed that the Mass was a true sacrifice.
It is interesting and revealing that Trent said nothing on the subject of papal authority. Since this was such an important issue for the Protestants, this might seem odd. The issue was avoided deliberately, for it was connected to the whole topic of the extent of episcopal authority. Did a bishop's authority, in whole or in part, derive from the pope or did it derive directly from God? This was a potentially explosive point, so the prelates of Trent--many of them bishops--carefully set the matter aside. It would not be until 1870 that the Roman Catholic Church formally ruled on papal supremacy and papal infallibility.
Acceptance of Trent
Accepted in France only in 1615. Accepted in Spain in 1563, but subject to royal approval.