Editing Council of Trent (section)

== Objectives and overall results ==
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The main objectives of the council were twofold:

#To condemn the principles and doctrines of [[Protestantism]] and to clarify the doctrines of the Catholic Church on all disputed points. This had not been done formally since the 1530 ''[[Confutatio Augustana]]''. It is true that the emperor intended it to be a strictly general or truly ecumenical council, at which the Protestants should have a fair hearing. He secured, during the council's second period, 1551–1553, an invitation, twice given, to the Protestants to be present and the council issued a letter of safe conduct (thirteenth session) and offered them the right of discussion, but denied them a vote. [[Melanchthon]] and [[Johannes Brenz]], with some other German Lutherans, actually started in 1552 on the journey to Trent. Brenz offered a confession and Melanchthon, who got no farther than [[Nuremberg]], took with him the ''Confessio Saxonica''. But the refusal to give the Protestants the vote and the consternation produced by the success of [[Maurice, Elector of Saxony|Maurice]] in his campaign against Charles V in 1552 effectually put an end to Protestant cooperation.<ref name=Schaff-Herzog/>
#To effect a reformation in [[Canon law of the Catholic Church|discipline or administration]]. This object had been one of the causes calling forth the reformatory councils and had been lightly touched upon by the [[Fifth Council of the Lateran]] under [[Pope Julius II]]. The obvious corruption in the administration of the Church was one of the numerous causes of the Reformation. Twenty-five public sessions were held, but nearly half of them were spent in solemn formalities. The chief work was done in committees or congregations. The entire management was in the hands of the papal legate. The liberal elements lost out in the debates and voting. The council abolished some of the most notorious abuses and introduced or recommended disciplinary reforms affecting the sale of [[indulgence]]s, the morals of convents, the education of the clergy, the non-residence of bishops (also bishops having plurality of [[benefice]]s, which was fairly common), and the careless [[wikt:fulmination|fulmination]] of [[censure]]s, and forbade duelling. Although evangelical sentiments were uttered by some of the members in favour of the supreme authority of the Scriptures and justification by faith, no concession whatsoever was made to Protestantism, according to a Protestant source.<ref name=Schaff-Herzog/>

Specific issues that were discussed included:

* The Church as the ultimate interpreter of Scripture.<ref name="CCC 85">Catechism of the Catholic Church Paragraph 85</ref> Also, the Bible and [[Sacred tradition|church tradition]] (the tradition that composed part of the Catholic faith) were equally and independently authoritative.
* The relationship of faith and [[Good works|works]] in salvation was defined, following controversy over [[Martin Luther]]'s doctrine of "[[Sola fide|justification by faith alone]]".
* Other Catholic practices that had drawn the ire of reformers within the Church, such as [[indulgences]], pilgrimages, the veneration of [[saint]]s and [[relics]], and the veneration of the [[Virgin Mary]] were strongly reaffirmed, though abuses of them were forbidden. Decrees concerning [[Counter-Reformation#Church music|sacred music]] and religious art, [[Catholic Church art#Council of Trent|though inexplicit, were subsequently amplified]] by theologians and writers to condemn many types of Renaissance and medieval styles and [[iconography|iconographies]], impacting heavily on the development of these art forms.

The doctrinal decisions of the council were set forth in  decrees (''decreta''), which are divided into chapters (''capita''), which contain the positive statement of the conciliar [[dogma]]s, and into short canons (''canones''), which condemn incorrect views (often a Protestant-associated notion stated in an extreme form) with the concluding ''anathema sit'' ("let him be [[anathema]]" i.e., excluded from the society of the faithful).<ref name=Schaff-Herzog/>

The consequences of the council were also significant with regard to the [[Catholic liturgy|Church's liturgy]] and practices. In its decrees, the council made the Latin [[Vulgate]] the official biblical text of the Roman Church (without prejudice to the original texts in Hebrew and Greek, nor to other traditional translations of the Church, but favoring the Latin language over vernacular translations, such as the controversial English-language [[Tyndale Bible]]).<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lindberg |first=Carter |title=The European Reformations |date=March 15, 2021 |publisher=Wiley-Blackwell |isbn=978-1119640813 |edition=3rd |pages=305 |language=English}}</ref> In doing so, they commissioned the creation of a revised and standardized Vulgate in light of textual criticism, although this was not achieved until the 1590s. The council also officially affirmed the traditional Catholic Canon of biblical books, which was identical to the canon of Scripture issued by the [[Council of Rome]] under Pope Damasus in 382.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|url=http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780192802903.001.0001/acref-9780192802903|title=The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church|date=2005-01-01|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-280290-3|editor-last=Cross|editor-first=F. L.|edition=3|pages=282|language=en|chapter=canon of Scripture|doi=10.1093/acref/9780192802903.001.0001|editor-last2=Livingstone|editor-first2=E. A.}}</ref> This was in response to the increasing Protestant exclusion of the [[deuterocanonical books]].<ref name="ODCC" /> The former [[dogma]]tic affirmation of the Canonical books was at the [[Council of Florence]] in the 1441 bull ''Cantate Domino'', as affirmed by Pope Leo XIII in his 1893 encyclical ''[[Providentissimus Deus]]'' (#20). In 1565, a year after the Council finished its work, Pius IV issued the Tridentine Creed (after ''Tridentum'', Trent's Latin name) and his successor [[Pope Pius V|Pius V]] then issued the [[Roman Catechism]] and revisions of the [[Roman Breviary|Breviary]] and [[Roman Missal|Missal]] in, respectively, 1566, 1568 and 1570. These, in turn, led to the codification of the [[Tridentine Mass]], which remained the Church's primary form of the Mass for the next four hundred years.