Editing Council of Trent (section)

== Occasion, sessions, and attendance ==
[[File:Council of Trent by Pasquale Cati.jpg|thumb|upright=1.64|''The Council of Trent'', depicted by [[Pasquale Cati]] in 1588 (Cati da Iesi)]]

In the to-and-fro of [[Conciliarism|medieval politics]], [[Pope Pius II]], in his bull ''[[Execrabilis]]'' (1460) and his reply to the [[University of Cologne]] (1463), had set aside the theory of the supremacy of general councils laid down by the [[Council of Constance]],<ref name=Schaff-Herzog/> which had also called for [[Frequens|frequent ecumenical councils]] every ten years to cope with the backlog of reform and heresies.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Brookes |first1=Andrew |title= Councils of Faith: Constance (1414–18) |url=https://www.english.op.org/godzdogz/councils-of-faith-constance-1414-18/ |website=The Dominican Friars in Britain |date=15 June 2013}}</ref>

[[Martin Luther]] had appealed for a general council, in response to the [[Papal bull]] ''[[Exsurge Domine]]'' of [[Pope Leo X]] (1520). In 1522 German [[diet (assembly)|diets]] joined in the appeal, with [[Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor|Charles V]] seconding and pressing for a council as a means of reunifying the Church and settling the [[Protestant Reformation|Reformation]] controversies. [[Pope Clement VII]] (1523–34) was vehemently against the idea of a council, agreeing with [[Francis I of France]].

=== Sessions ===
The history of the council is divided into three distinct periods: 1545–1549, 1551–1552 and 1562–1563.

The number of attending members in the three periods varied considerably.<ref name=Schaff-Herzog/> The council was small to begin with, opening with only about 30 bishops.<ref name="O'Malley, 29">O'Malley, 29</ref> It increased toward the close, but never reached the number of the [[First Council of Nicaea]] (which had 318 members)<ref name=Schaff-Herzog/> nor of the [[First Vatican Council]] (which numbered 744). The decrees were signed in 1563 by 255 members, the highest attendance of the whole council,<ref name="O'Malley, 29" /> including four papal legates, two cardinals, three patriarchs, twenty-five archbishops, and 168 bishops, two-thirds of whom were Italians. The Italian and Spanish prelates were vastly preponderant in power and numbers. At the passage of the most important decrees, not more than sixty prelates were present.<ref name=Schaff-Herzog/> Although most Protestants did not attend, ambassadors and theologians of Brandenburg, Württemberg, and Strasbourg attended having been granted an improved [[safe conduct]].<ref>Erwin L. Lueker, Luther Poellot, Paul Jackson eds. [http://cyclopedia.lcms.org/display.asp?t1=t&word=TRENT.COUNCILOF Trent, Council of] Christian Cyclopedia, Concordia Publishing House: 2000</ref>

==== Pre-council ====
[[Pope Paul III]] (1534–1549), seeing that the [[Protestant Reformation]] was no longer confined to a few preachers, but had won over various princes, especially in Germany, to its ideas, desired a council. Yet when he proposed the idea to his [[Cardinal (Catholicism)|cardinals]], it was almost unanimously opposed. Nonetheless, he sent [[nuncio]]s throughout Europe to propose the idea. Paul III issued a decree for a general council to be held in [[Mantua]], Italy, to begin on 23 May 1537.<ref>Joseph Francis Kelly, ''The Ecumenical Councils of the Catholic Church: A History'', 133.</ref> Martin Luther wrote the [[Smalcald Articles]] in preparation for the general council. The Smalcald Articles were designed to sharply define where the Lutherans could and could not compromise. The council was ordered by the Emperor and Pope Paul III to convene in Mantua on 23 May 1537.

It failed to convene after another war broke out between France and Charles V, resulting in a non-attendance of French [[prelate]]s. Protestants refused to attend as well. Financial difficulties in Mantua led the Pope in the autumn of 1537 to move the council to [[Vicenza]], where participation was poor. The council was postponed indefinitely on 21 May 1539.

Pope Paul III then initiated several internal Church reforms while Emperor Charles V convened with Protestants and Cardinal [[Gasparo Contarini]] at the [[Diet of Regensburg (1541)|Diet of Regensburg]], to reconcile differences. Mediating and conciliatory formulations were developed on certain topics. In particular, a two-part doctrine of ''[[Justification (theology)|justification]]'' was formulated that would later be rejected at Trent.<ref>[https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/catholic-or-protestant-the-story-of-contarini-and-the-reformation/ Catholic OR Protestant? The Story of Contarini and the Reformation], fn. 7.</ref> Unity failed between Catholic and Protestant representatives "because of different concepts of ''Church'' and ''Justification''".<ref>Jedin 85</ref>

==== First period ====

However, the council was delayed until 1545 and, as it happened, convened right before Luther's death. Unable, however, to resist the urging of Charles V, the pope, after proposing Mantua as the place of meeting, convened the council at Trent (at that time ruled by a prince-bishop under the [[Holy Roman Empire]]),<ref name= Schaff-Herzog/> on 13 December 1545; the Pope's decision to transfer it to [[Bologna]] in March 1547 on the pretext of avoiding a plague<ref name= "ODCC"/> failed to take effect and the council was indefinitely prorogued on 17 September 1549. None of the three popes reigning over the duration of the council ever attended, which had been a condition of Charles V. [[Papal legate]]s were appointed to represent the Papacy.<ref>O'Malley, 29–30</ref>

==== Second period ====

Reopened at Trent on 1 May 1551 by the convocation of [[Pope Julius III]] (1550–1555), it was broken up by the sudden victory of [[Maurice, Elector of Saxony]] over Emperor Charles V and his march into surrounding state of [[German Tyrol|Tirol]] on 28 April 1552.<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.ccel.org/s/schaff/encyc/encyc12/htm/ii.ii.htm |title=Council of Trent|author=Trenkle, Franz Sales|date=3 March 2003|access-date=22 January 2008}}</ref> There was no hope of reassembling the council while the very [[Anti-Protestantism|anti-Protestant]] [[Paul IV]] was Pope.<ref name="ODCC" />

During the second period, the Protestants present asked for a renewed discussion on points already defined and for bishops to be released from their oaths of allegiance to the Pope. When the last period began, all intentions of conciliating the Protestants was gone and the [[Jesuits]] had become a strong force.<ref name="ODCC" /> This last period was begun especially as an attempt to prevent the formation of a [[Francis II of France#Conciliation policy|general council including Protestant]]s, as had been demanded by some in France.

==== Third period ====

The council was reconvened by [[Pope Pius IV]] (1559–1565) for the last time, meeting from 18 January 1562 at [[Santa Maria Maggiore, Trento|Santa Maria Maggiore]], and continued until its final adjournment on 4 December 1563. It closed with a series of ritual acclamations honouring the reigning Pope, the Popes who had convoked the council, the emperor and the kings who had supported it, the papal legates, the cardinals, the ambassadors present, and the bishops, followed by acclamations of acceptance of the faith of the council and its decrees, and of anathema for all heretics.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://history.hanover.edu/texts/trent/ct25.html|title=CT25 |website= History Hanover}}</ref>

The French monarchy boycotted the entire council until the last minute when a delegation led by [[Charles, Cardinal of Lorraine|Charles de Guise, Cardinal of Lorraine]] finally arrived in November 1562. The first outbreak of the [[French Wars of Religion#The "first" war (1562–1563)|French Wars of Religion]] had occurred earlier in the year and the French Church, facing a significant and powerful Protestant minority in France, experienced [[iconoclasm]] violence regarding the use of sacred images.  Such concerns were not primary in the Italian and Spanish Churches.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lindberg |first=Carter |title=The European Reformations, 3rd Edition |date= |publisher=Blackwell Publishing Ltd. |year= |isbn=9781119640745 |edition=3rd |location= |publication-date= |pages=27 |language=English}}</ref> The last-minute inclusion of a decree on sacred images was a French initiative, and the text, never discussed on the floor of the council or referred to council theologians, was based on a French draft.<ref>O'Malley, 32–36</ref>