Richard Frederick Littledale

“ By the peace of Passau in 1552, the Protestants of the Augsburg Confession were secured from all molestation, and in the free exercise of their religion and of their civil rights, and this was followed up by a decree of the diet of Augsburg, on September 25, 1555, that, failing a national council to settle the religious disputes, the emperor, the king of the Romans, and the other Catholic princes should not interfere in any way with the religious liberties of the Lutherans holding to the Confession of Augsburg, provided they in their turn would exhibit equal tolerance towards Catholics ”

“ Now, the political and the theological genius of Spain had both just found their highest exponent in one person and the organization which he devised, Ignatius Loyola and the Company of the Jesuits. Two of his immediate disciples and recruits, Salmeron and Laynez, were chosen to be the pope's theologians at the council of Trent, and exercised a greater influence than any other divines there in the formulation of its dogmatic decrees. ”

“ As to the dogmatic effect of the council, it went much further than merely restating the current Catholic theology of the preReformation era for it marks a new departure, closing many questions previously left open (nothing is more noteworthy in the debates than the manner in which several divines of unquestioned ability and loyalty delivered themselves of opinions closely allied to those advocated by leading Reformers, and then still tenable within the Roman obedience) , re-wording old propositions, or framing new ones, in an incisive fashion. ”

“ In the twenty-first session (July 16, 1562) a decree couched in four dogmatic chapters and four canons was promulgated upon it, to the following purport: laymen, and priests other than the actual celebrant, are not bound by divine right to communicate in both kinds; the church has full power to make what changes it pleases in the mode of administering sacraments; the whole sacrament of the Eucharist is received entire under either kind singly; and little children are not bound to communicate. The canons pronounce anathemas against maintainers of the contrary propositions. ”

“ Some unimportant decrees affecting the criminal jurisdiction of bishops, and for referring the trials of bishops themselves to the pope, were enacted at the same time; but more noteworthy was a decree for postponing the decision upon lay and infant communion, and for granting a safe-conduct to the Protestants, which was the last business transacted upon this occasion. But the safe-conduct was worded so as to excite general and reasonable suspicion on the part of those to whom it was offered, and Vargas, who was no friend to their opinions, comments freely upon its deceptive ambiguity. ”

“ Three nuncios were despatched to Germany, but the princes assembled in diet at Naumburg received them unfavourably, asserting anew their determination to recognize no council which did not avow Scripture as its standard of appeal and give right of free discussion to Protestants, denying the right of any one save the emperor to convene a general council at all, and inveighing strongly against the papacy. The king of Denmark declined to admit the nuncio on any terms, declaring that neither he nor his father had ever had any dealings with the pope ”

“ The canon of Scripture was proposed in the congregations before the fourth session as the subject for discussion, and the three following questions were raised: (1) Were all the books of both Testaments to be approved and received? (2) Was there to be a fresh inquiry into their canonical character before giving such approval? (3) Should there be any distinction drawn between the books, as being some of them read merely for moral instruction, and others for proving the doctrines of Christian belief? ”

“ But the absence of French bishops, and the comparatively scanty attendance from Germany, threw matters more than ever into the hands of the Italian majority, as appeared from the decrees promulgated in the thirteenth session (October 11, 1551) , and indeed from the attitude taken up by the legates just before it. For the obstinate refusal of the Protestants to attend or even recognize the council was on the point of giving way, and the imperial ambassadors demanded a safe-conduct for such as might present themselves, with some warranty that it should be really safe. ”

“ Altemps, the pope's nephew, were named as legates, being directed to open the session of the council upon Easter Day, April 6, 1561. But they did not even arrive in Trent until April 16, and found no more than nine bishops awaiting them. Several causes conduced to this disappointment: the king of Spain had not yet accepted the bull convoking the council; the French bishops were more than fully occupied with the rapid advances of the Reformation in their midst; and the Germans had no great inclination for the repetition of their experience ten years before. ”

“ After making provision for family claims, and retaining a comparatively small sum for the repair of Boulogne and La Trappe, he distributed the remainder of his property to the poor. In 1662 he visited La Trappe, which he found in a deplorable condition, and the few resident monks so indisposed to listen to his projects of reform that they threatened to murder him and throw his body into the abbey ponds. ”

“ The decision was that the vote should be allowed to the generals of religious orders also, and that the right of the proxies of absent bishops to vote should be referred to the pope. The title to be given to the council at the head of the decrees in each session was then discussed, and a proposal to add the words "representing the church universal " (as at Basel and Constance) to the usual formula "general and oecumenical" was rejected at the instance of the legates, as indirectly menacing to papal autocracy. ”

“ Two questions remain to be considered in relation to this great synod:—how far was it free, and representative of the mind of Latin Christianity at that time? and what have been its effects upon dogma and discipline? Ample materials exist for answering the first question, in the form of contemporary letters, either separately published, as those of Vargas, or included in the great collection of documents made by Le Plat, and in the official acts of the council itself, drawn up by the secretaries Paleotto and Massarelli. ”

“ As sixty French bishops, to be accompanied by twelve theologians, and headed by Charles de Guise, cardinal of Lorraine, were under orders to repair to Trent, the French ambassador pressed the legates to postpone the next session till their arrival, as De 1 Isle, ambassador at Rome, did the pope; but each replied evasively, referring the applicant to the other. The question of communion in both kinds was also very warmly dis cussed, and the council was warned that a negative decision would lead to the secession of multitudes who had not yet broken with the Roman Church ”

“ Thus it made concessions and explana tions for the reconciliation of the revolted Protestants, although the primary cause of the council, practically im possible thenceforward, since the Roman Catholic system, thus hastily consolidated out of a former condition of partial flux, became like a "Prince Rupert's drop," from which, if the smallest fragment be broken, the mass is at once resolved into disintegrated powder. ”

“ He proved a failure as a ruler, and La Trappe broke up into two factions during his headship, some holding to him and others to De Rancé, till the new abbot resigned in a fit of disgust of which he soon repented, but could not succeed in recalling his abdication. Dom Jacques de la Tour, a man in sympathy with De Rancé, was then nominated by the crown, and while he was still abbot De Rancé died, on October 20, 1700, in the seventy-fifth year of his age. ”

“ What is certain is that the alteration in his habits nearly synchronizes with the death of Madame de Montbazon, and that the years 1657, 1658, and 1659 were mainly spent in solitary studies or in visits to the monasteries of which he was titular head, varied by conferences with eminent ecclesiastics whose advice he sought, while in 1660 the death of the duke of Orleans, whose chief almoner he was, appears to have given the final direction to his thoughts, though it was not for some years that he carried out his new plans to the full. ”

“ The simultaneous decree on reformation lays down rules for the creation of bishops and cardinals, so as to avoid unfit promotions; directs that diocesan synods shall be held yearly, and provincial synods triennially; lays down rules for episcopal visitations, and for the quali fications to be exacted of persons promoted to cathedral dignities and canonries; appoints the provincial synod the judge of minor causes against bishops, referring graver causes to the pope's de cision ”

“ In fact, the community was broken up, the dismantled monastic buildings were abandoned to a few domestics and their families, and the scattered Trappists seldom reassembled save for hunting parties and similar amusements. Such was the condition of things when a reformer arose in the person of one of those very abbots commendatory who had been the ruin of the institute. Armand Jean Bouthillier de Rancé, second son of Denis Bouthillier de Ranee and Charlotte Joly his wife, was born in Paris on January 9, 1626. ”

“ Paul III. sent Vergerio as envoy into Germany, to confer with the emperor and the princes, offering to convoke a council at Mantua, and urging the danger of attempting to hold it in Germany, by reason of the violent lengths to which the Anabaptists were then proceeding. But, while the Catholic princes were content with this offer, it was refused by the Protestants, and the ambassadors of France and England supported them in their attitude. ”

“ The reference is to the canon of Constance by means of which John Huss was tried and burnt, declaring a safe-conduct no protection against trial for heresy, even if the accused has come in reliance on the safe-conduct, and would not have come without it, which canon was reaffirmed at the council of Siena in 1423. ”

“ Hereupon Paul III., in order to break up this truce, sent instructions to the legates to press on decrees displeasing to the Protestants, judging that the emperor's well-known interest in the council would cause him to be accounted responsible for its measures, and thus lose all credit for his recent forbearance. In the seventh session, held on March 3, 1547, two decrees were promulgated, one defining the sacraments as seven in number, and as being all channels of grace, also adding special canons concerning baptism and confirmation ”

“ No daughter houses were founded from La Trappe during De Rancé's life, for, though he was ready enough to send some of his monks for a time or even permanently to revive the Cistercian discipline in other monasteries, he was opposed on principle to every scheme which tended to drain the resources of La Trappe. itself, and it was not till 1705 that the first offshoot of the Trappists was planted at Buon-Solazzo, near Florence, at the solicitation of Cosmo III., grand-duke of Tuscany. ”

“ The speeches of the Jesuit Laynez, which had such a powerful effect upon the council, have been recently published under the title of Lainez, Disputationes Tridentinx, 2 vols., 1886. Vargas, Lettrei et Jfemoiret concernant le Concile de Trent (1700, partly translated in Geddes, The Council of Trent no Free Assembly, 1714) , is of much value. The canons and decrees of the council have been many times published, and are readily accessible ”

“ All these events delayed the twenty-third session until July 15, 1563, nearly ten months later than the preceding one. A decree on the sacrament of orders, in four chapters and eight canons, laid do.vn that there is a sacrificial priesthood of the New Testament, instituted by Christ; that there have been seven orders in the Christian ministry from the earliest times; that holy order is a sacrament; that orders are indelible; that bishops are superior to priests ”

“ The next subject which was brought on for consideration was the sacrifice of the Mass, and the debates thereon were very animated, disclosing considerable variety of opinion amongst the theologians, no fewer than five clearly distinct views of the tenet, apart from mere verbal or minor differences, being adduced and argued for. ”

“ In his turn he threatened them with the king's direct interference, and such was the terror of Louis XIV. s name that they at once submitted, and consented to retire upon the payment of a moderate pension; whereupon De Ranee filled their places in 1663 with monks of the strict Cistercian observance, and carefully repaired the monastic buildings there and at Boulogne. ”

“ Two hundred and fifty-five signatures were attached to the decrees, and also those of the ambassadors still remain ing at Trent. The bull of confirmation was issued at Rome on January 26, 1564, and followed by another fixing May 1, 1564, as the date from which the dfcrees should be held binding. The bull of confirmation forbade all persons whatsoever, whether ecclesiastics or laymen, to gloss or interpret the decrees upon any pretext whatever, without papal authority for the purpose. ”