The Canons and Decrees of the Council Of Trent

by Pope Pius V, H.J. Schröder (Translator)

This Council spanned the pontificates of five popes and shone as a beacon to all the world, condemning errors of the Protestant Reformation and making pronouncements on a vast number of Church doctrines and disciplines. Covers such topics as Holy Orders, Original Sin, Purgatory, Nicene Creed and much more! Fr Schroeder's translation demonstrates the authority and clarity with which the Church makes her official pronouncements.

Genres: Theology, Catholic, Christianity, Religion, Church History, History, Reference

293 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1917

About the author

Pope Saint Pius V born Antonio Ghislieri (from 1518 called Michele Ghislieri, O.P.), was Pope from 8 January 1566 to his death in 1572. He is venerated as a saint of the Roman Catholic Church. He is chiefly notable for his role in the Council of Trent, the Counter-Reformation, and the standardization of the Roman rite within the Latin Church. Pius V declared Thomas Aquinas a Doctor of the Church.

As a cardinal, Ghislieri gained a reputation for putting orthodoxy before personalities, prosecuting eight French bishops for heresy. He also stood firm against nepotism, rebuking his predecessor Pope Pius IV to his face when he wanted to make a 13-year-old member of his family a cardinal and subsidize a nephew from the papal treasury.

By means of his papal bull of 1570, Regnans in Excelsis, Pius V excommunicated Elizabeth I of England for heresy and persecution of English Catholics during her reign. He also arranged the formation of the Holy League, an alliance of Catholic states. Although outnumbered, the Holy League famously defeated the Ottoman Empire, which had threatened to overrun Europe, at the Battle of Lepanto. Pius V attributed the victory to the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary and instituted the feast of Our Lady of Victory.

Reviews

[Brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a Protestant, this is difficult for me to "rate" or review. I am glad I read it, as I think some misunderstandings and ambiguities are cleared up for me. It does help highlight where the actual areas of disagreement between Protestants and Catholics reside, and that is far better than simply sticking to the "straw men" that are often handed down to us.

[David J. Harris]

Square 1 for counter-reformation (or Catholic Reformation) thought. Hate to give it a low rating even though I disagree with Trent on some seriously important things, because it's so insightful.

[Maya Joelle]

Read parts of this, focusing on the issue of justification, for a class.

[Josiah Richardson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is both better than I always thought it was and also much worse than I always thought it was. There is actually some good, well thought-out, logical and biblical material here. But there is also damnable heresy in here too. It’s like walking through a landmine field wearing skis, it’s hard to miss all the blatantly wrong things in this document, and the flowers littered across the field aren’t worth the damage.

[Gage Fowlkes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Woof. Excellent translation, great printing- this earns my stars, the theology within… well as a reformed Protestant, I have reformed Protestant thoughts about it. Check the translators comments on back jacket and intro- he is at least forthright about his bias, a bigger Trent fan would be hard to find- maybe even on twitter! I would love to hear his thoughts on Vatican II after a few beers— I imagine they would be less than charitable (I bet he’d make even Lefebvre blush).

[Sean Brenon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I mean… how do you rate a collection of historical documents used as a reference book that calls you an anathema? I mean, it did its job adequately, and I learned a lot about Catholicism. It also completely misses the point of why the Protestants accused them of justification by works— something that Gerstner also points out.

So, I mean… 4 stars? One star off for whiffing on justification?

[Connor Longaphie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good work but wrong

[Tyler Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

Obviously controversial, and not always meant as a DEFENSE of the positions, but rather a solid defining of the positions. I.e, they don’t engage line for line with the likes of Luther’s objections (see John Fisher, Thomas More, Erasmus, or Bellarmine for debates like that.) All the same, there ARE good and Scriptural defenses in here. Of particular note to people will be the chapter on Justification. DON’T just read the anathematizing canons – read the WHOLE thing. It’s not a novel understanding.

In fact, it was watching an evangelical pastor misquote a section from this chapter in particular that piqued my interest in hearing about justification from Catholics themselves, instead of just people “debunking” the Church. Turns out, when I let them speak, it made a lot more sense to me than I thought it would. Cf Chesterton’s Catholic Church and Conversion.

Also note the vast amount of reforms. It’s not that Trent was against reformation: it was for properly ordered reformation, whereas the council fathers saw the Protestant reformers as throwing the baby out with the bath water, a position I strangely find myself agreeing with these days. Younger me would be outraged!

Also, there’s a lot of really interesting stuff here BESIDES justification. The elaboration on the sacrament of penance, for example, answers a lot of common questions I see even today.

[Alejandro Álvarez]

Solo leí las secciones sobre la justificación, el bautismo, la eucaristía y la penitencia. Es claro que la forma de ser salvo en el sistema romano es fe + sacramentos, sin embargo la relación entre estas dos no está del todo claro.

Por ejemplo, Trento dice explicitamente que un creyente que fue regenerado por el bautismo puede perder su justificación y salvación si comete pecado mortal, mas esto no significa que pierda su fe. Es decir que hasta que no haga el sacramento de la penitencia, esta persona tiene fe genuina, mas no está en un estado de gracia ni de justificación. Por lo que la salvación no es por fe sola, sino por fe + sacramentos. Sin emabargo, en el caso del bautismo no esta claro cual es la relación con la fe. Pareciera ser que el bautismo es efectivo independientemente de la fe, pero no lo dice explicitamente, entonces queda la duda.

Tambien es claro que Trento no entiendó lo que los reformadores quería decir por Sola Fide, ya que cuando quieren negar esto lo que realmente niegan es el antinomianismo e incluso el monergismo.

Sin embargo, las diferencias irreconciliables entre la doctrina romana y protestante de la justificación son evidentes. En Roma, la justicia que recibe el bautizado debe de crecer y preservarse por medio de la obediencia del cristiano. Esta obediencia amerita la vida eterna y el perdon de pecados (así lo dice explicitamente).

[Aaron Irlbacher · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Council of Trent has not aged well. The ideas, doctrines, and anathemas (132, according to my count) were emotionally draining to read. The Council of Trent seemed more concerned with control than leadership. The council seemed full of “spin” in modern political terms. Rome repudiated the Protestant “heretics” without clear and compelling arguments. I suppose my bias and naivety would have preferred to see why and how they confidently level the term “heretic” to their opponents. The two most common arguments seemed to be “the Fathers were unanimous on this topic” and misusing some bible text somewhere. Who “the Fathers” were was never established. From my limited reading of the Antenicene Fathers, the idea that there was some unanimous consensus about the doctrines in question is preposterous.

[William · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perhaps the most based book on the planet after the Bible!

[Phil Belin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simple, primary source of the canons and decrees of the Council of Trent.

[Damion · Rating 5 out of 5]

These are often misquoted and misunderstood.