The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 2

IV. Two Irreconcilable Systems Clash at Trent

The conflict between Romanism and Protestantism was basic and irreconcilable. The Romanist believed in the authority of the church; the Protestant, in that of the Bible. The one yielded his conscience to the priest; the other, to God alone. The Romanist believed in the pope as the visible representative of Christ on earth; the Protestant looked, instead, upon the pope as Antichrist. The one regarded the church-meaning the hierarchy—as the depositary of all spiritual truth; the other looked upon the clergy as ministers of the church, not as the church itself. The Romanist, satisfied with the teaching of the church, was content to leave the Bible to the learned; the Protestant, on the other hand, held that it was to be diligently and reverently studied by all, as the Word of God. The one dreaded its spread as tending to heresy; the other multiplied translations as the assurance of soundness, and sought to introduce them to every household. ¹⁵ PFF2 471.1

The rising tide of Protestantism forced the issue. The Romanist held that the merits of Christ could be made ours only through the sacraments, and these could be administered only by a duly ordained priest. The Protestant received the sacraments merely as aids to faith. The one looked up to heaven through a host of mediatory priests and saints and the Holy Virgin; the other contended that there is only one mediator between God and man-Christ Jesus our Lord. Thus the two systems stood forth in absolute and irreconcilable opposition at the Council of Trent, where the council expressly condemned what the Reformation taught. PFF2 471.2

1. REFORMATION TRUTHS STIGMATIZED AS HERESY

The Council of Trent—beginning in 1545 under Paul III and ending in 1563 under Pius IV—crystallized its actions into decrees that became the permanent law of the Catholic Church. ¹⁶ The recovered Reformation truths were there rejected and stigma tized as pestilential heresy. In one sense Trent became the culmination of the Counter-Reformation. It was Rome’s definitive answer to the Reformation. Here a threefold movement got under way—the blocking of the progress of the Protestant Reformation, a reformation in discipline or administration, and the reconquest of territories and peoples lost to the church.” ¹⁷ PFF2 471.3

Picture 1: COUNCIL OF TRENT-ROME’S ANSWER TO THE REFORMATION
The council of trent rejected the protestant positions, and crystallized many of the accretions of the centuries, making them the permanent law of the catholic Church. Thus trent Was Rome’s answer to protestantism, seeking to ‘block its progress, to reform abuses in the roman church, and to recover lost territories and peoples. It forbade printing without papal examination and approval
Page 473

2. LUTHER APPEALS IN VAIN FOR FREE COUNCIL

Back in November, 1518, Luther had appealed for a free Christian council, to be held on German soil. But the papal bull of June 15, 1520, condemned forty-one of his propositions as heretical, scandalous, and false. It ordered all Luther’s books burned. He and his followers were enjoined to renounce their errors, and were threatened with severest censure and punishment in case of obstinacy. In return, on December 10, 1520, Luther burned the pope’s bull, together with a copy of the papal decretals. This aroused the wrath of Rome, and in January, 1521, the pope launched a bull of excommunication against the Reformer. But between the time of Luther’s appeal to a general council, in 1518, and the convening of the Council of Trent in 1545, Bibles in German, Danish, Swedish, Icelandic, and English (Tyndale’s New Testament and Coverdale’s complete Bible) had been published, and the Reformation established in Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark, and England. PFF2 473.1