clear and intelligible; and each charged the other with folly and absurdity. The decree was so framed that both could subscribe it, and accommodate it to their respective views.* It was deemed expedient on this occasion to recur to the plan adopted in the sixth session, and to introduce the canons by explanatory chapters, containing the doctrine of the church as now revised and corrected. The importance of the subject, involving some of the leading peculiarities of the Protestants, was a sufficient reason for this measure. In accordance with the determination, a committee was appointed, by whom the decree was prepared. Upon this the imperial ambassadors interposed, and represented to the legate, that if the decree should pass, there would be no hope of obtaining the submission of the Protestants. They therefore urged the suspension o the decree till their arrival, and requested on their behalf, a safe conduct in the name of the council. The legate was very angry at this demand, and even threatened to give up his office, if he were thus thwarted; it was with difficulty that a rupture was avoided. At last he reluctantly yielded, and wrote to the Pope, soliciting direction. After some discussions in the consistory, instructions were sent to suspend that part of the decree which related to communion in both kinds, and to issue a safeconduct, but in such general terms that no advantage could be taken of it, nor anything inferred prejudicial to the authority of the Pope, of or the council.+ It was evident that the arrival of the Protestants was rather dreaded than desired. The Pope had formed his plans, and did not intend to be hindered in carrying them into effect. Much embarrassment, and probably some mortification, might ensue, if the Protestants were permitted to join the council. They would be expected to declaim freely and fearlessly against those corruptions and abuses which even good Catholics wished to see removed, but wished in vain. They had openly declared their purpose to demand a hearing on all the controverted points, including those which had been already decided; and a revision of decrees passed in solemn session, and, as men were taught to believe, under the direct influences * Pallav. 1. xii. c. 2. ↑ Pallav. lib. xii, c. 8. Sarpi, s. 13. Vargas, pp. 115, 116. L of the Holy Spirit. It was manifestly inexpedient, therefore, to allow their appearance at Trent, unless they came as humble disciples to receive the instructions of the fathers, and renounce their abominable errors. By acting on these principles, the legate kept the Protestants at a distance, or neutralized their efforts, and the Papal divines were spared the necessity of encountering their opponents in the field of controversy.* Very little was done in furthering ecclesiastical reform, owing to the determined resistance of the legate, who resolutely opposed the prelates in their attacks on the encroachments of the papal court. The abuse of appeals was the only subject discussed at any length. By a gradual progress of usurpation, the Popes had contrived that almost all causes should be carried to Rome. As a necessary consequence, the power of the bishops was nearly annihilated, and innumerable vexations and oppressions, together with enormous expenses, awaited the hapless individual who found himself involved in an ecclesiastical suit. John Gropper‡ addressed the fathers on this subject, and his speech produced so powerful an impression, and was so much applauded by the Spaniards and Germans, that the legate engaged John Baptiste Castelli § to answer it, which he did in an elaborate harangue. The result was, that * "Le Pape et ses ministres craignent et detestent mesmes d'une furieuse manière l'arrivée des Protestans à Trente. . . Tout le maneige des ministres du Pape tend à faire croire au monde qu'ils attendent les Luthériens, et qu'ils souhaitent de les voir. Mais en même temps ils emploient toutes sortes de moiens pour leur fermer la porte du concile.”—Vargas, p. 117. +"Quand à la Réformation, nous avons grand besoin que sa Magisté nous appuïe, et qu'elle agisse efficacement auprès du Pape et des pères du Concile. Si cela nous manque, on ne remédiera que fort superficiellement aux abus. Le mauvais levain qui restera ne manquera pas de causer la mesme corruption. Les Présidens du Concile ne font paroître ni zéle, ni empressement, pour la réformation du Clergé. Ils déclarent sans façon que nous devons nous contenter de ce qu'on voudra bien nous accorder, sans qu'il nous soit permis d'ouvrir la bouche, pour demander quelque chose de plus. ... Les Evêques sont fort affligez de ce qu'on les écoute d'un air si chagrin, quand ils parlent de réformation."-Vargas, p. 170. Archdeacon of Cologne, an eminent divine and canonist.-See Du Pin. Cent. xvi. § An Italian. Promoter of the Council, an office somewhat analogous to that of the Speaker of our House of Commons. power triumphed over justice, and none but trivial and unsatisfactory reforms were suffered to pass. * When the decrees were prepared and adopted, the legate laid before the council the demands of the imperial ambassadors on behalf of the Protestants, which, he said, appeared to him reasonable, and ought to be complied with. On his recommendation it was agreed to postpone till January 25th, in the following year, the decision of the question of communion in both kinds, and the communion of infants; and in the meantime to prepare a decree on penance and extreme unction. The presidents of the council were requested to prepare a safeconduct. This was procured by the legate's management, and enabled him to make use of the form sent him from Rome for that purpose.+ The thirteenth session was celebrated October 11th, with great pomp. In the following terms did the council settle the long-disputed subject of transubstantiation :— "The sacred, holy, œcumenical, and general Council of Trent, lawfully assembled, &c. being convened under the special guidance and government of the Holy Spirit, in order to expound the true and ancient doctrine of faith and the sacraments, and apply a remedy to all heresies and other most grievous evils, by which the church of God is now miserably vexed and rent in pieces; hath from the first particularly desired to root out utterly the tares of accursed errors and schisms, which the enemy has sown in these calamitous times, respecting the doctrine, use, and worship, of the most holy eucharist, which sacrament our Saviour hath left in the church as a symbol of the unity and love in which he hath willed all Christians to be joined and knit together. Therefore, the same most holy council strictly enjoins all the faithful in Christ, that they presume not hereafter to believe, teach, or preach otherwise respecting the most holy eucharist than is explained and defined in this present decree; in which is delivered the genuine and wholesome doctrine of the venerable and divine sacrament of the eucharist, as the Catholic church, instructed by our Lord Jesus Christ and his apostles, and taught by the * Pallav. lib. xii. c. 12. s. 4. Sarpi, lib. iv. s. 15, 16. Holy Spirit, who constantly leadeth her into truth, hath held, and will keep to the end of the world. "CHAP. I. Of the real presence of our Lord Jesus Christ in the most holy sacrament of the eucharist. "In the first place, the holy council teacheth, and openly and plainly professeth, that our Lord Jesus Christ, true God and man, is truly, really, and substantially, contained in the pure sacrament of the holy eucharist, after the consecration of the bread and wine, and under the species of those sensible objects. Neither is it to be regarded as contradictory, that our Saviour should always sit at the right hand of the Father in heaven, according to his natural mode of existence, and yet be sacramentally present with us in his substance, in many other places, according to that mode of existence, which, though we cannot express it in words, we can nevertheless, when thought is illumined by faith, conceive to be possible with God, and ought most firmly to believe. For all our ancestors who belonged to the true church of Christ did most plainly acknowledge, in discoursing on this most holy sacrament, that our Redeemer instituted the same, when after the benediction of the bread* *The Roman-catholic church orders wheaten bread only to be used, and unleavened, because the eucharist was instituted" on the first day of unleavened bread." A little wine is mingled with the water: the reasons for this mixture are thus stated : "With the wine used in the sacred mysteries, the church of God, however, has always mingled water; because, as we know on the authority of councils and the testimony of St. Cyprian, our Lord himself did so; and also because this admixture renews the recollection of the blood and water which issued from his sacred side. The word water we also find used in the Apocalypse to signify the people, and therefore water mixed with wine signifies the union of the faithful with Christ their head. This rite, derived from apostolic tradition, the Catholic church has at all times observed. The propriety of mingling water with the wine rests, it is true, on authority so grave that to omit the practice would be to incur the guilt of mortal sin; however, its sole omission would be insufficient to render the sacrament null. But care must be taken, not only to mingle water with the wine, but also to mingle it in small quantity; for in the opinion of ecclesiastical writers, the water is changed into wine." The following remarks are made on " the aptitude of these two elements to declare those things of which they are the sensible signs:" "In the first place, they signify Christ, the true life of the world; for our and wine, he testified in clear and express words, that he presented to his disciples his own body and his own blood. Which words, recorded by the evangelists, and repeated afterwards by blessed Paul, do evidently require that appropriate and clear interpretation which has been given them by the fathers it is therefore a most heinous crime, that they should be turned by certain contentious and wicked men into pretended and imaginary figures, to the denial of the truth of the flesh and blood of Christ; contradicting therein the universal sense of the church,* the pillar and ground of the truth, which detests these vain comments, devised by impious men under the influence of Satan, and thankfully acknowledges and holds in perpetual remembrance this most excellent gift of Christ. "CHAP. II. Of the reason of the institution of this most holy sacrament. "Therefore, when our Saviour was about to depart from this world to the Father, he instituted this sacrament, in which he did, as it were, pour forth the riches of his divine love to Lord himself has said, 'My flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.' As, therefore, the body of our Lord Jesus Christ nourishes to eternal life those who receive it with purity and holiness, with great propriety is this sacrament composed principally of those elements which sustain life; thus giving the faithful to understand, that the soul is nurtured with grace by a participation of the precious body and blood of Christ. These elements serve also to prove the dogma of the real presence. Seeing, as we do, that bread and wine are every day changed by the power of nature into human flesh and blood, we are, by the obvious analogy of the fact, the more readily induced to believe that the substance of the bread and wine is changed, by the celestial benediction, into the real body and blood of Christ. This admirable change also contributes to illustrate what takes place in the soul. As the bread and wine, although invisibly, are really and substantially changed into the body and blood of Christ, so are we, although interiorly and invisibly, yet really renewed to life, receiving in the sacrament of the eucharist the true life. Moreover, the body of the church, although one and undivided, consists of the union of many members, and of this mysterious union, nothing is more strikingly illustrative than bread and wine. Bread is made from many grains, wine is pressed from many grapes, and thus are we too, although many, closely united by this mysterious bond of union, and made, as it were, one body."-Catechism, pp. 212–216. * Vide Bellarmine de Sac. Eucharist. lib. ii.; and, on the other side, Preservative against Popery, vol. ii. tit. 7. pp. 176–252. |