The intermittent Council of Trent comes to…
1563 CE
The intermittent Council of Trent comes to a final close in Bologna after its third session, held in 1562-63.
The council has maintained clerical celibacy and monasticism, and has issued decrees in favor of the efficacy of relics, indulgences, and the veneration of the Virgin Mary and the saints.
Asserting its sole right to interpret the Bible, the Roman Catholic Church declares tradition coequal to Scripture as a source of spiritual knowledge.
In direct opposition to Protestant doctrine, the council reaffirms the existence of seven sacraments, transubstantiation, purgatory, the necessity of the priesthood, and justification by works as well as by faith.
In refusing any concessions to the Protestants, the council has crystallized and codified Catholic dogma far more than ever before.
Simultaneously, the council has endeavored to reform many of the major abuses within the church that had partly incited the Reformation.
The council has issued decrees requiring episcopal residence and a limitation on the plurality of benefices.
It has instigated movements to reform certain monastic orders and to provide for the education of the clergy through the creation of a seminary in every diocese.
A major turning point in the efforts of the Catholic church to respond to the challenge of the Protestant Reformation, the council succeeds in initiating a far-ranging moral and administrative reform, including the reform of the papacy itself.
An essential component of the Counter-Reformation, the Council aids in catalyzing a movement within the Catholic clergy and laity for widespread religious renewal and reform.
The council has been dominated by Italian and Spanish prelates; attendance has often been meager.
Several European monarchs maintain a distance from the council's decrees, enforcing them only partially or, in the case of the French kings, officially ignoring them.