Immersed in the spiritual chaos generated by the Lutheran Reformation , the Catholic Church was, at the beginning of the 16th century , at a crossroads.
Different sectors, outside and inside the Church, demanded a reform within the same institution, to deal with the changes that were experienced in spiritual matters throughout Europe.counterattack, a Contrarreforma.
Who could have imagined that it would be Pope Paulo III , elected in 1534, who would reform the Church? The same immensely rich pope who had built a sumptuous palace decorated by the Carracci with pagan allegories.
However, since the time of the Council of Letran , Cardinal Farnesio had been gradually drawn to the idea of reform.When he sat on the throne of St.Peter under the name of Paulo III , he immediately announced his intention to convene a council on June 2, 1536.
More than 10 years had to pass before the council took place.During that decade, the papacy tried to strengthen the position of the Church in contradictory ways, while a renewal spirit based on humanism and new religious orders emerged, the archaic body of the Inquisition.
In fact, the dark fame of the Holy Office is due to this period of great persecution of the infidels, heretics, and Protestants.When the torture of the Inquisition is labeled "medieval" it is done thinking more about the Inquisition of the Renaissance and the Modern Age than when it developed in the Middle Ages .
Finally the Council of Trent was set, an ingenious choice: the city was Italian and not far away of Rome, but it was within the limits of the Germanic Roman Empire, and with this the Church hoped to be able to summon the debate to the reformists , in order to eventually negotiate with the Protestants and put an end to the religious schism.
However, when the Council of Trent began its sessions on December 13 of 1545 , no Protestant was present, and it was already it is very clear, from the beginning, that the council would not be a council of union, but of strengthening the sector of the Church faithful to Rome .
18 years this stormy assembly lasted, which ended on December 4 from 1563 .Transfer from Trento to Bologna, twice suspended (the second interruption lasted 10 years), and dependent on the fortresses of Renaissance politics.
The work of the Council of Trento had both a doctrinal character (theoretical and proper to the lawyers), and a pastoral one (carried out with believers).Already in the first sessions, the conciliar fathers faced the arduous task of fixing the dogma points challenged by the reformers .
The Council of Trent fixed the following points:
-The Catholic Church recognizes the value of tradition and reserves the power to interpret the Scriptures (contrary to the free interpretation of the Bible outlined by the Protestants).
-Although justification is the work of God's grace, man can prepare for grace or reject it; and the good works are the necessary complement to the faith (Protestants promulgated that the salvation of the soul came from the hand of faith, and not from works as offerings and pilgrimages).
-The 7 sacraments are of divine institution (in the face of the Protestant rejection of the sacraments Christians)
-The Mass is a true sacrifice, which updates that of Christ on the cross.In the Eucharist , Christ is really present, under the appearances of bread and wine, his body and his blood (the Protestants did not believe in this transmutation of Jesus)
-The Church is essentially hierarchical and the priesthood of divine institution (the Protestants criticized the spiritual situation of privilege and intermediation of priests between God and the believer)
All this doctrinal teaching raised in the Council of Trent was summed up in a profession of faith approved by the then pope Pius IV at the end of the sessions and thus imposed on the entire clergy.
In the pastoral aspect, the Council of Trent it was proposed to review and reform the cases of abuses related to the life of the clergy and bishops.At least the most scandalous.
Thus, parish priests and bishops should reside in the place they were in charge, the bishops were to preach and make their priests preach (this may sound simple now, but at that time the bishops were nothing but princely landlords of little occupation, in any case , no spiritual occupation).The convents were rigorously forced to effective closure, the marriages should be public, etc.
It is pertinent to ask whether the Roman Church movement during the 16th century was a "Catholic reform" or a " counterreform ".
If you consider that its roots were as deep as those of Protestantism , and that nothing was due to Luther , there are to talk about Catholic reform.But if one takes into account that the pressure of the reformers was necessary to finally bring about a change, we must recognize that it was a Counter-Reformation .
Sources: Venard, M.: The Beginnings of the Modern World, The World and its History, Editorial Argos, Barcelona, 1970./ Martin Luther: Disputatio pro declaratione virtutis indulgentiarum, 1517/Council of Trent, Documents of the Council of Trent.
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