What Did the Council of Trent Do?

The Council of Trent was the 19th ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic Church. The Council was called the Council of Trent because the members met in Trent Italy many times during the time period between 1545 through 1563.

The council was convened by members of the Roman Catholic religion in order to ensure the power of the Roman Catholic Church remained strong during the Reformation period.

The Council of Trent helped ensure the strength of the church by reaffirming their religious beliefs, establishing seminaries in each of the diocese to train those interested in the priesthood, and keeping their strict requirements for all believers and clergymen. They did this to combat the formation of the new Protestant religion. In other words the Council of Trent was responsible for establishing new and upholding the old Roman Catholic dogma.

Rise of the Protestants

Just prior to the first convening of the Council of Trent, Martin Luther led a revolt against the Roman Catholic Church and, more specifically, the Pope.

Luther had grown tired of the Catholic beliefs, especially of the belief that the Pope was solely in charge of the whole entire Church of Christ. His attack on the religion began in 1517 when he attacked the beliefs centered around the divine forgiveness of sin. It was this move that began the Protestant/Lutheran reformation of the time.

Luther defied papal law and pointed out the many faults of it in order to try and sway individuals to believe in the new found Protestant/Lutheran religion. Many individuals who felt the Catholic religion and the leaders who had gained too much power were moved to convert to this new religion.

Response from the Roman Catholic Church

The power of the Roman Catholic Church was being threatened as the sole religion of the time. To combat against the Protestant/Lutheran reformation, those in high power within the church convened the Council of Trent.

It was the responsibility of the members of the Council of Trent to uphold the essential beliefs of the Roman Catholic Church. They did this is many ways. Some of these ways included reaffirming the existence of the seven holy sacraments associated with the Roman Catholic beliefs:

• The necessity of priesthood
• The existence of heaven, hell, and purgatory
• The justification by works and not just by faith and faith alone
• The belief in transubstantiation
• The belief in the Virgin Mary and the saints
• Reaffirming the importance of Scripture from the Bible
• Reasserted the Roman Catholic Church was solely responsible for interpretation of the Bible

While simultaneously reasserting the importance of the above, the Council of Trent was also responsible for reforming the Catholic Church to repair some of the beliefs that had incited the Protestant/Lutheran reformation.