The Pros And Cons Of The Council Of Trent

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The Council of Trent was held between 1545 and 1563, mostly in the Italian city of Trent. Though lengthy and drawn-out, it is one of the most important councils ever held, as it set a variety of institutional norms. For example, the seven sacraments were defined, it “set a uniform seminary system for the training of priests... it made the Roman liturgy a standard for Catholic services, and it defended traditional teaching and practices,” (Flint 327). There were two main purposes for the convening of the Council of Trent, and they were to battle the ever-growing Protestant Reformation, as well as to address the wide-spread corruption lifelong, devout Catholics were noticing. The journey to the Council was a long and winding one. It began with the Protestant reformation, the precipice to the split of Catholicism. Reformers such as Martin Luther and John Calvin argued …show more content…

This portion of the Council, “defined the mass as true sacrifice; issued doctrinal statements on holy orders, matrimony, purgatory, indulgences, and the veneration of saints, images, and relics.” (Britannica, “Council of Trent”). At the end of these eighteen year, there had been 26 sessions spread out over the three convenings (Minnich, Bowker, Knowles “Council of Trent”).
At its core, the Council of Trent was held by the leadership of the Catholic religion as a way to respond to the Protestant Reformation. The Catholic religion seemed to be under fire. After Martin Luther posted his Theses, he translated the Old and New Testament from Latin into German to make it more accessible to the common man (Flint 322). The Protestant belief that there was no need for an intermediary between God and Man undermine the basic tenets of Catholicism, The Catholic Church was forced to respond in a way that answered the people’s

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