DECLARATIONS
OF THE COUNCIL OF TRENT
Has
the Roman Catholic Church changed its basic doctrinal position in this present
ecumenical era? The answer is no, it has not. The Council of Trent was a
Catholic council held from 1545-1563 in an attempt to destroy the progress of
the Protestant Reformation. This council denied every Reformation doctrine,
including Scripture alone and grace alone. Trent hurled 125 anathemas (eternal
damnations) against Bible-believing Christians. These proclamations and
anathemas were fleshed out in the murderous persecutions vented upon
Bible-believing Christians by Rome, and the solemn fact is that the Council of
Trent has never been annulled. The Vatican II Council of the mid-1960s referred
to Trent dozens of times, quoted Trent’s proclamations as authority, and
reaffirmed Trent on every hand. The New Catholic Catechism cites Trent no less
than 99 times. There is not the slightest hint that the proclamations of the
Council of Trent have been abrogated by Rome. At the opening of the Second
Vatican Council, Pope John XXIII stated, “I do accept entirely all that has
been decided and declared at the Council of Trent.” Every cardinal, bishop and
priest who participated in the Vatican II Council signed a document affirming
Trent.
Click here to view the main anathemas
Fourth session: decree concerning the canonical
scriptures:
“If
anyone does not accept as sacred and canonical the aforesaid books in their
entirety and with all their parts [the 66 books of the Bible plus 12 apocryphal
books, being two of Paralipomenon, two of Esdras, Tobias, Judith, Wisdom,
Ecclesiasticus, Baruch, Sophonias, two of Macabees], as they have been
accustomed to be read in the Catholic Church and as they are contained in the
old Latin Vulgate Edition, and knowingly and deliberately rejects the aforesaid
traditions, LET
HIM BE ANATHEMA.”
Sixth session, canons concerning justification:
·
“If anyone says that justifying faith is nothing else than confidence
in divine mercy, which remits sins for Christ’s sake, or that it is this
confidence alone that justifies us, LET
HIM BE ANATHEMA” (Canons Concerning Justification, Canon 12).
·
“If anyone says that the justice received is not preserved and also
not increased before God through good works, but that those works are merely the
fruits and signs of justification obtained, but not the cause of its increase, LET
HIM BE ANATHEMA” (Canons Concerning Justification, Canon 24).
·
“If anyone says that the Catholic doctrine of justification as set
forth by the holy council in the present decree, derogates
in some respect from the glory of God or the merits of our Lord Jesus
Christ, and does not rather illustrate the truth of our faith and no less the
glory of God and of Christ Jesus, LET
HIM BE ANATHEMA” (Canons Concerning Justification, Canon 33).
Seventh session, canons on baptism:
·
“If anyone says that in the Roman Church, which is the mother and
mistress of all churches, there is not the true doctrine concerning the
sacrament of baptism, LET
HIM BE ANATHEMA” (Canons on Baptism, Canon 3).
·
“If anyone says that baptism is optional, that is, not necessary for
salvation, LET HIM BE ANATHEMA” (Canons on Baptism, Canon 5).
·
“If anyone says that children, because they have not the act of
believing, are not after having received baptism to be numbered among the
faithful, and that for this reason are to be rebaptized when they have reached
the years of discretion; or that it is better that the baptism of such be
omitted than that, while not believing by their own act, they should be baptized
in the faith of the Church alone, LET
HIM BE ANATHEMA” (Canons on Baptism, Canon 13).
Seventh session, canons on confirmation:
“If
anyone says that the confirmation of those baptized is an empty ceremony and not
a true and proper sacrament; or that of old it was nothing more than a sort of
instruction, whereby those approaching adolescence gave an account of their
faith to the Church, LET HIM BE ANATHEMA” (Canons on Confirmation, Canon 1).
Thirteenth session, canons on the most holy sacrament
of the Eucharist:
·
“If anyone denies that in the sacrament of the most Holy Eucharist are
contained truly, really and substantially the body and blood together with the
soul and divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ, and consequently the whole Christ,
but says that He is in it only as in a sign, or figure or force, LET
HIM BE ANATHEMA” (Canons on the Most Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist,
Canon 1).
·
“If anyone says that Christ received in the Eucharist is received
spiritually only and not also sacramentally and really, LET HIM BE ANATHEMA”
(Canons on the Most Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist, Canon 8).
Fourteenth session, canons concerning the most holy
sacrament of penance:
·
“If anyone says that in the Catholic Church penance is not truly and
properly a sacrament instituted by Christ the Lord for reconciling the faithful
of God as often as they fall into sin after baptism, LET HIM BE ANATHEMA”
(Canons Concerning the Most Holy Sacrament of Penance, Canon 1).
·
“If anyone denies that sacramental confession was instituted by divine
law or is necessary to salvation; or says that the manner of confessing secretly
to a priest alone, which the Catholic Church has always observed from the
beginning and still observes, is at variance with the institution and command of
Christ and is a human contrivance, LET HIM BE ANATHEMA”
(Canons Concerning the Most Holy Sacrament of Penance, Canon 7).
·
“If anyone says that the confession of all sins as it is observed in
the Church is impossible and is a human tradition to be abolished by pious
people; or that each and all of the faithful of Christ or either sex are not
bound thereto once a year in accordance with the constitution of the great
Lateran Council, and that for this reason the faithful of Christ are to be
persuaded not to confess during Lent, LET
HIM BE ANATHEMA” (Canons Concerning the Most Holy Sacrament of
Penance, Canon 8).
·
“If anyone says that God always pardons the whole penalty together
with the guilt and that the satisfaction of penitents is nothing else than the
faith by which they perceive that Christ has satisfied for them, LET HIM BE ANATHEMA”
(Canons Concerning the Most Holy Sacrament of Penance, Canon 8).
Twenty-second session, canons on the sacrifice of the
mass:
·
“If anyone says that in the mass a true and real sacrifice is not
offered to God; or that to be offered is nothing else than that Christ is given
to us to eat, LET HIM BE ANATHEMA” (Canons on the Sacrifice of the Mass,
Canon 1).
·
“If anyone says that by those words, Do this for a commemoration of
me, Christ did not institute the Apostles priests; or did not ordain that they
and other priests should offer His own body and blood, LET HIM BE ANATHEMA”
(Canons on the Sacrifice of the Mass, Canon 2).
·
“If anyone says that the sacrifice of the mass is one only of praise
and thanksgiving; or that it is a mere commemoration of the sacrifice
consummated on the cross but not a propitiatory one; or that it profits him only
who receives, and ought not to be offered for the living and the dead, for sins,
punishments, satisfactions, and other necessities, LET HIM BE ANATHEMA”
(Canons on the Sacrifice of the Mass, Canon 3).
·
“If anyone says that it is a deception to celebrate masses in honor of
the saints and in order to obtain their intercession with God, as the Church
intends, LET HIM BE ANATHEMA” (Canons on the Sacrifice of the Mass,
Canon 5).
Twenty-third session, canons on the sacrament of
order:
“If
anyone says that there is not in the New Testament a visible and external
priesthood, or that there is no power of consecrating and offering the true body
and blood of the Lord and of forgiving and retaining sins, but only the office
and bare ministry of preaching the Gospel; or that those who do not preach are
not priests at all, LET
HIM BE ANATHEMA” (Canons on the Sacrifice of the Mass, Canon 1).
Twenty-third session, canons on the sacrament of
order:
“If
anyone says that the bishops who are chosen by the authority of the Roman
pontiff are not true and legitimate bishops, but merely human deception, LET HIM BE ANATHEMA”
(Canons on the Sacrifice of the Mass, Canon 8).
Twenty-fifth session, decree on purgatory:
“Since
the Catholic Church, instructed by the Holy Ghost, has, following the sacred
writings and the ancient tradition of the Fathers, taught in sacred councils and
very recently in this ecumenical council that there is a purgatory, and that the
souls there detained are aided by the suffrages of the faithful and chiefly by
the acceptable sacrifice of the altar, the holy council commands the bishops
that they strive diligently to the end that the sound doctrine of purgatory,
transmitted by the Fathers and sacred councils, be believed and maintained by
the faithful of Christ, and be everywhere taught and preached.”
Twenty-fifth session, on the invocation, veneration,
and relics of saints, and sacred images:
“The
holy council commands all bishops and others who hold the office of teaching and
have charge of the cura animarum, that in accordance with the usage of the
Catholic and Apostolic Church, received from the primitive times of the
Christian religion, and with the unanimous teaching of the holy Fathers and the
decrees of sacred councils, they above all instruct the faithful diligently in
matters relating to intercession and invocation of the saints, the veneration of
relics, and the legitimate use of images, teaching them that the saints who
reign together with Christ offer up their prayers to God for men, that it is
good and beneficial suppliantly to invoke them and to have recourse to their
prayers, assistance and support in order to obtain favors from God through His
Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who alone is our redeemer and savior; and that they
think impiously who deny that the saints who enjoy eternal happiness in heaven
are to be invoked, or who assert that they do not pray for men, or that our
invocation of them to pray for each of us individually is idolatry, or that it
is opposed to the word of God and inconsistent with the honor of the one
mediator of God and men, Jesus Christ, or that it is foolish to pray vocally or
mentally to those who reign in heaven.”
By
David Cloud