CHAPTER V.

THE LATIN CHURCH, OR THE PAPACY.

History of the Tridentine Council.-Creed of Pius IV.-Six points of fundamental variance between the church of Rome and the Reformed churches.-Points upon which there exists internal discordance in the Romish church.-Four marks of the True Church not found in the Papacy.-Appendix on the Jansenists of Holland.

THE church of Rome, or Latin church, boasts of a pontifical succession uninterrupted from the time of St. Peter, and claims for its traditions the highest ecclesiastical antiquity; but the Romish creed, as at present settled and defined, is not yet three centuries old, being not quite so ancient as Protestantism. The symbol of Pope Pius IV., to which every Roman Catholic is required to give his assent, bears date thirty-four years later than the Confession of Augsburg, the earliest symbol of the Reformed Faith. The doctrines of Romanism, indeed, and the doctrines held by Protestants, are of course much older than the creeds and canons by which they are respectively defined. Long before the Council of Trent gave the finishing hand to the work of settling the faith of the Roman church, and fixed what was before doubtful, the second Nicene Council (787) had sanctioned the worship of images; a Lateran Council (A. D. 1215), transubstantiation and auricular confession; a Florentine Council, purgatory and the Papal supremacy; while the liturgies and offices of the church sanctioned and compelled the adoration of the Virgin, invocation of the saints, and the worship of the Host or Consecrated Wafer. But, by the Council of Trent, these and other dogmas were riveted upon the Church of Rome. In direct opposition to the doctrines of the Reformation, the

articles which had been controverted and impugned, were deliberately re-promulgated not only as binding upon every member of the church, but as necessary to be believed in order to salvation; an anathema being pronounced upon all who, on any one point, refused to submit to the decrees and canons of that convocation.

The Council of Trent had its origin in the loud call for a reformation of the church, which had made itself heard in the papal world long before Luther denounced the venal indulgences issued by Pope Leo X. in 1517. His successor in the pontificate, Adrian VI., evinced some desire to reform his court; but his design was opposed by Cardinal Soderini, who urged, that to reform the church would be to canonize the cause of Luther, which it behoved the head of the church to unite with the princes of the empire in endeavouring to extirpate. Adrian accordingly sent his legate to the Diet of Nuremburg, then sitting, (in 1522,) who endeavoured to compromise matters by making the suppression of Lutherism the condition of the reformation of the papal court. This proposal produced the list of grievances, presented in the name of the assembled princes, known under the title of Centum Gravamina. Adrian, though chiefly intent upon crushing Luther and his doctrine, was, for the attainment of his object, willing to make great sacrifices; but his death, shortly afterwards, put a termination to all hopes and fears respecting the result of his personal endeavours.*

In the mean time, the Reformation lost no ground; and the importunate demands for a reform of some kind within the Church, compelled the new Pope, Paul III., after summoning a council to meet at Mantua, (to which he cited the excommunicated King of England,) to issue a commission for the purpose of examining into the abuses of the Papal court. The commissioners were Cardinals Contarino, Sadoleto, Carafa (afterwards Paul IV.), and Polo (Pole). Their report

• Mendham's Memoirs of the Council of Trent, pp. 4-6. The authenticity of this Century of Grievances, Mr. Mendham shows to be indisputable; and it presents a revolting and damnatory view of the abuses and abominations which at that time prevailed throughout the jurisdiction of the Papal see.

was printed at Rome, in the year ensuing, 1538;* but when Paul III. was preparing to take the matter of the report into consideration, he was dissuaded from it by his Cardinals, who urged, that it was not the proper time, as such an act would afford occasion of triumph to the Lutherans. The council summoned to meet at Mantua, was, after two prorogations, appointed to assemble at Vicenza, but was again suspended; and at length, after various abortive negotiations, the Pope issued a bull, summoning the council to meet at Trent on the 15th of March, 1545. The council was not actually opened till Sunday, Dec. 13, of that year. It was continued from time to time during eighteen years, and was at length terminated, with indecorous precipitation, on the 4th of Dec. 1563.† On that day were promulgated the decrees of Indulgences, of Choice of Food, of an Index of Books, and of a Catechism. The proceedings of the council were confirmed by the Pope in consistory, Jan. 1564; and in the same year was issued, in the form of a bull, the creed which embodies the theological decisions comprised in its decrees.

"In what concerns faith or morals," says Mr. Charles Butler," the decrees of the council have been received without any restriction by every Roman-catholic kingdom. All its decrees have been received by the Empire, Portugal, the Venetians, and the Duke of Savoy, without an express limitation. They have been received by the Spaniards, Neapolitans, and Sicilians, with a caution as to such points of discipline as might be derogatory to their respective sove

• "Consilium Delectorum Cardinalium et aliorum Prælatorum de emendanda Ecclesia, S. D. N. D. Paulo Tertio ipso jubente conscriptum et exhibitum Anno MDXXXVIII." This penitential and self-condemnatory document was afterwards placed by Carafa, one of its authors, when raised to the pontificate, in the Index of prohibited books.

+ Cardinal Morone had urged the necessity of terminating the council, in consideration of possible events, which might render all its labours null; referring to the illness of the Pope, and the resolution adopted by the French King and Parliament to summon a national council, if this did not finish its proceedings. Extended as were the statutes of the preceding session, they were far exceeded by those of the concluding one, (the XXVth,) in which various important subjects were hastily disposed of, and thrown into the form of enactments binding on the universal church..

reignties. But the council was never published in France. No attempt was made to introduce it into England."*

The distinction made by the highest Roman-catholic authorities between the decrees of councils defining articles of faith, and those which regard discipline and matters of civil polity, is one of great historical importance, as well as very material in relation to the Romish controversy. A great portion of the decrees enacted by the Council of Trent were of the latter description, and have never been generally received. It has also been maintained, that "not all things which are even absolutely and simply affirmed in councils are decrees of faith," but only those, the denial of which is adjudged to be heresy, and anathematized. The distinction between the legislative acts and the dogmatical decisions of the Church, must be admitted to be not less valid or allowable, than that which is made by Protestant Episcopalians between their own articles of faith and the canons and constitutions still unrepealed, although for the most part fallen into desuetude. Many tenets are popularly charged upon Roman Catholics, (such as the infallibility of the Pope, his authority over temporal sovereigns, and his dispensing power, as well as the invalidity of any contracts with heretics,) which, though maintained by some Popish doctors, have never been generally received as articles of faith, and rest upon no acknowledged authority. In France more especially, the doctrine of Papal infallibility has always been unpopular; and the Gallican clergy have, in rejecting that dogma, carefully discriminated between the authority of the church of Rome and the ambitious pretensions of the court of Rome and the Papal conclave.§ A convenient distinction is also insisted upon by Butler's Confessions of Faith, p. 8.

For instance, the council decreed, that the field in which a duel was fought should be forfeited by the owner; an abortive enactment which never took effect even in Spain or in Belgium. By France, these decrees of discipline were rejected altogether.

Doyle on the Catholic Claims, pp. 104-109.

§ For an account of the contests between the French nation and the Roman pontiff, see Mosheim's Eccl. Hist. Cent. xvii. Sect. i. Ch. I. The Gallican doctors hold, that a council is superior to the Pope; while the Italians, on the contrary, hold that the Pope, their own grand dignitary, is superior to a council. See p. 158.

Romish divines, between articles which, having been decided on by the church, are of Catholic faith, and those which the church has allowed to remain matters of opinion. It is, with regard to the former alone, that any semblance of unity of doctrine exists within the Roman pale.

With respect, however, to the points embraced by the articles of the symbol of Pius IV., the accredited standard of belief to the entire Papal communion, there is no room for doubt or mistake in determining what are the received and essential doctrines of the Romish faith. That creed is as follows:*

“I, N. N., believe and profess with a firm faith all and every one of the articles contained in the Symbol of Faith which is used in the Holy Roman Church: viz.

"1-12. I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible and in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, and born of the Father before all ages; God of God, Light of Light, True God of the True God; begotten, not made; consubstantial to the Father; by whom all things were made; who for us men and our salvation came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary, and was made man; was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate; suffered for us, and was buried; and the third day he rose again, according to the Scriptures, and ascended into heaven; sits at the right hand of the Father; and is to come again with glory, to judge the living and the dead; of whose kingdom there shall be no end: And in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and Giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son; who together with the Father and the Son is adored and glorified; who spoke by the prophets. And I believe one holy catholic and apostolic church; I

This creed, however, it has been observed, though founded on the decisions of the Tridentine Council, rests simply on the authority of its framer, never havin received the ratification of any general council. Yet it is received throughout the Roman-catholic church. A high degree of authority attaches also to the Catechism of the Council of Trent, or Catechismus Romanus, which is eulogized for its erudition and elegance of style. Mr. Butler would fain rank with the Symbolic Books of the Roman-catholic Church, Bossuet's specious Exposition of the Catholic doctrine. See Butler's Confessions, pp. 11-15.