synod freely may and can, at its will and pleasure, as it shall deem to be expedient for the business of the council, shorten or lengthen the said term, even in a general congregation.
SESSION THE TWENTY-FIRST,
Being the fifth under the Sovereign Pontiff Pius IV., celebrated on the sixteenth day of the month of July, 1562.
The sacred and holy, œcumenical and general Synod of Trent, lawfully assembled in the Holy Ghost,—the same legates of the Apostolic See presiding therein,—whereas, touching the tremendous and most holy sacrament of the Eucharist, in divers places, by the artifices of the most wicked devil, certain monstrous errors are spread abroad, on account of which, in some provinces, many seem to have departed from the faith and obedience of the Catholic Church, it has thought fit, that those things which relate to communion under both species, and [the communion] of infants, be in this place set forth. Wherefore it forbids all the faithful of Christ henceforth to presume to believe, or teach, or preach otherwise on these matters, than is in these decrees explained and defined.
CHAPTER 1.
That Laymen, and Clerics when not consecrating, are not bound, of Divine Right, unto Communion under both Species.
Wherefore, this holy synod, instructed by the Holy Spirit, who is the spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the spirit of counsel and of godliness,[1] and following the judgment and usage of the Church itself,[2] declares and teaches, that laymen, and clerks when not consecrating, are not obliged, by any divine precept, to receive the sacrament of the Eucharist under both species; and that neither can it by any means be doubted, without injury to faith, that communion under either species is sufficient for them unto salvation. For, although Christ the Lord, in the last supper, instituted and delivered to the apostles, this venerable sacrament in
