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TRENT—TRENT, COUNCIL OF
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(1846–1867), in three volumes, the first of which contains a history of the doctrine of the Categories; Das Naturrecht auf dem Grunde der Ethik (1860); Lücken im Völkerrecht (1870), a treatise on the defects of international law, occasioned by the war of 1870. A number of his papers dealing with non-philosophical, chiefly national and educational subjects, are collected in his Kleine Schriften (1871).

On Trendelenburg’s life and work see H. Bonitz, Zur Erinnerung an F.A.T. (Berlin, 1872); P. Kleinert, Grabrede (Berlin, 1872); E. Bratuschek, Adolf Trendelenburg (Berlin, 1873); C. von Prantl, Gedächtnissrede (Munich, 1873); G. S. Morris in the New Englander (1874), xxxiii.

TRENT (Lat. Tridentmn; Ital. Trento; Ger. Trient), the capital of the south or Italian-speaking portion of the Austrian province of Tirol. It stands on the left bank of the Adige where this river is joined by the Fersina, and is a station on the Brenner railway, 35 m. S. of Botzen and 565 ni. N. of Verona. It has a very picturesque appearance, especially when approached from the north, with its embattled walls and towers filling the whole breadth of the valley. A conspicuous feature in the view is the isolated rocky citadel of Doss Trento (the Roman Verruca), that rises on the right bank of the Adige to a height of 308 ft. above the city and is now very strongly fortified, as are various other positions near Trent giving access to Trent from the east (Val Sugana) or the west (valley of the Sarca). With its numerous palaces, substantial houses, broad streets, and spacious squares, Trent presents the aspect of a thoroughly Italian city, and its inhabitants (24,868 in 1900, including a garrison of over 2000 men) speak Italian only—it is the centre of the region called Italia Irredenta by fervent Italian patriots. The Duomo or cathedral church (dedicated to San Vigilio, the first bishop) was built in four instalments between the 11th and 15th centuries, and was restored in 1882–1889. More interesting historically is the church of Santa Maria Maggiore, built in 1514–1539, and the scene of the sessions of the famous Ecumenical Council (as to which, see below) which lasted, with several breaks, from 1545 to 1563; near it, in the open, a column was erected in 1845, on the occasion of the three hundredth anniversary of the opening of the Council. To the east of the city rises the Castello del Buon Consiglio, for centuries the residence of the prince-bishops, but now used as barracks. There is a huge town hall, which also houses the museum and the very extensive town library. Trent lives rather on its historical souvenirs than on its industries, which are not very extensive, Viticulture, silk-spinning and the preparation of salami (a strongly spiced kind of Italian sausage) being the chief. Ecclesiastically Trent is a suffragan see of the archbishopric of Salzburg. Opposite the railway station a statue of Dante was erected in 1896, for he is believed to have visited this region about 1304.

Trent was originally the capital of the Tridentini, and is mentioned in the Antonine Itinerary as a station on the great road from Verona to Veldidena (Innsbruck) over the Brenner. It was later ruled by the Ostrogoths (5th century) and the Lombards (6th century) after the conquest of whom by the Franks (774) Trent became part of the kingdom of Italy. But in 1027 the emperor Conrad II. bestowed all temporal rights in the region on the bishop (the see dates from the 4th century) and transferred it to Germany, an event which fixed all its later history. The Venetian attacks were finally repulsed in 1487, and the bishop retained his temporal powers till 1803 when they passed to Austria, to which (save 1805–1814, when first the Bavarians and then Napoleon held the region) they have ever since belonged, the Trentino being annexed formally to Tirol in 1814.  (W. A. B. C.) 


TRENT, COUNCIL OF. The Council of Trent (1545–1563) has a long antecedent history of great significance for the fortunes of the Catholic Church. During the 15th and the earlier half of the 16th century, the conception of an “ecumenical council” remained an ideal of which the realization was expected to provide a solution for the serious ecclesiastical difficulties which were then prevalent. True, the councils of Constance and Basel had fallen short of the desired goal; but confidence in the unknown quantity persisted and took deeper root as the popes of' the Renaissance showed themselves less and less inclined to undertake the reforms considered necessary in wide circles of the Church. The papacy indeed did not recognize the jurisdiction of the ecumenical council, and in 1459 Pius II. had prohibited any appeal to such a tribunal under penalty of excommunication. This, however, had no effect on public opinion, and the council continued to be invoked as the supreme court of Christianity. So in 1518, for instance, the university of Paris demanded the convocation of a general council, to which it referred its solemn protest against the papal encroachments on the privileges of the French Church. Thus, when Luther took this very step in the same year, and repeated it later, his action was not devoid of precedent. Again in 1529 the evangelical estates of Germany made a formal appeal in the Diet of Spires, and, in the preface to the Augsburg Confession of 1 530, requested a “general, unfettered council of Christendom.” The same demand was formulated by Charles V. The emperor indeed-though, as a statesman, he had found himself in frequent opposition to the papal policy of his day-had never entertained the slightest doubt as to the truth of Catholic doctrine, and had rendered inestimable services to the Church in the perilous years which followed the emergence of Protestantism. Still he could not blind himself to the fact that ecclesiastical life stood in urgent need of reform; and the only method of effecting an alteration in the existing régime was by means of a council. Consequently he declared himself in favour of convening a general assembly of the church-a project which he pursued with the greatest energy. True, the passive resistance of the Curia was so stubborn that the decisive step was postponed time and again. But the goal was finally attained, and this result was essentially the work of Charles. Actually, the meeting came too late: the Evangelical Church had gathered strength in the interim, and the council failed to exercise the decisive influence anticipated on the relations between Catholicism and Protestantism. In 1 5 36 its convocation seemed imminent. Pope Paul III., who in the conclave had already admitted the necessity of a council, convened it on the 2nd of June 1536, for the 23rd of May 1537, at Mantua. He then altered the date to the 1st of November of the same year. Later it was summoned to meet at Vicenza on the 1st of May 1538, only to be postponed till the Easter of 1539. Finally, he adjourned the execution of the project sine die. Charles met this dilatory policy by arranging colloquies between Protestant and Catholic at Worms and Regensburg, the result being that the Curia became afraid that the emperor might take the settlement of the religious question into his own hands. This consideration forced Paul III. to compliance, and fresh writs were issued convoking the council, first for Whitsuntide, 1542, then for the 1st of November of the same year. In consequence, however, of the hostilities between Charles and the French king Francis I., the conference was so scantily attended that it was once more prorogued to the 6th of July 1543, before it had come into active existence. Not till the peace of Crespy, 1544, when the emperor showed some disposition to attempt an accommodation of the ecclesiastical feud in a German Diet, did the pope resolve to translate his numerous promises into deeds. The bull Laetare Hierusalem (November 19, 1544) fixed the meeting of the council for the 15th of March 1545, in Trent, and assigned it three tasks: (1) the pacification of the religious dispute by doctrinal decisions, (2) the reform of ecclesiastical abuses, (3) the discussion of a crusade against the infidels. The selection of the town of Trent, the capital of the Italian Tirol, and part of the empire had a twofold motive: on the one hand it was a token of concession to the emperor, who wished the synod to be held in his dominions; on the other, there was no occasion to fear that an assembly, meeting on the southern border of Germany, would fall under the imperial influence.

The opening of the council was deferred once again. Towards the end of May 1545, twenty bishops were collected at Trent; but there was no sign of action, and the papal legates—Del Monte, Corvinus and Reginald Pole—delayed the inauguration. The cause of this procrastinating policy was that