Page:General History of Europe 1921.djvu/448

CHAPTER XXVII THE WARS OF RELIGION I. THE COUNCIL OF TRENT; THE JESUITS 552. Council of Trent ( 1545-1563). In the preceding chapters we have seen how northern Germany, England, and portions of Switzerland revolted from the papacy and established independent Protestant churches. A great part of western Europe, however, remained faithful to the Pope and to the old beliefs which had been accepted for so many centuries. In order to consider the important matter of reforming the Catholic Church and to settle disputed questions of religious belief a great Church council was summoned by the Pope to meet in Trent, on the boundary of Germany and Italy, in the year 1545. The Council of Trent did not complete its work for nearly twenty years. It naturally condemned the Protestant beliefs so far as they differed from the views held by the Catholics, and it sanctioned those doctrines which the Catholic Church still holds. It accepted the Pope as the head of the Church; it declared accursed anyone who, like Luther, believed that man would be saved by faith in God's promises alone, for the Church held that man, with God's help, could increase his hope of salvation by good works. The ancient Latin translation of the Bible the Vulgate, as it is called was proclaimed the standard of belief, and no one was to publish any views about the Bible differing from those approved by the Church. 553. The Index. At the Council's suggestion the Pope's officials compiled a list of works which Catholics were not to read lest their faith in the doctrines of the Church should be disturbed. Similar lists have been printed since from time to 328