The Council of Trent

1. The Council of Trent

2. Paper Workshop! • When: Monday, March 4th, 10am-noon • Where: HSSB 3057 (Rico’s office) • Who: Rico • For whom: EVERYBODY!

3. From last time • We saw the complexity of Catholicism in Spain • We introduced plan A (Catholic Reformation) and plan B (Catholic Counter-Reformation) • The making of plan A • Plan A: the 1537 report on the need to ‘fix the Church’

4. The elements of Plan A (from your source) • ‘The court of Rome’..is ‘suffering’: the Popes have made mistakes! • Priests are unqualified: ‘totally unlearned of the vilest origins and appalling morals’ • Bishops are not above the law, against simony • Rome is a sick city: it has to be fixed too!

5. 1541: the colloquia at Regensburg and the failure of the ‘Spirituali’ Map of Regensburg, or Ratisbon (map made in London ca. 1800)

6. Summary on ‘Plan A’ [i.e. Catholic Reformation] • At the beginning, the Catholic Church realized that Luther was not completely wrong: let’s try and compromise (plan A) • 1537: the Pope appointed a committee to see what can be fixed, the result was a proposal for change along Erasmian lines • In 1541 Protestants and Catholics (plan A- people) met to try and work issues out: the meeting was a failure, and the Catholic Church decided to switch to plan B!

7. After the failure of Regensburg in 1541 the ‘Zelanti’, or ‘zealous’, take control Giovanni Pietro Carafa, from 1555 Pope Paul IV

8. In 1542 the Roman Inquisition was founded Galileo and the Inquisition, Cristiano Banti 1857

9. Inquisition/s • Medieval Inquisition (1220s) • Spanish Inquisition (1483) • Roman Inquisition (1542) • What is the difference between those?

10. Inquisition/s • Medieval Inquisition = localized tribunals • Spanish Inquisition = centralized tribunal, tied to the Spanish crown • Roman Inquisition = centralized tribunal, tied to Rome, and as such ‘super-national’

11. 1543: the Inquisition at work, the ‘Beneficio di Cristo’ • In 1543 the book entitled ‘Il Beneficio di Cristo’ (‘The Benefice of Christ’), written by Marcantonio Flaminio and Benedetto da Mantova, was published • It was the last expression of the Italian ‘Spirituals’: it talked about justification by faith, internal religion, and it quoted Calvin • The Inquisition condemned it and burned it: NO COPIES were found until 1843!!! • With the disappearance of the ‘Beneficio’, the ‘Spirituali’ faction disappeared also

12. The Council of Trent (1545-1563)

13. Let’s keep things straight: PROTESTANTS • 1517: Luther’s 95 Theses • 1521: Luther’s excommunication • 1523: Zwingli’s Schlussreden • 1534: Henry VIII’s Act of Supremacy • 1536: First ed. of Calvin’s Institutiones • 1559 Last ed. of Calvin’s Institutiones • 1563: Elizabeth’s 39 Articles CATHOLICS • 1520s-1541: PLAN A • 1527: Sack of Rome • 1536-7: Paul III’s Committee • 1541: Regensburg –PLAN B • 1542: Roman Inquisition • 1545-1563: Council of Trent

14. The Council in general • The Council was far from being international: the vast majority of the cardinals were Italians (with a few Spanish) • The aim was not to compromise, but to violently re-enforce Catholicism and attack Protestantism • Rather than an occasion for dialogue, the Council was a show of force on the part of the Papacy

15. Two aims • Doctrinal questions (i.e. enforcing Catholic doctrine as opposed to the Protestant ones) • Questions of discipline (i.e. regulating and correcting the abuses within the Catholic Church itself, in order to strengthen the hold that the Church had on Catholic people)

16. Doctrinal questions Bible in Latin, ‘Vulgata’ edition,1592

17. More on Doctrine • Enforced transubstantiation • Enforced infant baptism: in fact, the Council of Trent decided that it was not possible to baptize infants more than once: so even Protestant baptism is valid! • Enforced the Pope’s authority over the Council’s

18. …To be continued next time!