I.

Introduction

Council of Trent (1545-1563), 19th ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic church, which, in response to the Protestant Reformation, initiated a general reform of the church and precisely defined its essential dogmas. The decrees of the council were confirmed by Pope Pius IV on January 26, 1564, and they set the standard of faith and practice for the church until the mid-20th century.

The need for a council to reform the church was widely recognized during the late 15th and early 16th centuries. The Fifth Lateran Council (1512-1517) failed in this regard and concluded its deliberations before the new issues raised by Martin Luther had been articulated (see Lateran Councils). As early as 1520, Luther called for a council to reform the church and to settle the controversies that he had provoked. Although many leaders on both sides echoed this appeal, Pope Clement VII feared that such a gathering might encourage the view that councils, rather than the pope, have supreme authority in the church. Moreover, the political difficulties that Lutheranism created for Emperor Charles V made other rulers, especially King Francis I of France, reluctant to support any action that might strengthen the emperor's hand by relieving him of these difficulties.

Pope Paul III was elected pope in 1534 partly on the strength of his promise to convoke a council. After aborted attempts to meet at Mantua (Mantova) in 1537 and at Vicenza in 1538, the council finally opened at Trent, in northern Italy, on December 13, 1545. Sparsely attended at first and never free from political obstacles, the council grew in numbers and prestige over the course of the three periods during which it met.