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The Council of Trent

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The canons and decrees of the sacred and oecumenical Council of Trent, Ed. and trans. J. Waterworth (London: Dolman, 1848)

http://history.hanover.edu/texts/trent/ct05.html

The Rev. J. Waterworth’s translation of the Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent was first published in 1848. The most recent translation was done by the Rev. H.J. Schroeder. It was published together with the Latin text in 1941. (Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent. trans. H. J. Schroeder. St. Louis: Herder, 1941). It is under copyright. A paperback edition of Schroeder’s translation (English text only) is currently in print.

The page numbers of the 1848 edition of Waterworth’s translation have been placed in brackets within the text. Waterworth’s use of italic fonts and his citations (mostly references to Scripture) have not been reproduced, except for in the preface below. His historical essays and appendices have likewise been omitted.

By Session

Bull of Indiction

The First Session

  • Decree touching the opening of the Council
  • Indiction of the next session

The Second Session

  • Decree touching the manner of living, and other matters to be observed, during the Council
  • Indiction of the next session

The Third Session

  • Decree touching the symbol of faith
  • Indiction of the next session

The Fourth Session

  • Decree concerning canonical Scriptures
  • Decree concerning the edition, and the use, of the sacred books
  • Indiction of the next session

The Fifth Session

  • Decree concerning original sin
  • Decree on reformation
  • Indiction of the next session

The Sixth Session

  • Decree on justification
  • On justification
  • Decree on reformation
  • Indiction of the next session

The Seventh Session

  • Decree on the Sacraments
  • Decree on Reformation
  • Indiction of the next session
  • Bull with faculty to transfer the Council

The Eighth Session

  • Decree concerning the translation of the Council

The Ninth Session

  • Decree for the prorogation of the session

The Tenth Session

  • Decree for the prorogation of the session
  • Bull for the resumption of the Council of Trent, under the Sovereign Pontiff, Julius III

The Eleventh Session

  • Decree for resuming the Council
  • Indiction of the next session

The Twelfth Session

The Thirteenth Session

  • Decree concerning the most holy sacrament of the Eucharist
  • On the most holy sacrament of the Eucharist
  • Decree on reformation
  • Decree for postponing the definition of four articles touching the sacrament of the Eucharist, and for giving a safe-conduct to Protestants
  • Safe-conduct granted to Protestants

The Fourteenth Session

  • On the most holy sacraments of penance and extreme unction
  • On the most holy sacrament of penance
  • On the sacrament of extreme unction
  • Decree on reformation

The Fifteenth Session

  • Decree for proroguing the session
  • Safe-conduct given to the Protestants

The Sixteenth Session

  • Decree for the suspension of the Council
  • Bull for the celebration of the Council of Trent, under the Sovereign Pontiff, Pius IV

The Seventeenth Session

  • Decree for celebrating the Council
  • Indiction of the next session

The Eighteenth Session

  • Decree on the choice of books, and for inviting all men on the public faith to the Council
  • Indiction of the next session
  • Safe-conduct granted to the German nation
  • Extension thereof to other nations

The Nineteenth Session

  • Decree for the prorogation of the session

The Twentieth Session

  • Decree for the prorogation of the session

The Twenty-First Session

  • [Decree on communion under both species, and the communion of infants]
  • On communion under both species, and on the communion of infants
  • Decree on reformation
  • Indiction of the next session

The Twenty-Second Session

  • Doctrine on the sacrifice of the mass
  • On the sacrifice of the mass
  • Decree concerning the things to be observed, and to be avoided, in the celebration of the mass
  • Decree on reformation
  • Decree touching the petition for the concession of the chalice
  • Indiction of the next session

The Twenty-Third Session

  • The true and catholic doctrine, touching the sacrament of order, decreed and published by the Holy Synod of Trent, in the seventh session, in condemnation of the errors of our time
  • On the sacrament of order
  • Decree on reformation
  • Indiction of the next session

The Twenty-Fourth Session

  • Doctrine on the sacrament of matrimony
  • On the sacrament of matrimony
  • Decree on the reformation of marriage
  • Decree on reformation
  • Indiction of the next session

The Twenty-Fifth Session

  • Decree concerning purgatory
  • On the invocation, veneration, and relics, or saints, and other sacred images
  • On regulars and nuns
  • Decree on reformation
  • Decree for continuing the session on the following day
  • Decree concerning indulgences
  • On choice of meats; on fasts, and festival days
  • On the index of books; on the catechism, breviary, and missal
  • On the place of ambassadors
  • On receiving and observing the decrees of the Council
  • On reciting, in session, the decrees of the Council under Paul III and Julius III
  • On the close of the Council, and on suing for confirmation from Our Most Holy Lord
  • Acclamations of the Fathers at the close of the Council
  • Confirmation of the Council
  • Bull of Our Most Holy Lord Pius IV, by the providence of God, Pope, touching the confirmation of the ecumenical (and) general Council of Trent

The Council of Trent
The Fifth Session
The canons and decrees of the sacred
and oecumenical Council of Trent,
Trans. J. Waterworth (London: Dolman, 1848), 21-29.

Hanover Historical Texts Project
Scanned by Hanover College students in 1995.
The page numbers of Waterworth’s translation appear in brackets.

[Page 21]

Celebrated on the seventeenth day of the month of June, in the year MDXLVI.

DECREE CONCERNING ORIGINAL SIN

That our Catholic faith, without which it is impossible to please God, may, errors being purged away, continue in its own perfect and spotless integrity, and that the Christian people may not be carried about with every wind of doctrine; whereas that old serpent, the perpetual enemy of mankind, amongst the very many evils with which the Church of God is in these our times troubled, has also stirred up not only new, but even old, dissensions touching original sin, and the remedy thereof; the sacred and holy, ecumenical and general Synod of Trent,–lawfully assembled in the Holy Ghost, the three same legates of the Apostolic See presiding therein,–wishing now to come to the reclaiming of the erring, and the confirming of the wavering,–following the testimonies of the sacred [Page 22] Scriptures, of the holy Fathers, of the most approved councils, and the judgment and consent of the Church itself, ordains, confesses, and declares these things touching the said original sin:

  1. If any one does not confess that the first man, Adam, when he had transgressed the commandment of God in Paradise, immediately lost the holiness and justice wherein he had been constituted; and that he incurred, through the offence of that prevarication, the wrath and indignation of God, and consequently death, with which God had previously threatened him, and, together with death, captivity under his power who thenceforth had the empire of death, that is to say, the devil, and that the entire Adam, through that offence of prevarication, was changed, in body and soul, for the worse; let him be anathema.

  2. If any one asserts, that the prevarication of Adam injured himself alone, and not his posterity; and that the holiness and justice, received of God, which he lost, he lost for himself alone, and not for us also; or that he, being defiled by the sin of disobedience, has only transfused death, and pains of the body, into the whole human race, but not sin also, which is the death of the soul; let him be anathema:–whereas he contradicts the apostle who says; By one man sin entered into the world, and by sin death, and so death passed upon all men, in whom all have sinned.

  3. If any one asserts, that this sin of Adam, –which in its origin is one, and being transfused into all by propagation, not by imitation, is in each one as his own, –is taken away either by the powers of human nature, or by any other remedy than the merit of the one mediator, our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath reconciled us to God in his own blood, made unto us justice, sanctification, and redemption; or if he denies that the said merit of Jesus Christ is applied, both to adults and to infants, by the sacrament of baptism rightly administered in the form of the church; let him be anathema: For there is no other name under heaven given to men, whereby we must be [Page 23] saved. Whence that voice; Behold the lamb of God behold him who taketh away the sins of the world; and that other; As many as have been baptized, have put on Christ.

  4. If any one denies, that infants, newly born from their mothers’ wombs, even though they be sprung from baptized parents, are to be baptized; or says that they are baptized indeed for the remission of sins, but that they derive nothing of original sin from Adam, which has need of being expiated by the laver of regeneration for the obtaining life everlasting, –whence it follows as a consequence, that in them the form of baptism, for the remission of sins, is understood to be not true, but false, –let him be anathema. For that which the apostle has said, By one man sin entered into the world, and by sin death, and so death passed upon all men in whom all have sinned, is not to be understood otherwise than as the Catholic Church spread everywhere hath always understood it. For, by reason of this rule of faith, from a tradition of the apostles, even infants, who could not as yet commit any sin of themselves, are for this cause truly baptized for the remission of sins, that in them that may be cleansed away by regeneration, which they have contracted by generation. For, unless a man be born again of water and the Holy Ghost, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.

  5. If any one denies, that, by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is conferred in baptism, the guilt of original sin is remitted; or even asserts that the whole of that which has the true and proper nature of sin is not taken away; but says that it is only rased, or not imputed; let him be anathema. For, in those who are born again, there is nothing that God hates; because, There is no condemnation to those who are truly buried together with Christ by baptism into death; who walk not according to the flesh, but, putting off the old man, and putting on the new who is created according to God, are made innocent [Page 24], immaculate, pure, harmless, and beloved of God, heirs indeed of God, but joint heirs with Christ; so that there is nothing whatever to retard their entrance into heaven. But this Holy Synod confesses and is sensible, that in the baptized there remains concupiscence, or an incentive (to sin); which, whereas it is left for our exercise, cannot injure those who consent not, but resist manfully by the grace of Jesus Christ; yea, he who shall have striven lawfully shall be crowned. This concupiscence, which the apostle sometimes calls sin, the Holy Synod declares that the Catholic Church has never understood it to be called sin, as being truly and properly sin in those born again, but because it is of sin, and inclines to sin.

This same Holy Synod doth nevertheless declare, that it is not its intention to include in this decree, where original sin is treated of, the blessed and immaculate Virgin Mary, the mother of God; but that the constitutions of Pope Sixtus IV., of happy memory, are to be observed, under the pains contained in the said constitutions, which it renews.

INDICTION OF THE NEXT SESSION

The sacred and Holy Synod also ordains and decrees, that the first ensuing Session be held and celebrated on the Thursday after the feast of the blessed apostle James.

The Session was afterwards prorogued to the thirteenth of January, MDXLVII.