The Irish standard., 1917-11-17
THE COUNTER
REFORMATION
HOW THE CHURCH OFFSET THE
LUTHERAN HERESlES.
The Council Of Trent (1545 to 1869
Summoned to Define Specifically
Many Fundamental Dogmas
of the Faith.

To This Great COUNCIL we 1--WE Our
Modern catechism-The Jesuits
Helped to Stem the Tide
Of Detection.
It is remarkable fact, which even
the unbeliever cannot fail to observe,
that in all her encounters with her
enemies, bitter and powerful as these
have been in the centuries since her
foundation, the Church has not only
been victorious, but the very weapons
of her assailants have been turned, in
the order of Divine Providence, into
fresh sources of life and grace. In
recent years it was stated by GER
tain modernistic writer that the
Church in this country was fast los
ing ground, and that enlightened
American Catholic would soon throw
of the yoke of Papal serfdom. Hard
ly had the encyclical, Pascendi Do
minici Gregis, and the other docu-
ments pertaining to Modernism, made
their appearance when they were &C.
cepted with the eagerness and joy Of
devoted children by priests and peo-
pie alike as another welcome opportu-
nifty to manifest their loyalty to the
Holy See; and so, thanks to Modern
ism, the Church in the United States
is today stronger in the Faith of Peter
than she ever was, writes Rev. T. M.
Donovan, in Extension Magazine"
But we have more wonderful evil
dence of this perennial youth of the
Church in the great religious upheaval
of the sixteenth century. AS with
Modernism, and the more ancient
heresies, so also in the socalled Refor-
nation, the Church's bitterest and
most dangerous enemies proved to be
those of her own household. Luther
was himself priest and member of
religious order. He had received an
excellent education at one Of the best
universities Of his day and became
subsequently renowned as a great
teacher and theologian. The great
movement of detection inaugurated by
him could be withstood only by a
complete and explicit restatement of
the whole content of Catholic teach
ing; and thus it was that what may
be called the Catholic Reformation
finally took the form of General
Council, to which Luther himself, in
1913, had appealed in the hope Of be-
ing able to defend his heretical doc
trines.
From the earliest days of Christian
ity, General Councils have been the
means used by the Church to defend
herself against heresy and to pre-
serve intact Christian discipline and
morality In the history of the Church
there have been twenty Of these gen.
eral or oecumenical councils, as they
are called, the first being that of
Nicaea in 1876, and the last that of the
Vatican, convened in 1869, which has
not yet been formally closed. A Cen
eral Council represents the universal
Church. Hence the Pope, as the SUI
preme teacher and ruler of the Church,
is necessarily the head of a General
Council; in fact, such a council con-
vened without his sanction and au-
thority is unthinkable. This authority
he exercises either in person or
through his lawfully appointed legates.
On the other hand, it is because an
oecumenical Council is an assembly
of the bishops Of the entire world that
1t is invested with the supreme dignity
and majesty of the Ecclesia Dozens,
and that it's final judgments and de-
cisions bear eloquent witness to the
Faith of Christendom. These final
and universal judgments on questions
Of faith and morals are therefore the
ultimate object of General Council.
Never, perhaps, in the history of the
Church was this object more fully at
tanned than in the Council of Trent,
the DEGREES of which to this day con-
tfnue to be our thesaurus of Catholic
dogma and the norm in so many mat
tiers of ecclesiastical discipline.
Heresy of Luther.
Just as the first General or oecu-
menical Council-that of Nicaea GA.
D. 325)-was occasioned by the here
menical Council was called in answer
to the heresies of Luther and his fol-
lowers. Paul III, who was Pope from
1884 to 1549, even while he was Car
dinal Alesandro Farnese had urged
the calling of a General Council, but
after his election his plan to imme-
diately convoke an assembly did not
meet the full approval of some of the
Cardinals and was moreover energetic
ally opposed by some of the Protestant
and other rulers friendly to the Prot
estant movement. Nevertheless, in
1886, Paul III issued Bull Of Convoca-
ton; but it was not until after a Sec
oud Bull had been issued that the
Council was formally and solemnly
opened at Trent in December, 1915.
The sessions of the first weeks we're
devoted to arranging the order Of bust
ness and to determining the matters
that should come up for discussion by
the Fathers of the Council. It was not
until the fourth session, one year later,