CHAPTER XXVI THE WARS OF RELIGION Section 109. The Council of Trent; the Jesuits In the preceding chapters we have seen how northern Ger- many, 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 cen- turies. In order to consider the great question of reforming the Catholic Church and to settle disputed questions of religious be- lief a great church council was summoned by the Pope to meet in Trent, on the confines of Germany and Italy, in the year 1545. Charles V hoped that the Protestants would come to the coun- cil and that their ideas might even yet be reconciled with those of the Catholics. But the Protestants did not come, for they were too suspicious of an assembly called by the Pope to have any confidence in its decisions. The Council of Trent was interrupted after a few sessions Council and did not complete its work for nearly twenty years after it i545-^i"63 first met. 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 any one 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. It ratified all the seven sacraments, several of which the Protestants had rejected. The ancient Latin transla- tion of the Bible — the Vulgate, as it is called — was proclaimed 619
