CHAPTER XXVIII THE CATHOLIC REFORMATION : PHILIP II I. The Decrees of the Council of Trent 277. Ex- tracts from the Acts of the Council of Trent. On confes- sion. (Some- what con- densed.) The decrees of the Council of Trent constitute the most important monument of the Catholic Reformation. These fall into three groups : ( i ) those which define and explain the doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church and defend them against the objections raised by the Protes- tants; (2) those which succinctly and explicitly declare accursed the various heretical beliefs ; and (3) lastly, a great number of reform decrees abolishing the various abuses and enforcing a more rigid discipline among the clergy and monks. The following extracts will serve at once to illustrate the spirit and method of the council and to make clear some of those Roman Catholic tenets which have been most bitterly attacked and most often misrepresented by Protestants. The universal Church has always understood that the complete confession of sins was instituted by the Lord, and is of divine right necessary for all who have fallen into sin after baptism ; because our Lord Jesus Christ, when about to ascend from earth to heaven, left priests, his own vicars, as leaders and judges, before whom all the mortal offenses into which the faithful of Christ may have fallen should be carried, in order that, in accordance with the power of the keys, they may pronounce the sentence of forgiveness or of retention of sins. For it is manifest that priests could not have exercised this judgment without knowledge of the case ; 156
