ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 



321 



The statute 

 concerning 

 the rule of 

 frith. 



Ecdesiasti- determined that the trial of an ecclesiastic before the 

 cal History, secular judge must be preceded by a declaration or per- 

 """"Y""* mission from the episcopal court. The property of the 

 church is pronounced to be sacred : the clergy cannot 

 be compelled to pay taxes, even under the name of 

 loans or free gifts, whether those taxes, loans, or free 

 gifts apply to their patrimonial possessions, or to the 

 goods belonging to the community. The mandatory 

 fetters, sentences, or citations, of the ecclesiastical judges, 

 are to be executed without inquiry or delay. From the 

 enactments now alluded to, as well as others of a si- 

 milar description, which our limits prevent us from 

 specifying, we may form some idea of the height to 

 which sacerdotal presumption was carried in the six- 

 teenth century, and of that independence upon the ci- 

 vil authorities to which the exertions of the Romish 

 church were so long and so unjustly directed. 



But while the council were at all pains to secure their 

 own rights and privileges, they found it necessary to 

 put forth a statute, " concerning the rule which should 

 be held as supreme and decisive, in matters of faith." 

 An ordinance relative to this important particular, was 

 imperiously demanded by the progress of the Refor- 

 mation ; and it was chiefly with a view to ascertain the 

 opinion of the church with regard to it, tliat the coun- 

 cil had been convened. Accordingly, at their fourth 

 sitting, and when only forty-nine members were pre- 

 sent, they promulged their famous decree respecting 

 the canon of scripture, and the value of the apostolical 

 traditions ; a decree which pronounces the apocryphal 

 books to be of the same authority with those which 

 are genuine, and which places the tradition* of the fa- 

 thers on a level with both ; an enactment which de- 

 clares, that the Vulgate Version of the Sacred Scrip- 

 tures, though not written, as its very title implies, ei- 

 ther in the ancient language of the prophets, or in that 

 of the apostles and evangelists, is nevertheless to be 

 received and used throughout the church, as authentic 

 and canonical. Of this notable decree, the following 

 is a short account. It is solemnly determined, " that 

 the books to which the designation of apocryphal hath 

 been given, are of equal authority with those which 

 were received by the Jews and the primitive Chris- 

 tians into the sacred canon ; that the traditions handed 

 down from the apostolic age, and preserved in the 

 church, are entitled to as much regard as the doctrines 

 and precepts which the inspired authors have commit- 

 ted to writing ; and that the Latin translation of the 

 Scriptures made or revised by St Jerome, and known 

 by the name of the Vulgate Translation, shall be read 

 in the churches, and appealed to in the schools, as au- 

 thentic and canonical ;" and all persons who refuse to 

 subscribe these tenets, are anathematized, and cut off 

 from the communion of the church. Upon this decree, 

 which has occupied so much attention, mid been the 

 topic of so much discussion since the era of the Refor- 

 mation, we sliall make only one or two additional re- 

 marks. First of all, when the council were employed 

 in concocting it, they seem to have felt very indignant 

 that pedants and grammarians (pelils maitrrs de gram- 

 maire) should presume to contend about the meaning 

 of scripture with doctors in theology. And, second- 

 ly, while they pronounced the Vulgate Version to be 

 authentic and canonical, they appointed, at the same 

 time, a committee of six persons, apparently the whole 

 numl>er present that were acquainted with the origi- 

 nal languages, to revise and correct it. 



Such is the well known decree of the Tridentine 

 council, with regard to the rule of faith. It had pas- 



VOL. VIII. PART I. 



sed with some difficulty, and not without considerable Ecclesiastl 

 argumentation, even among the small number of mem- cat History 

 bers who were present. No sooner, however, was this m~~%~~* ' 

 famous decree promulgated, than the pope, represent- aenlm/Jk. 

 ing himself as superior to the council, and ultimate in crees con- 

 decision, confirmed it by his apostolical authority, pro- finned In- 

 hibiting at the same time all Christians, in communion tlle I'P e - 

 with the holy see, from writing notes or comments up- 

 on it. They were not even allowed to illustrate or to 

 defend it, without the permission of the sovereign 

 pontiff. 



Having confirmed the decree respecting the rule of Reception 

 faith, as well as the other acts of the council, die next of the Tri- 

 step, on the part of the pope, was to procure the formal Dentine de- 

 and implicit acknowledgment of the whole, by the dif- Clslon8< 

 ferent nations of Europe. The Venetians, with a duti- 

 ful submission to the supreme ecclesiastical authority, 

 readily acquiesced. The Poles likewise expressed their 

 willingness to abide by the decisions of the council. 

 The Spaniards, too, manifested a considerable prompti- 

 tude of comprehension and compliance ; though in some 

 provinces the Tridentine decrees were received with 

 certain murmurings, doubts, enquiries, and reserva- 

 tions. It was thought that the episcopal order was too 

 much reduced, and the powers of the papacy extended 

 too far. Among the German Catholics, there were 

 many who objected. But the most refractory of all 

 the papal subjects were the French. No commanding- 

 attitude on the part of the holy see, no stratagem of 

 ecclesiastical dexterity on the part of its devoted agents, 

 could induce the Gallican church to accept of the Tri- 

 dentine decisions. They specified no fewer than twen- 

 ty-three articles which, as they affirmed, were directly 

 opposite, even in the very letter of the enactments, to 

 the ancient usages of the realm ; and they pronounced 

 them to be equally destructive of civil and of religious 

 liberty " In all which particulars," says the celebra- 

 ted I'asquier, alluding to certain portions of the twenty- 

 three articles, " we have found such a repugnance and 

 contravention to our ancient liberties, that we can ne- 

 ver be induced to receive this council. For, first of all, 

 it takes away from the bishops the power of reforming 

 the churches which are situated within their own dio- 

 ceses ; and grants them only such a measure of power 

 as the holy see shall think proper to allot them; a pro- 

 cedure which we believe to be utterly irreconcilable 

 with the ancient canons approved of by the Gallican 

 church. And besides this, the council seems desirous 

 of establishing a new empire over kings, princes, ba- 

 rons, and every civil jurisdiction ; which, in plain lan- 

 guage, is to introduce old abuses which we have long 

 ago reformed. Whereas, I can demonstrate, that our 

 national privileges, and the liberties of the Gallicaii 

 church, are such as the authority of neither pope nor 

 council can abrogate, being founded on the broad and 

 sacred reason of things (sur une ruisnn sainctc rt gene- 

 ral?. ) By the admission of such decrees, (continues he), 

 instead of securing order, we should bring in disorder, 

 and introduce at the same time a monarchy, a thing 

 which we have never hitherto beheld, into the middle 

 of our own. Wisely, then, has this council never been 

 received in France, by which, with a single stroke of 

 the pen, the pope would acquire more authority than 

 he has been able to do since the commencement of our 

 common Christianity. I have no intention, (observes 

 the same writer), to depreciate the good Fathers of 

 Trent; but I cannot help wishing that their zeal and 

 devotion had been accompanied with a little more wis- 

 dom and discretion ; and that in guarding the nrslcnded 



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