After two years of deliberating on important issues of the Church the 1st session has ended. The session began in 1545 under the rule of Pope Paul III and only just finished last month, in 1547. Over the past two years there have been ten direct seatings and councils that have covered alot of matierial and clarified, for the people, an outline of the Roman Catholic and Protestant Doctrine.
During these councils, no direct compromises were drawn between these two churches, however ther Catholic Church realised that the division between them was alot wider than first thought. From the Council both Churches gained clarity in their beliefs.
Several beliefes directly discussed were that of The symbol of faith, Original Sin, Justification, The Sacraments; focussing on the sacrament of Baptism and from these were drawn the following outcomes
• Salvation is only gained through faith, hope, repentance and acts of charity and good works for other people. The good works have to be volentary with no expectation of eternal reward for them to be vald in the eyes of God.
"If anyone says that the one justified sins when he performs good works with a view to an eternal reward, let him be anathema. "
• The seven sacraments were deemed valid and will be used throughtout the Catholic Church continually. They made also 20 rules regarding the sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation.
"If anyone says that the sacraments of the New Law were not all instituted by our Lord Jesus Christ, or that there are more or less than seven, namely, baptism, confirmation, Eucharist, penance, extreme unction, order and matrimony,[1] or that any one of these seven is not truly and intrinsically a sacrament, let him be anathema. "
• The Pope is the head of the Church and the elect disciple of Jesus and Saint Paul .
• They changed the Rules regarding priests and ministers owning cathedrerals. They made a rule stating that all preists had to be of a certain tyoe of person and that all ministers and preist may only be of one cathederal or church at any one time.
"No one shall be chosen to govern cathedral churches unless he is born of lawful wedlock, is of mature age, is known for his integrity of morals, and possesses the required knowledge ."
"No one, by whatever dignity, rank or pre-eminence distinguished, shall presume, in contravention to the sacred canons,[18] to accept and to hold at the same time several metropolitan or cathedral churches, either by title or in commendam or under any other name, since he must be considered exceedingly fortunate who succeeds in ruling one church well, fruitfully and with due interest in the salvation of the souls committed to him. "
• During the Eucharist the bread and wine physically becomes the body and blood of Christ- This is called transubstantiation.
• The bible and scripture are expressions from God sent to humanity.
The newly elected Pope Julius III has commented that he would strongly agree to carry on the Council of Trent later in the year for its 2nd session. No one is quite sure however what topics he has to discuss. All we know is that he has strong views on the use and interpretation of the Eucharist
- But only time will tell.