Trent (Ital. Trento, Ger. Trient, Lat. Tridentum), a town of Austria, in the southern part of Tyrol, on the left bank of the Adige, in a beautiful and fertile valley, surrounded by high limestone hills, 145 miles by rail SSW. of Innsbruck and 59 N. of Verona. In its general aspect and architecture Trent is quite an Italian town; and with its spires and towers, ruined castles and ancient embattled walls, it presents an imposing appearance from a distance. It is surrounded by modern detached forts. The Piazza Grande is adorned with a splendid fountain of red marble, surmounted by a colossal statue of Neptune with his trident. The cathedral, begun in 1212, is a beautiful specimen of Lombard Romanesque, with a few features suggestive of the contemporary German style. The church of Santa Maria Maggiore (15th century) was the meeting-place of the famous Council. Among other public buildings are the seminary church (formerly the Jesuits' church), ornamented with the richest foreign marbles; the theatre; the town-hall; some noble private mansions; and the Palazzo Buonconsiglio adjoining the town, a noble specimen of the feudal architecture of North Italy, now occupied as a barrack. Trent manufactures silks, wine, pottery, confections, and sugar, and has a brisk transit trade. Pop. (1880) 19,585; (1890) 21,653.
The ancient Tridentum or Tridente derived its name from the Tridentini, an Alpine tribe, whose capital it was. In 1027 its prince-bishops obtained the temporal rule of the valley of the Adige, and under them Trent rose to great prosperity. It became Austrian in 1803, and after much fighting was Italian from 1809 to 1813, when it was restored to Austria. It is still the see of a prince-bishop. The inhabitants are quite Italian in language and habits; and the restoration to Italy of Trent and the Trentino (district of Trent) is, with that of Trieste, the chief aim of the Italia Irredenta agitation in Italy.
THE COUNCIL OF TRENT, generally reckoned as the eighteenth oecumenical council of the church, assembled at Trent, and sat with certain interruptions from December 13, 1545, until December 4, 1563. From the first outbreak of the Reformation a council of some sort had been called for by both Catholics and Protestants. Luther and his friends thought of one in which all Christians should be represented and the Scriptures accepted as the sole rule of faith. The emperor and many Catholic princes desired a council mainly for the reformation of abuses in ecclesiastical government and discipline, a reform, as the phrase went, 'in the head and members,' and to obtain certain concessions in doctrine and ritual, in the hope of conciliating Protestants and restoring to Europe religious peace. The pope and the Roman court, on the other hand, recognised in general the need of reform, and made sundry efforts in that direction, but for some time regarded the convocation of a council with undisguised aversion, from a well-grounded fear lest the emperor should dictate the subjects of debate and usurp the functions of the holy see, and partly lest the council itself should, in the spirit of some recent synods, presume to declare itself superior to the pope, and initiate reforms unacceptable to the Roman curia. It was the object of the popes, with or without a council, to more clearly define Catholic doctrine, pronounce the condemnation of the new heresies, strengthen the bonds of ecclesiastical unity, and consolidate the papal power. These conflicting aims and interests supply the key to the intricate negotiations which led first to the long delay in the meeting of the council, and subsequently to its several prorogations and suspensions, covering in all a period of more than forty years. Clement VII., who for ten years had resisted the pressure put upon him by Germany, at length, after an interview with the Emperor Charles V. in 1533, consented to call a council at Mantua or some Italian city. The Protestants now in their turn made difficulties, and insisted upon a freedom of debate and a reopening of closed questions which were incompatible with the traditions and principles of the Roman Church. Meanwhile England was lost to the pope, and Paul III. (December 1534), recognising that a council was inevitable, set himself earnestly to overcome all practical difficulties, indicted the council first at Mantua for May 1536, then at Vicenza, and again, without success, at Trent in 1542, until finally the council actually opened at the latter place, as has been said, December 13, 1545, the twelfth year of the pontificate of Paul, with four archbishops, twenty-two bishops, five generals of orders, and two ambassadors, under the presidency of three papal legates, the cardinals Del Monte (afterwards Julius III.), Cervini, and the Englishman Reginald Pole.
It was at once apparent that, though considerable freedom of speech was tolerated in the course of debate, the procedure of the council and its final decrees were under the immediate control and direction of the pope. Matters for deliberation could only be proposed by the legates, though this was a source of frequent complaint and contention; and the legates on all questions of difficulty awaited the pope's decision. The pope had desired that matters of doctrine should be dealt with first, while the emperor demanded that the council should begin with practical reforms. It was finally agreed that doctrine and discipline should be treated simultaneously in every session. The decrees were prepared in particular congregations, or select committees, afterwards more fully discussed and voted upon in general congregations, and finally proclaimed in public sessions. The position which the council was to take up with regard to the principles of the Reformation was soon made clear. In the fourth session, held April 8, 1546, sacred tradition, or the unwritten Word of God, was put on a par with Scripture, all the books contained in the Vulgate, including the so-called Apocrypha, were declared to be canonical, and the Vulgate version was pronounced 'authentic.' The important doctrine of Justification, which some of the bishops admitted to be comparatively new and to raise questions which the Schoolmen had not fully treated, was after much discussion laid down (sixth session, January 13, 1547) in terms which involved the emphatic condemnation of the
Lutheran teaching, as well as of certain moderate views in that direction which had recently found favour within the Roman Church, and had been advocated by Cardinal Pole, who in the preceding October had resigned his legation on the plea of health. Discussions followed on original sin and the sacraments; but while the new heresies were explicitly condemned, care was taken not to close, without grave reason, any questions which divided the Thomists and Scotists or the orthodox schools of Catholic theology. Many ancient subjects of dispute, as, for example, the Immaculate Conception, were thus designedly left unsettled. One of the most prolonged of the party struggles which agitated the council arose at the earliest stage of its proceedings out of a discussion on the laws regarding episcopal residence. The Spanish bishops, who formed a strong minority, and who were at times supported by the French, were eager to strengthen the authority of bishops, and wished the council to define that episcopal jurisdiction was derived immediately from Christ and not through the pope. The Italians, supported by the legates in the interests of papal centralisation, were opposed to any such definition. It was not till towards the close of the council in 1563 that a decree, so worded as to leave the point in ambiguity, was accepted as satisfactory. Meanwhile the legates, seeing the emperor irritated by the action of the council, and his power much increased by the recent course of political affairs, had become anxious to transfer the council to a spot less open to his influence. An epidemic at Trent afforded a sufficient pretext for removing in March 1547 to Bologna. Certain bishops in the imperial interest remained at Trent, and for a time there was risk of a schism. The fathers at Bologna, however, abstained from publishing any decrees; and the few sessions there held related only to successive prorogations until in September 1547 the council was suspended sine die.
In February 1550 Julius III. succeeded to the papacy, and in the following year, May 1551, reopened the eleventh session of the Council at Trent under the presidency of Cardinal Crescenzio. It now sat for about twelve months, but in April 1552 the military successes of Maurice of Saxony led to another suspension. Meanwhile, in this second period of the council, the fathers had proceeded with the doctrine of the sacraments, and transubstantiation was defined. Certain Protestants now desired to be heard, and a safe conduct was accorded to their deputies, who were received in a general congregation; but their demands were considered impracticable, and the negotiations came to nothing.
Many years now passed, with little thought or opportunity of renewing the council. Meanwhile, the Emperor Charles V. had abdicated. Julius was succeeded by Cardinal Cervini, Marcellus II., and he in turn by the stern reformer Paul IV. (1555-59), who occupied himself mainly with the organisation and extension of the Inquisition. To Pius IV. (1560-66) belongs the credit of renewing the council, and, by his energy and tact, bringing it to a successful conclusion. This third period, in many respects the most important, begins with the seventeenth session, held in May 1562. Disciplinary decrees were passed regarding episcopal duties, the religious orders, the education of the priesthood, and the censorship of books. Clandestine marriages were by a new law made invalid. The odious office of questors of alms was abolished. Doctrinal decrees were issued on the mass, purgatory, the veneration due to saints, and the doctrine of indulgences.
During these last sessions (seventeenth to twenty-fifth) there were present at one time or another, besides ambassadors and theologians, 270 prelates, of whom 187 were Italians, 31 Spaniards, and 26 Frenchmen. The decrees of the entire council were confirmed, January 26, 1564, by Pius IV., who in the same year published the Profession of the Tridentine Faith, a brief summary of doctrines, generally known as the Creed of Pius IV. (see Vol. III. p. 555).
Several important works, recommended or initiated by the council, but which the fathers could not effectually carry out, were handed over to the pope for completion. Thus, the revision of the Vulgate, ordered at Trent in 1546, was finally completed under Clement VIII. in 1592. Pius V. founded the Congregation of the Index to carry out the work attempted but left unfinished by the council. The same pope also undertook the revision of the Breviary, and in 1566 published the Catechism of the Council of Trent (see Vol. III. p. 3).
The first important history of the council was written in a very hostile spirit by a Servite friar of Venice, Paul Sarpi (q.v.), whose book was published in Italian under a feigned name at London in 1619, and afterwards translated into English by Brent in 1640. The Jesuit, Cardinal Pallavicini, who had access to Vatican archives, wrote a refutation of Sarpi in his Istoria del Concilio (2 vols. fol., Roma, 1656). Le Plat, in his Monumenta Concilii (Louvain, 1781), printed a large collection of documents; to which must be added the Acta Genuina, printed by Theiner (1874) from the diary of Massarelli, the secretary of the council, and the Sammlung von Urkunden of Döllinger (1876). The best general history in English is that of the Rev. T. A. Buckley (Lond. 1852), who has also translated the Canons and Decrees (1851) and the Catechism; with which should be compared, on the Roman Catholic side, Waterworth's Canons and Decrees, &c. (1848). An interesting account of the debates within the council will be found in Mendham's Memoirs (1834), which includes the history of the synod under Pius IV. by Paleotto, the protonotary. See also Ranke's History of the Popes; Philippson, La Contre-Révolution Religieuse au XVIe Siècle (1884); and Dejob, De l'Influence du Concile de Trente sur la Littérature, &c. (1884). And see ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH, TRANSUBSTANTIATION.