Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER II. THE ISSUES OF DOGMA IN ROMAN CATHOLICISM. (i) The Codification of the Mediceval Doctrines in opposition to Protestantism (Decrees of Trent]. A CODIFICATION of its doctrines was forced upon the Catholic Church by the Reformation. For long the effort was made in Rome to add to the condemnation of the Lutheran tenets a positive statement of Romish doctrine, or even to secure that addition through a Council. From the strictly Curialistic standpoint both the one thing and the other seemed as unnecessary as it was dangerous. That princes and peoples should have imperatively demanded both, and that a Council should really have come to be held, which, apart from its decrees for reform, that necessarily resulted in a considerable improvement in the state of the Church, gave fixed form to hitherto undefined doctrines, was a triumph of Protestantism. As it was understood by the princes, this Council was finally to solve a problem that had been previously dealt with, not without a real mutual approximation, at religious conferences, and which, for the time, appeared to have found a solution in the imperial Interim. But in point of fact the Curia brought it about that at Trent the opposition to Protestantism found its keenest expression. In this way the Curia rendered Protestantism very important service; for what would have become of the Reformation after Luther's death?at least in Germany?if there had been a greater inclination to come to terms at Trent ? In framing the Decrees of Trent the best forces co-operated which the Church then had at its command. True piety and pre-eminent scholarship took part in the discussions. The renovated Thomism, made stronger in Italy by the Reformation itself, already held at the Council a place of equality with every other party. F...