Preaching reform.

A brief word on the Council of Trent and the cure of souls.

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As the church became awash in the ecclesiological reforms of the Protestant Reformation movement, the theological landscape of Europe, and beyond, began to quake as the marrow of God’s gospel was rediscovered. Through the zeal of men like Luther, Zwingli, Calvin, and Knox, among several others, efforts to cleanse the church of institutional and clerical corruption began to materialize. But as more congregations severed from Roman and papal authority, the ecclesiological hierarchy of Rome was compelled to come to grips with a sea of change that would not ebb anytime soon. Accordingly, as the first explosive chapter of the Reformation gave way to a new era that saw churches and theologians begin to define the confessions and structures of Protestantism, properly understood, so, too, did the Roman Catholic Church undergo its own period of reform. Although it would be historically naïve to assert the integrity and unity of opinion that prompted this “Counter-Reformation,” as it is commonly called, it is equally as disingenuous to claim that this counter-movement was wholly nefarious. “The reforms of the Catholic Church in the middle of the sixteenth century,” Justin S. Holcomb notes, “were much more than anti-Protestant polemics; they were a genuine attempt to achieve doctrinal and institutional clarity” (99).

Even still, as Rome coped with the theological firestorms of Wittenburg, Geneva, and Zurich, Rome, likewise, began to take seriously some of the objections that had been raised against its curia and clergy. To that end, over the span of roughly eighteen years, beginning in 1545, Catholic bishops convened at the Council of Trent in an effort to correct or clarify the discrepancies that Luther and others had so tersely exposed. While the council’s conclusions did not serve to restore the breach between the Protestants and Rome, if that was even its intention, it did, however, serve to explain its position on matters such as the authority of Scripture, the nature of the sacraments, and the doctrine of justification, which accounted for the bulk of the council’s declarations. Considering how the issue of justification was resolved with language that was still very much “anti-Protestant,” it is easy to understand the general disregard and disdain that often accompanies engagement with the Council of Trent. Be that as it may, wholesale repudiation of the council’s resolutions remains theologically irresponsible.

For example, in Session V, Chapter II, the bishops at Trent decreed that since “the preaching of the Gospel” was “the chief duty of bishops,” its clergy were to be “bound personally, if they be not lawfully hindered, to preach the holy Gospel of Jesus Christ” (26–27). Furthermore, if the practice of preaching was not upheld, bishops would “be subjected to strict punishment” (27). This injunction reinforced the necessity of the pastoral office in the life of the church, which was tethered to the council’s efforts to restructure and remedy the abusive power grabs of clergymen that plagued the church. With the influence of local bishops reduced to their own diocese, the Council of Trent seemingly acknowledged the Protestant priority placed on the preached Word of God. Parish priests and “all those who in any manner soever hold any parochial or other churches, which have the cure of souls” as their charge were, therefore, charged to “feed the people committed to them, with wholesome words . . . by teaching the things which it is necessary for all to know unto salvation” (27).

Perhaps surprisingly to Protestants, the Catholic notion of preaching is not too far removed from the apostle Paul’s rendering of it, where he says, “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ” (Rom. 10:17). Consequently, the Protestant and Catholic conceptions of the importance of preaching while divergent are not wholly juxtaposed. Although to be sure, there are differences in content and particularity that comprise these sermons, the primacy placed upon the pastoral office and the necessity of preaching as part of the ministry of the “cure of souls” is nonetheless informative for believers, notwithstanding their allegiances to Rome or Wittenburg.

Works cited:

Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent, translated by Theodore A. Buckley (London: Routledge & Co., 1851).

Justin S. Holcomb, Know the Creeds and Councils, KNOW Series (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2014).