268 Chapter 14authority, Paul III decided to convene a general council
at Trent in 1542. Sessions were held from 1543 to
1549, in 1551–52, and in 1562–63 (see illustration
14.5). Much disagreement arose over goals and the
meetings were often sparsely attended, but the Council
of Trent was a conspicuous success.
Theologically, Trent marked the triumph of
Thomism. Luther’s ideas on justification, the sacra-
ments, and the priesthood of all believers were specifi-
cally rejected. The medieval concept of the priestly
office and the value of good works was reasserted, and
at the organizational level efforts were made to correct
most of the abuses that had been attacked by the re-
formers. These included not only the clerical sins of
pluralism, absenteeism, nepotism, and simony, but also
such distortions of popular piety as the sale of indul-
gences and the misuse of images. The strengthening of
ecclesiastical discipline was one of the council’s greatest
achievements.
Knowing that many of the church’s problems arose
from ignorance, the delegates mandated the use of cat-
echisms in instructing the laity and the establishment of
diocesan seminaries for the education of priests. The
Council of Trent, in short, marked the beginning of the
modern Catholic Church. Its institutional principles
and the forms of piety that it established were not sub-
stantially modified until Vatican II (1962–65).The Political, Economic, and Social
Consequences of Reform
The impact of the sixteenth-century reformations has
been the subject of much scholarly debate. The reli-
gious unity of western Christendom was clearly shat-
tered, but this had always been more an ideal than a
practical reality. Politically, cities and territorial states
were the chief beneficiaries of reform, for Protestantism
tended to increase their control over church patronage
and revenues. Even Catholic states exhibited more in-
dependence because the papacy became more cautious
in its claims than it had been in the Middle Ages.
Though hardly decisive, reform was therefore an im-
portant influence on the development of the modern
state.
The economic consequences of the Reformation
are far less clear. The idea that Protestantism somehow
liberated acquisitive instincts and paved the way for the
development of capitalism is highly suspect if for no
other reason than that capitalism existed long before
the Reformation and that the economic growth of such
Protestant states as England and the Netherlands can
be explained adequately in other ways. In some areas,
notably England, the alienation of church property may
have accelerated the capitalization of land that had be-Illustration 14.5
The Final Session of the Council of Trent, 1563.Attrib-
uted to Titian, this painting shows the conclusion of the great
council whose decrees inspired the Catholic Church until the
1960s.