Council of Trent on the final state of the lost

Eternal conscious punishment

THE POSITION

Trent does not define the final state of the lost as a doctrine of its own. It takes eternal punishment as given: chapter 14 of the decree on justification distinguishes "the eternal punishment,-which is, together with the guilt, remitted" from the temporal punishment that is "not always wholly remitted."

31 OTHERS HOLD THIS

ABOUT THIS FIGURE

Met in twenty-five sessions over three periods, at Trento in northern Italy except for two sessions held at Bologna in 1547. Called by Paul III and closed under Pius IV. It answered the Reformation point by point: Scripture and tradition, the canon, original sin, justification and the seven sacraments. From the Sixth Session on, each subject is set out in chapters and then in canons ending "let him be anathema." The Catholic Church counts it the nineteenth ecumenical council; the Orthodox and Protestant churches do not count it as ecumenical. Read here in J. Waterworth's 1848 translation.