Council of Trent on Original sin & the human will
Nature wounded but not destroyed; grace perfects it
although free will, attenuated as it was in its powers, and bent down, was by no means extinguished in them
THE POSITION
The Fifth Session (1546) teaches that Adam's sin is passed to all "by propagation, not by imitation," and condemns the view that he passed on only death and bodily pains. The Sixth Session sets the limit on the other side: fallen free will is weakened and bent, but not destroyed. Its canon 5 condemns anyone who says "that, since Adam's sin, the free will of man is lost and extinguished."
8 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.
Cite this page
"Council of Trent on Original sin & the human will", Examined Doctrine, July 2026 edition, https://examineddoctrine.com/position/trent/original-sin (archived at https://examineddoctrine.com/editions/2026-07/position/trent/original-sin).