Council of Trent on Spiritual warfare
Through those means, and also by commanding evil spirits to leave, or exorcising them, in Christ's name
to wit those of subdeacon, acolyth, exorcist, lector, and door-keeper
THE POSITION
The Twenty-third Session (1563) names exorcist among the minor orders through which a cleric advances to the priesthood. An order of exorcists presupposes that the church exorcises. Trent itself does not describe the rite or explain it.
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 Spiritual warfare", Examined Doctrine, July 2026 edition, https://examineddoctrine.com/position/trent/spiritual-warfare (archived at https://examineddoctrine.com/editions/2026-07/position/trent/spiritual-warfare).