Council of Trent on the Trinity

One substance, three persons, co-equal and co-eternal

THE POSITION

The Third Session (1546) adds no new trinitarian teaching. It recites in full "the Symbol of faith which the holy Roman Church makes use of", the Nicene–Constantinopolitan Creed in its Western form, with the Spirit proceeding "from the Father and the Son." The council calls the creed "that firm and alone foundation against which the gates of hell shall never prevail."

26 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.