106 John W. O'malley the Council of Trent (1545–63)

106 book reviews

John W. O’Malley Trent: What Happened at the Council (Cambridge, Mass.: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2013) 352 pp. isbn 9780674066977 (hbk). $27.95; £20.00; €25.20.

The Council of Trent (1545–63) is frequently said to embody the Counter- Reformation or the reaction of the Catholic Church to the forces of the Reformation. These terms, Reformation and Counter-Reformation, are some- what problematic. Earnest efforts to reform the Church had been undertaken in different countries long before Martin Luther’s initial protest in 1517, as John O’Malley reminds his readers. Those who speak or write of the Counter- Reformation sometimes date its close to the end of the Thirty Years’ War in 1648. But, since the Council of Trent continued to have a major impact on Catholic doctrine, worship, and life for three more centuries, it would be pref- erable to acknowledge that the Second Vatican Council (1962–65) marked the end of the Counter-Reformation. Now occupying a chair at Georgetown University, O’Malley has already pub- lished some outstanding work on Vatican II. His latest book is simply superb, based on years of research, and combining a sharp historical judgement with a lively style of writing. It will be welcomed not only by teachers and students of sixteenth-century church history but by all readers interested in the religious and cultural developments of the early modern European world. After an illu- minating introduction, six chapters make up the heart of O’Malley’s latest book: ‘The Fifteenth-Century Prelude’; ‘The Struggle to Convoke the Council’; ‘The First Period, 1545–1547’; ‘The Middle Years, 1547–1562’; ‘The Council Resumes, 1562–1563’; ‘The Council Concludes’. A nearly thirty-page epilogue draws matters together. The value of the volume is then enhanced by a list of the twenty-five sessions of Trent; a translation of the Tridentine Profession of Faith (which, with additions made by Pius IX and Pius X, remained in force until 1967); and thirty-five pages of valuable end-notes. The story of the convocation of Trent, its three periods, and its conclusion is very complex. The constant involvement of rulers (and above all, Charles V and then Philip II of Spain), the national rivalries, divisions among Christians, the existence of the papal states (which made popes political as well as spiritual leaders), the scandalous lives of many cardinals and bishops, and the need to reform the papacy itself complicated the existence and functioning of the Council from beginning to end. Even though it lasted much longer than Vatican II (for eighteen years rather than merely four), the agenda at Trent was not as all-encompassing and, on the doctrinal level, largely limited to issues raised by Luther and other Reformers: the nature of justification and the sacramental life of the church.

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O’Malley notes some curious ‘silences’ of Trent (pp. 21–21). From the end of the fifteenth century, the discoveries of Columbus and others ushered in not only unprecedented exploration and conquests but also an intense missionary activity, spearheaded by Portuguese and Spaniards. Trent had simply nothing to say about that activity which led to the world expansion of Catholicism. It lacked the global mindset that was to distinguish the Second Vatican Council. Unlike Vatican II, Trent had to tackle the reform of bishops and pastors and transform many of them from being ‘collectors of benefices’ to being shep- herds of souls. This meant, first of all, compelling reluctant bishops and pastors to reside in their dioceses or parishes. Milan, the largest and richest diocese in Italy, had lacked a resident bishop for eighty years (p. 16). Charles V, his succes- sor Ferdinand I, and other lay rulers were ‘often more intent on church reform than their papal counterpart’ (p. 7). To a considerable degree the work of Trent had been anticipated in Spain, which remained almost untouched by Protestantism, thanks to the reforms introduced years before by Archbishop of Toledo, Cardinal Francisco Ximénez de Cisneros (1436–1517) and firmly backed by Queen Isabella (1451–1501). He successfully promoted the effective teaching of doctrine, good pastoral prac- tices (including the use of catechisms), and a far-reaching improvement in the theological education and public behaviour of church leaders. At Trent the Spanish bishops were well prepared to play a leadership role, unlike their suc- cessors at Vatican II who said and did very little towards bringing about the updating of the Catholic Church that Pope John XXIII called for. O’Malley, without overdoing matters, introduces all kinds of titbits of infor- mation which illuminate the challenges that the Council of Trent had to face. When it finally got under way, in December 1545, there were only 42 bishops and other official participants present. The endless delays before Trent opened meant that many bishops wondered whether it would ever begin; they were reluctant to leave home for a council that might continue to be endlessly delayed and never start. Right from the beginning of his pontificate in 1534, Pope Paul III had worked to convoke a council, but a passion for providing for his family clouded his vision and reputation. Shortly after his election he nomi- nated two of his grandchildren as cardinals, one aged sixteen and the other only fourteen. When Cardinal Marcello Cervini, one of the three papal legates for the first period of Trent, who became in 1555 the short-lived Pope Marcellus II, discovered that two of his nephews (aged fifteen and thirteen) expected bene- fits from his election, he refused to grant them an audience and ordered them out of Rome. Concerned with the authority and reform of bishops, Trent passed a decree in its first period insisting on bishops residing in their dioceses. But ten years later absenteeism had hardly been mitigated; there were still, for example, ecclesiology 11 (2015) 93-143