Council of Trent
(noun)
Council of the Roman Catholic Church set up in Trento, Italy, in direct response to the Reformation.
Examples of Council of Trent in the following topics:
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Discontent with the Roman Catholic Church
- Hus was later condemned and burned at the stake despite promise of safe-conduct when he voiced his views to church leaders at the Council of Constance (1414–1418).
- Wycliffe, who died in 1384, was also declared a heretic by the Council of Constance, and his corpse was exhumed and burned.
- The Roman Catholic Church responded with a Counter-Reformation initiated by the Council of Trent and spearheaded by the new order of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits), specifically organized to counter the Protestant movement.
- Execution of Jan Hus at the Council of Constance in 1415.
- Painting representing the artist's depiction of The Council of Trent.
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The Church During the Italian Renaissance
- The Renaissance began in times of religious turmoil.
- While the schism was resolved by the Council of Constance (1414), a resulting reform movement known as Conciliarism sought to limit the power of the pope.
- Although the papacy eventually emerged supreme in ecclesiastical matters by the Fifth Council of the Lateran (1511), it was dogged by continued accusations of corruption, most famously in the person of Pope Alexander VI, who was accused variously of simony, nepotism and fathering four children.
- It was also a time of increased contact with Greek culture, opening up new avenues of learning, especially in the fields of philosophy, poetry, classics, rhetoric, and political science, fostering a spirit of humanism–all of which would influence the Church.
- The Counter-Reformation, also called the Catholic Reformation or the Catholic Revival, was the period of Catholic resurgence initiated in response to the Protestant Reformation, beginning with the Council of Trent (1545–1563) and ending at the close of the Thirty Years' War (1648).
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France and Cardinal Richelieu
- Richelieu's successful policies leading to the consolidation of the royal power, centralization of the state, and strengthening the international position of France paved the way for the authoritarian rule of Louis XIV.
- He became the first bishop in France to implement the institutional reforms prescribed by the Council of Trent.
- Like Concini, the Bishop was one of the closest advisers of Louis XIII's mother, Marie de Médicis.
- The defeat of Habsburg forces at the Battle of Lens, and their failure to prevent French invasion of Catalonia effectively spelled the end for Habsburg domination of the continent.
- Local and even religious interests were now subordinated to those of the whole nation and of the embodiment of the nation — the King.
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The Western Schism
- Driven by politics rather than any theological disagreement, the schism was ended by the Council of Constance (1414–1418).
- The suggestion to have a church council resolve the schism was first made in 1378, but was not initially adopted because canon law required that a pope call a council.
- A church council was held at Pisa in 1409 under the auspices of the cardinals to try solving the dispute.
- At the fifteenth session, on June 5, 1409, the Council of Pisa deposed the two pontiffs as schismatical, heretical, perjured, and scandalous.
- Habemus Papam (the announcement of a new pope) at the Council of Constance, 1415.
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Structure of the Directory
- The Constitution of 1795 created the Directory with a bicameral legislature consisting of the Council of Five Hundred (lower house) and the Council of Ancients (upper house).
- Besides functioning as legislative bodies, the Council of Five Hundred proposed the list, out of which the Council of Ancients chose five Directors, who jointly held executive power.
- The members of the upper house, the Council of Ancients, were chosen by lot from among all of the deputies.
- On October 31, 1795, the members of the Council of Five Hundred submitted a list of candidates to the Council of Ancients, which chose the first Directory.
- General Augereau's soldiers arrested Pichegru, Barthélemy, and the leading royalist deputies of the Councils.
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The First Consul
- The plan was, first, to persuade the Directors to resign, then, second, to get the Council of Ancients and the Council of Five Hundred (the upper and lower houses of the legislature) to appoint a pliant commission that would draw up a new constitution to the plotters' specifications.
- On the morning of 18 Brumaire, Lucien Bonaparte falsely persuaded the Councils that a Jacobin coup was at hand in Paris and induced them to depart for the safety in the suburbs while Napoleon was charged with the safety of the two Councils and given command of all available local troops.
- By the following day, the deputies of the Councils realized that they were facing an attempted coup rather than being protected from a Jacobin rebellion.
- With the Council routed, the plotters convened two commissions, each consisting of 25 deputies from the two Councils.
- The legislature known as Corps législatif also partly replaced the Council of Five Hundred under the new constitution, but its role consisted solely of voting on laws deliberated before the Tribunat.
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Iconoclasm in Byzantium
- The role of women and monks in supporting the veneration of images has also been asserted.
- The use of images of the holy increased in Orthodox worship, and these images increasingly came to be regarded as points of access to the divine.
- In 754 CE Constantine summoned the first ecumenical council concerned with religious imagery, the Council of Hieria, which 340 bishops attended.
- On behalf of the church, the council endorsed an iconoclast position and declared image worship to be blasphemy.
- After Leo IV too died, Irene called another ecumenical council, the Second Council of Nicaea, in 787 CE that reversed the decrees of the previous iconoclast council and restored image worship, marking the end of the First Iconoclasm restored image worship.
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Athenian Society
- In the Assembly of the People, Athenian citizens decided matters of state.
- When the Assembly of the People reached decisions on laws and decrees, the issue was raised to a body called the Council, or Boule, to provide definitive approval.
- The Council consisted of 500 members, 50 from each tribe, and functioned as an extension of the Assembly.
- Council members, who were chosen by lot, supervised the work of other government officials, legal projects, and other administrative details.
- In fact, 71-73% of the citizen population owned 60-65% of the land.
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Roman Society Under the Republic
- The last king of Rome, Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, was overthrown in 509 BCE, and one of the biggest changes that occurred as a result was the establishment of two chief magistrates called consuls who were elected by the citizens of Rome for an annual term.
- Their limited terms of office also opened them up to the possibility of prosecution in the event of abuses of power.
- Tension over this imbalance of power led to the passage of Lex Trebonia, which forbade the co-opting of colleagues to fill vacant positions on tribunes in order to sway voting in favor of one or another bloc.
- Throughout the fourth century BCE, a series of reforms were passed that required all laws passed by the plebeian council to have the full force of law over the entire population, regardless of status as patrician or plebeian.
- This law ended the requirement that an auctoritas patrum be passed before a bill could be considered by either the plebeian council or the tribal assembly, removing the final patrician senatorial check on the plebeian council.
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The Eastern Roman Empire, Constantine the Great, and Byzantium
- The age of Constantine marked a distinct epoch in the history of the Roman Empire.
- The reign of Constantine established a precedent for the position of the emperor as having great influence and ultimate regulatory authority within the religious discussions involving the early Christian councils of that time, e.g., most notably the dispute over Arianism, and the nature of God.
- One way in which Constantine used his influence over the early Church councils was to seek to establish a consensus over the oft debated and argued issue over the nature of God.
- In 325 he summoned the Council of Nicaea, effectively the first Ecumenical Council.
- The Council of Nicaea is most known for its dealing with Arianism and for instituting the Nicene Creed, which is still used today by Christians.