Council of Trent 15451563

1
Council of Trent (1545-1563)

• Most important council between Council of Nicea
  (325) and the Second Vatican Council (1962-65)
• Attempts to distinguish between Official
  teaching of the church and private opinions
• Equal validity of Scripture and Tradition as
  sources of Religious Truth
• Guidelines for bishops and clergy

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Council of Trent

• The sole right of the Church to Interpret the
  Bible
• Authority of the Vulgate (trans. revised)
• The theology of seven sacraments with special
  attention to baptism and confirmation
• Transubstantiation was affirmed
• Practice of Communion in one kind

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The Jesuits

• Society of Jesus - founded in 1534 (Papal Order
  in 1540)
• Founded by Spanish nobleman, Ignatius of Loyola
  (1491-1556)
• Spiritual Excercises Designed to carry an
  inquirer through four intensive stages of
  spiritual pilgrimage (examination of conscience,
  meditation, contemplation, and prayer).

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Mysticism

• Concerned with immediate union with God and the
  spiritual dimension of life
• Eastern and Western patterns of mysticism
• In Western mysticism God transcends reality, God
  is distinct from creation
• Modern mystic, Thomas Merton, combines both
  patterns

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Theresa of Avila (1515-82)

• Renewal of Carmelite houses
• Influential spiritual works such as The Way of
  Perfection
• Spiritual marriage with God and a vision of
  Christ
• Points to the existence of states of prayer from
  discursive meditation to ecstasy