Held as the rallying point of the Counter-Reformation and intended as the Church’s definitive response to Protestant heresies, the Council of Trent is a monolith in the history of the Church. Spanning three sessions and the pontificates of five popes from 1545 to 1563, it somehow managed to pull through one of the most tumultuous and deadly times in Church history to shine forth as a beacon of Catholic orthodoxy over and against numerous errors. It also served to codify and, where necessary, reform Church discipline and practice so as to grant a new life to the Church as a bulwark against all her enemies.

In this volume of The Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent, originally published in 1941, Fr. H. J. Schroeder, O.P.,  provides an exact translation of the texts promulgated by the council and elucidates its momentous accomplishments. Readers will find the text of the documents as here presented refreshingly clear and definitive, as characteristic of the Church’s official pronouncements. Covered within are the official decrees on such elements of Catholic doctrine as:

– Transubstantiation of the Eucharist
– The nature of the Mass
– Penance
– Extreme Unction
– Matrimony as a sacrament
– Holy Orders
– Original Sin
– Veneration of Saints, Relics, and Our Lady
– And far more!

Footnotes with Scriptural references are provided throughout the text, as well as internal cross-references between different parts of the council’s decrees. Lovers of Church history, the development of doctrine, and Catholic truth will not want to miss this magnificent translation of one of the greatest of the 21 ecumenical councils of the Catholic Church.