WORDING EN STREKKING VAN DE CANON OVER HET MERKTEKEN TE TRENTE

Abstract

SUMMARY The point of this article on the Sacramental Character as discussed by the Council of Trent is not so much to establish the doctrine of Trent on this matter—the Council did not have much to say about that—as to describe the procedure accepted by the Council after the promulgation of the Decree on Justification. This procedure influences the dogmatic value of the canon regarding the Character as well as the other 29 canons of that particular Session. In agreement with the Pope and his Roman commission of Cardinals, the legate, Cardinal Cervini, decided to limit the work of the Council to a clear determination of what was universally accepted by the Church as doctrine and practise and to condemn with anathema—that is, excommunication—the contradicting positions of the Reformers, without mentioning their names. Nowhere is there any question about whether this particular point has been revealed by God, which is our modern way of understanding the word „fides”, according to the official determination of Vatican I. „Faith” until the time of the Council of Trent covers the universally accepted doctrine and practise of the Roman Church. In fulfilling the responsability of a Council such as Trent—to determine authoritatively this faith (the real meaning of „diffinire” (sic))—the theologians and Bishops of the Council look first of all toward the former „determinations” of other Councils whether universal or local. A theology of „ecumenical councils” did not exist at that time. Especially in relation to the sacraments—as attested to by Cap. 9 Ad Abolendum Greg. IX decr., V, 7 de haereticis; Martin V in his Bull, „Inter cunctas” at the Council of Contance by the canonical doctrine regarding the authority of the „ecclesiastical customs”—the liturgical tradition of the Church do have a binding authority. The old Canon Law, we know, was based upon common law. The doctrine of the Fathers and the scholastic doctors may help to determine it further. The Bible is, of course, venerated very much, but its authority serves more as the evident background of the Church's teaching rather than as a final criterion. In the matter of the Sacramental Character, the Council of Trent did nothing else than re-state authoritatively the substance of the Decree to the Armenians of the Council of Florence—and this it did quite deliberately. This whole approach, quite different from our way of looking at it since the Reformation and the Enlightment, entails a different view upon the nature of the concrete Church as being the unique way to salvation. We hope to elaborate later this particular view of the Church and the contents of the Christian Faith as implied in the ways of thought, the procedure and the argumentation of the Council of Trent.