Council of Trent
 

Council of Trent was the response of Rome to the Protestant Reformation. Remember—the Protestant Reformation brought us all of the political liberty that we know of today. There’s no such thing as national sovereignty without the Reformation. There’s no such thing as private rights without the Reformation. There’s no such thing as the Law of Nations, as we know of it today, of Montesquieu and the others, without the Reformation. So, when the Reformation came with their doctrines of salvation by grace through faith alone, and that there was no need for the priesthood to go to Heaven—that all we need is salvation in Christ, and Romans 1:17: the righteous shall live by faith.

When the Reformation came, it completely stripped Rome of its spiritual power. The priests were no longer wanted because the people were getting the word of God in a Bible, specifically in Holland, England, and Germany. And so, with these great revivals breaking forth and the Reformation happening, nations were breaking away from the power of the Pope. The Holy Roman Empire was breaking up. Charles V, the Emperor, resigned and became a monk and a gardener. So, the Lord was moving mightily in breaking the power of the Holy Roman Empire, started by Charlemagne and the Pope. The Council of Trent consists of 25 Sessions. Those 25 Sessions accurse and condemn all the doctrines of the Reformation.

It condemns anybody who does not believe that the literal Jesus Christ is in the host [holy communion bread], and that his literal blood is in the wine. That’s called transubstantiation.

• Anybody who does not believe that is an accursed anathema.

• Anybody who believes that their salvation is outside the Catholic Church is accursed anathema.

• Anybody who believes in justification by grace through faith—anathema, accursed.

• Anybody who believes that the Pope is not the vicar of Christ—accursed, anathema.

You see, all of these doctrines were being put forth as a result of reading the Bible, which produced the Reformation, and so the Jesuits accursed everything that the Reformers were preaching. This is all in Law called the Council of Trent. In the 4^th Session, which is probably the most important Session, the Jesuits condemn freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and freedom of conscience. So, no man has the right to choose his own religion; no man has the right to publish what he feels is the truth; and no man has the right to freedom of conscience.