Church History · 1540 to 1563

The Jesuits and the Council of Trent

The Catholic Church answered the Reformation with its own renewal. Ignatius of Loyola's Jesuits were approved in 1540, and the Council of Trent, meeting from 1545 to 1563, defined Catholic teaching, confirmed the 73 book canon and stopped the sale of indulgences.

Read it in the Bible: Ephesians 2:8-10 James 2:14-26 John 17:20-23 Matthew 28:19-20

The Catholic Church did not just sit still while the Reformation spread. In 1540 Pope Paul III approved a new religious order, the Society of Jesus, better known as the Jesuits, founded by a former soldier named Ignatius of Loyola. Then from 1545 to 1563 Catholic bishops met at the Council of Trent in northern Italy. The council clearly defined Catholic teaching against Protestant views, confirmed the 73 books of the Catholic Bible in 1546 and cleaned up many abuses, including the selling of indulgences. Historians call this the Catholic Reformation or the Counter Reformation.

Who Was Ignatius of Loyola?

Ignatius was born in 1491 to a noble family in the Basque country of Spain. He wanted glory as a soldier. In 1521, the same year Luther stood at Worms, a cannonball smashed his leg during the siege of Pamplona. While he recovered, the only books around were a life of Christ and stories of the saints. He read them out of boredom and came out a changed man.

He spent months in prayer and wrote down a method for helping people meet God, which became the Spiritual Exercises. Then, in his thirties, he went back to school with students half his age and studied at the University of Paris.

How Did the Jesuits Begin?

In Paris, Ignatius gathered a small group of friends, including Francis Xavier and Peter Faber. On August 15, 1534, seven of them made vows together in a chapel at Montmartre. On September 27, 1540, Pope Paul III officially approved them as the Society of Jesus.

The Jesuits were different from older orders of monks. They did not stay in monasteries. They promised to go wherever the pope sent them. Francis Xavier sailed for Asia in 1541 and preached in India and Japan. Others went to the Americas, China and Africa. The Jesuits also became famous for schools. By the time Ignatius died in 1556, they ran dozens of colleges, and they still run many universities today, including Georgetown and Boston College. Pope Francis, who led the Catholic Church from 2013 to 2025, was the first Jesuit pope.

What Was the Council of Trent?

For years people on all sides had called for a general council to deal with the crisis. Pope Paul III finally opened it at Trent on December 13, 1545. It met in three periods, from 1545 to 1547, 1551 to 1552, and 1562 to 1563, under three popes, and it closed on December 4, 1563. Jesuit theologians like Diego Laínez and Alfonso Salmerón took part.

Protestants were invited to some sessions, but by then the two sides were too far apart. Trent did two big jobs. It defined doctrine, and it reformed church life.

What Did Trent Decide About the Bible?

On April 8, 1546, the council listed the books of Scripture. It included the books Protestants call the Apocrypha, which Catholics call deuterocanonical, giving 46 Old Testament books and 27 New Testament books, a total of 73. The Council of Florence had listed the same books a century earlier, but Trent made it a binding definition. You can compare canons on the Apocryphal Books page on this site.

Trent also taught that God's truth comes to us through both Scripture and the church's sacred tradition. And it declared the Latin Vulgate the authentic Bible for public reading, preaching and teaching in the Catholic Church.

What Did Trent Teach About Salvation?

This was the center of the disagreement. Trent taught that salvation begins entirely with God's grace and that no one can earn it. But it rejected the Protestant teaching of justification by faith alone. In Catholic teaching, God's grace truly makes a person righteous inside, and the believer cooperates with that grace through faith, hope, love and good works.

Protestants point to Paul. Catholics point to James. Both are in everyone's Bible.

For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not from yourselves; it is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast. Ephesians 2:8 to 9

As you can see, a man is justified by his deeds and not by faith alone. James 2:24

Protestants answer that James is talking about faith proving itself real through deeds, and the very next verse in Ephesians says we are created for good works. Catholics answer that Paul means works of the law, not the works that grace produces. In 1999 Catholic and Lutheran leaders signed a joint declaration agreeing on many basics of justification while still noting differences. Trent also affirmed the seven sacraments, the Mass as a sacrifice and purgatory.

What Reforms Did Trent Make?

Trent was not only about doctrine. It took aim at many of the abuses Luther had complained about.

Indulgences. In 1562 the council abolished the professional indulgence preachers, and in 1563 it ordered all money making connected with indulgences to be completely stopped. Pope Pius V canceled all indulgence grants involving fees in 1567.
Bishops. Bishops had to live in their own dioceses and preach, instead of collecting income from far away.
Priests. Every diocese was told to build a seminary to train priests properly.
Teaching. A new catechism followed in 1566, and the Mass was standardized in 1570.

Why It Matters for You Today

Trent shaped the Catholic Church for 400 years, until the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s. The Jesuits carried the gospel, as they understood it, to places no Protestant missionary would reach for another two centuries. Protestants and Catholics still disagree on important things, and those differences are worth understanding clearly and charitably. But both can say with Ignatius that everything should be done for the greater glory of God. And both can pray what Jesus prayed.

that all of them may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I am in You. May they also be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me. John 17:21

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Questions People Ask

When were the Jesuits founded?

Pope Paul III officially approved the Society of Jesus on September 27, 1540. Ignatius of Loyola and six companions had first taken vows together at Montmartre in Paris on August 15, 1534.

What did the Council of Trent do?

Meeting from 1545 to 1563, the Council of Trent defined Catholic teaching on Scripture, tradition, justification and the sacraments, and rejected key Protestant teachings. It also reformed the church by requiring seminaries, disciplining bishops and ending the sale of indulgences.

How many books are in the Catholic Bible?

The Catholic Bible has 73 books, 46 in the Old Testament and 27 in the New Testament. The Council of Trent confirmed this list on April 8, 1546, including the books Protestants call the Apocrypha.

Did the Council of Trent stop selling indulgences?

Yes. Trent kept the teaching on indulgences but abolished the professional indulgence preachers and ordered all money abuses stopped. In 1567 Pope Pius V canceled all grants of indulgences that involved fees.

Sources

← John Calvin and the Reformed Churches The Geneva Bible: The First Study Bible →

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