This creed was in response
to the Protestant revolt and can be said to be the precursor to
Pope St. Pius X's Oath Against Modernism.
The
Trentine Creed or
The
Creed of Pius IV. , A.D. 1564.
1. I most steadfastly
admit and embrace Apostolical and ecclesiastical traditions,
and all other observances
and constitutions of the Church.
2. I also admit
the Holy Scripture according to that sense which our
holy mother the
Church has held, and does hold, to which it belongs to judge of
the true sense and
interpretations of the Scriptures. Neither will I ever take and
interpret them otherwise
than according to the unanimous consent of the Fathers.
3. I also profess
that there are truly and properly seven Sacraments of the
New Law, instituted
by Jesus Christ our Lord, and necessary for the salvation
of mankind, though
not all for every one; to wit, Baptism, Confirmation,
Eucharist, Penance,
Extreme Unction, Order, and Matrimony; and that they
confer grace; and
that of these, Baptism, Confirmation, and Order cannot be
reiterated without
sacrilege. I also receive and admit the received and approved
ceremonies of the
Catholic Church in the solemn administration of the
aforesaid Sacraments.
4. I embrace and
receive all and every one of the things which have been
defined and declared
in the holy Council of Trent concerning Original Sin
and justification.
5. I profess, likewise,
that in the Mass there is offered to God a true, proper,
and propitiatory
sacrifice for the living and the dead; and that in the most
holy sacrament of
the Eucharist there is truly, really, and substantially,
the Body and Blood,
together with the Soul and Divinity, of our Lord
Jesus Christ; and
that there is made a conversion of the whole substance of
the bread into the
body, and of the whole substance of the
wine into
the blood, which conversion the Catholic Church calls
Transubstantiation.
I also confess that under either kind alone Christ is
received whole and
entire, and a true Sacrament.
6. I constantly
hold that there is a Purgatory, and that the souls therein
detained are helped
by the suffrages of the faithful.
7. Likewise, that
the saints, reigning together with Christ, are to be honored
and invocated, and
that they offer prayers to God for us, and that their relics
are to be respected.
8. I most firmly
assert that the images of Christ, of the mother of God, ever
Virgin, and also
of the Saints, ought to be had and retained, and that due
honor and veneration
is to be given them.
9. I also affirm
that the power of indulgences was left by Christ in the Church,
and that the use
of them is most wholesome to Christian people.
10. I acknowledge
the Holy Catholic Apostolic Roman Church for the mother
and mistress of
all churches; and I promise true obedience to the Bishop of Rome,
successor to St.
Peter, Prince of the Apostles, and Vicar of Jesus Christ.
11. I likewise undoubtedly
receive and profess all other things delivered, defined,
and declared by
the sacred Canons, and general Councils, and particularly
by the holy Council
of Trent.
12. And I condemn,
reject, and anathematize all things contrary thereto,
and all heresies
whatsoever, condemned, rejected, and anathematized by
the Church. This
true Catholic faith, without which no one can be saved,
I. N.N. do at this
present freely confess and sincerely hold; and I promise most
constantly to retain,
and confess the same entire and unviolated, with God's
assistance, to the
end of my life.
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