The history of the popes, from the close of the middle ages : drawn ...

370 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
that the Cathohc doctrine should, first be systematically set
forth, with proofs, and only then were the errors opposed to it
condemned in short canons. The fathers of the Council had
the great advantage when making decrees on the sacraments,
that the subject had already been exhaustively discussed by
the scholastic theologians. Where the opinions of the scholas-
tics were not in agreement, the question was either evaded
or left open, as not yet being ripe for a decision, or else not of
importance to the faith. The XXVth and last Session simply
promulgates some decrees, partly dogmatic, on Purgatory,
the cultus of the saints, relics, images and indulgences.
No formal, definitive, decision was pronounced at Trent
with regard to a very important doctrine : that of the primacy
of the Roman See. The Council, however, often calls the
Roman Church the mother and mistress of all the churches ;^
it ordered that at the acceptance of the Council's decisions at
each of the provincial synods, and at the reception of any
ecclesiastical dignity, all must promise true obedience to the
Pope. 2 The Council also ordained that its decrees should
only have force subject to the maintenance of the rights of
the Roman See.^ It recognized that the Pope, in virtue of
his office, has to care for the whole Church,* and that it fell
to him to provide for the holding of an ecumenical Council.^
^ Si quis dixerit in ecclesia Romana, quae omnium ecclesiarum
mater est et magistra, non esse veram de baptismi sacramento
doctrinam : anathema sit., Sess. 7, de baptismo, can. 3. Cf.
Sess. 14, de extr. unctione c. 3 ; sess. 25, de delectu ciborum ;
sess, 22, doctrina de sacrif.' missae c. 8. Cf. the Professio fidei
Tridentinae.
^ Sess. 25, de ref. c. 2 ; cf. sess. 24 c. 12.
3 Sess. 25, de ref. c. 21 ; cf. sess. 7, de ref. Prooem.
* Sollicitudinem universae ecclesiae ex muneris sui ofificio debet.
Sess. 24, de ref. c. i ; cf. sess. 14, de poenit, c. : 7 Pontifices
maximi pro suprema potestate sibi in ecclesia universa tradita
causas aliquas . . . sue potuerunt peculiari iudicio reservare.
® The difficulties which might arise in the acceptance or carrying
into effect of the concihar decrees, would be overcome, so the
Council hoped, by the Pope " vel etiam concilii generalis celebra-
tione, sinecessariumiudicaverit." Sess. 25Contin., De recipiendis
et observandis decretis concilii.