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

THE PAPAL SUPREMACY. 37I
Finally the Council recognized, dc facto, the primacy of the
Pope by submitting, in the last of its decrees, the decisions
arrived at to Papal confirmation.
The denial of the Papal supremacy on the part of the
innovators was sufficiently answered by these decisions, but
Gallican views as to the primacy, and especially the question
whether the Pope was subject to an ecumenical Council, were
not expressly decided at Trent. On account of the uncertainty
of the religious position in France, it was to be feared that a
formal condemnation of this doctrine, the evil inheritance
of the XVth Century, might give rise to a schism.
As regards everything else, the " most important " doctrines
of the innovators^ were condemned by the Council. The
old Church, which had been defamed and said to be dead,
had proved her vitality in a striking and most efficacious
manner. If Luther had attained to great success, through
his superiority as a writer endowed with a great command of
language, the discussions and decrees of the Council at Trent
displayed a superiority of another kind, the superiority of
ripe theological science, penetrating discernment, and a deep
understanding of the coherence of Christian doctrine.
The reform decrees of the Council are no less striking a
testimony to the spirit and strength of the old Church. She
had been attacked in every way, in word, in writing, and in
picture ; she had been represented as the kingdom of Anti-
Christ, and the sink of iniquity, but behold ! the calumniated
Church had risen again, and her very rising was a proof that
the spirit of Paul and Elias was still alive in her.
1 Later on, in the times of Louis XIV. and Joseph II., they like-
wise could not appeal to a conciliar decision against the obscuring
of the doctrine of the faith on this point. To the great detriment
of the Church the ideas of the time of the Council of Basle could
therefore continue to flourish, and the Church to be disturbed
by Gallicanism, Febronianism and lastly by the school of Dol-
linger.
2 Sancta synodus id potissimum curavit, ut praecipuos haereti
corum nostri temporis errores damnaret. Sess. 25 Contin., de
recip. et observ. deer.
^