THE LOST DEBATE at the Council of Trend
It was at the Council of Trend (1545-1563) that the Catholic Church formulated its permanent fundamentals of the Catholic Creed-- these series of sessions were to consider the questions that had been raised and forced upon the attention of Europe by the Protestant Reformers: The Reformers had charged that the Catholic Church had apostatised from the truth "as contained in the written word." Thus was the proclaimed platform of the reformation and of Protestantism: The Written Word, "The Bible and Only The Bible Only," these were their constant watchwords ... ...but the Catholics insisted on "the scripture and Tradition," the Bible as interpreted by the Church and the reasoning of its "holy fathers," the Popes and Bishops, etc.. of earlier generations...
Incidentally, these meetings lasted for over 27 years. The reason for their first recess was due to a plague in Trend, then the Council was frequently adjourned because the delegates could not reach a mutual agreement.
There was a strong party even of the Catholics within the council who were in favor of abandoning "tradition" and adopting the Scriptures only as the standard of authority. The view was so decidedly held in the debates that the Pope's legates actually wrote to him that there was "a strong tendency to set aside tradition altogether and to make scripture the sole standard of appeal." But to do this would manifestly be a big step towards justifying the claims of the Protestants...
By this crisis there was developed within the ultra-catholic portion of the council the task of convincing the others that "scripture and Tradition" were the only sure ground to stand upon -- if this could be done, the council could be convinced to issue a decree condemning the Reformation, otherwise not...
The question was debated day after day, until the council was brought to a standstill. finally, after a long and intensive debate, the Archbishop of Reggio introduced into the council substantially the following argument:
“The Protestants claim to stand upon "the written word only" -- the profess to hold the Scripture alone as the standard point of faith. The justify their revolt by the plea that the church has apostatized from the written word and follows Tradition. Now the protestants' claim, that they stand upon the written word only, is not true. Their profession of holding "the scripture alone as the standard of faith" is false!
The proof: The written word explicitly enjoins the observance of the Seventh Day as the Sabbath. They do not observe the seventh day, but reject it! If they do truly hold the scriptures alone as their standard, they would be observing the Seventh Day as in enjoined in the scripture throughout! Yet they now only reject the observance of the Sabbath enjoined in the written word, but they have adopted and do practice the observance of Sunday, for which they have only the Tradition of the Church... Consequently the claim of "scripture alone as the standard" fails, and the doctrine of "scripture and Tradition" as essential, is fully established, the Protestants themselves being the judges!”
By the observation the archbishop scored a telling point, for the protestants' own states of faith (the Augsburg Confession of 1530)2 had clearly admitted that "the observation of the Lord's Day" had been appointed by the Church only.
The argument was hailed in the council as pure inspiration -- the party for "scripture alone" surrendered... and the council at once unanimously condemned Protestantism and the whole Reformation as only an unwarranted revolt from the communion and authority of the Catholic Church...
Thus it was the inconsistency of the protestant practice with "protestant profession" that gave to the Catholic Church her long-sought and anxiously desired ground upon which to condemn Protestantism and the whole reformation movement... All because the Protestants rejected the Bible's Holy seventh-Day Sabbath. ...So the Catholics won, and the Protestants failed in winning an important victory for the Lord. "Tradition" was to continue.
Noteworthy
Today we see that the Reformation is almost completely reversed, and we hear more and more voices of Protestant church leaders to hit the road back to the Mother Church. Rome has never abandoned the view that there is only one real, general and apostolic Church and that Protestants split-offs are not churches but ecclesiastic body’s, daughters, in rebellion with the only, legitimate ecclesiastical authority: the authority of Rome.
The road back to the mother church is through the by Rome at the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) instigated Ecumenical Movement - the reverse Reformation.
Lutherans and Anglicans are becoming Catholics and bit by bit the Reformation of the 16th century is made of non effect. Once this ecumenism of the churches is a fact, what will that say about the approximately two hundred million martyrs who did not wish to bow to the tyranny of the Church, but wanted to determine for themselves what is truth (this is the only correct definition of the word (haireseis) in 1 Corinthians 11:19, Galatians 5:20, 2 Peter 2:1: "thinking of one’s own")?
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1. The Augsburg Confession (June 25, 1530) is the primary confession of faith of the Lutheran Church and one of the most important documents of the Lutheran Reformation, written by Melanchton, and approved by Maarten Luther. In article VII - Of Ecclesiastical Power it is stated: “They [the Bishops] allege the change of the Sabbath into the Lord's day, contrary, as it seemeth, to the Decalogue; and they have no example more in their mouths than the change of the Sabbath. They will needs have the Church's power to be very great, because it [the Church] hath dispensed with a precept of the Decalogue.” See: http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/creeds3.iii.ii.html
From: A Sabbath Journey from Genesis to Revelation, by Ingrid A. Wijngaarde. E-book edition, HERE free download. Paper edition is currently in revision and will be released later this year. To be ordered in the web shop of www.promiseministry.nl