SESSION THE TWELFTH

Being the second under the Sovereign Pontiff Julius III., celebrated on the first day of September, 1551.

DECREE FOR THE PROROGUING OF THE SESSION

The sacred and holy, œcumenical and general Synod of Trent, lawfully assembled in the Holy Ghost, the same legate and nuncios of the Apostolic See presiding therein,—having, in the session just past, decreed, that this next session should be celebrated on this day, and that further matters were to be proceeded with; whereas it has hitherto delayed to proceed, on account of the absence of the illustrious German nation, whose interests it principally concerns, and on account of the assemblage of the fathers not [being] numerous; at this very time rejoicing in the Lord, and giving deserved thanks to that same Almighty God, for the arrival, a little before this day, of our venerable brethren and sons in Christ, the archbishops of Mayence and Treves, electoral princes of the holy Roman empire, and also of several other bishops of that and of other provinces; and conceiving a firm hope that very many other prelates, both of Germany itself and of other nations, will, moved by the requirement of their office and by this example, arrive in a few days, [the synod] indicts the next session from the fortieth day from this present, which will be the eleventh of the next month of October; and prosecuting the said council in the state wherein it is now found, whereas in the preceding sessions definite rules were laid down touching the seven sacraments of the new law in general, and on baptism and confirmation in particular, it resolves and decrees, that it must discuss and treat of the sacrament of the most holy Eucharist, and also, as regards reformation, of the other matters which pertain to the more easy and convenient residence of prelates. And it admonishes and exhorts all the fathers, that, meanwhile, after the example of our Lord Jesus Christ, they give themselves to fastings and prayers, as far at least as human weakness will permit, that so God, who is blessed for evermore, being at length appeased, may deign to bring back the hearts of men to the acknowledgment of His own true faith, to the unity of holy mother Church, and to the rule of living righteously.