A church dictionary

by Walter Farquhar Hook

XIX. Whosoever shall deny, that the whole of Christ, the source and author of all grace, is received in the bread, because, as some falsely affirm, according to Christ’s own institution, he is not received under one and each kind: let him be accursed. (See Communion in One Kind.)

XX. Whosoever shall say, that the mass ought to be performed only in the vulgar tongue: let him be accursed. (See Liturgy.)

XXI. The Catholic Church, instructed by the Holy Ghost, and in conformity to the Holy Scriptures, and the ancient tradition of the Fathers, hath taught in its sacred councils, and, lastly, in this œcumenical synod, that there is a purgatory, and that the souls detained therein are assisted by the prayers of the faithful, and more especially by the acceptable sacrifice of the altar. (See Purgatory.)

XXII. Whosoever shall say, that after receiving the grace of justification, any penitent sinner hath his offence so remitted, and his obnoxiousness to eternal punishment so blotted out, as to render him no longer obnoxious to temporal punishment, to be undergone either in this world or in the future in purgatory, before an entrance can be opened to the kingdom of heaven: let him be accursed. (See Purgatory.)

XXIII. This holy synod enjoins all bishops and others who undertake the office of teaching, to instruct the faithful, that the saints who reign together with Christ offer up their prayers to God for men, that it is good and profitable to invoke them in a supplicating manner, and that, in order to procure benefit from God through his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who is our only Redeemer and Saviour, we should have recourse to their prayers, help, and assistance; and that those persons hold impious opinions who deny that the saints enjoying eternal happiness in heaven are to be invoked; or who affirm, that the saints do not pray for men, or that the invoking them that they may pray ever for every one of us in particular, is idolatry, or is repugnant to the word of God, and contrary to the honour of the one Mediator between God and men, Jesus Christ, or that it is foolish to supplicate orally or mentally those who reign in heaven. (See Invocation of Saints.)

XXIV. Also the bodies of the holy martyrs and others living with Christ, having been lively members of Christ and temples of the Holy Ghost, and to be raised again by him to eternal life and glory, are to be reverenced by the faithful, as by them many benefits are bestowed by God on men; so that they who affirm that reverence and honour are not due to the reliques of saints, or that it is useless for the faithful to honour them or other sacred monuments, and a vain thing to celebrate the memory of the saints, for the purpose of obtaining their assistance, are wholly to be condemned, as the Church hath before condemned and now condemns them. The images of Christ, and of the Virgin Mother of God, and of the other saints, are to be set up and retained, especially in churches, and due honour and reverence to be paid unto them. (See Image Worship, Mariolatry, and Relics.)

XXV. Since the power of granting indulgences hath been bestowed by Christ upon the Church, and such power thus Divinely imparted hath been exercised by her even in the earliest times; this holy synod teaches and enjoins that the use of indulgences, as very salutary to Christian people, and approved of by the sacred councils, be retained in the Church, and pronounces an anathema on such as shall affirm them to be useless, or deny the power of granting them to be in the Church. (See Indulgences.)

XXVI. The holy synod exhorts and adjures all pastors, by the coming of our Lord and Saviour, that as good soldiers they enjoin the faithful to observe all things which the holy Roman Church, the mother and mistress of all Churches, hath enacted, as well as such things as have been enacted by this and other œcumenical councils. (See Church of Rome.)

XXVII. The chief pontiffs, by virtue of the supreme authority given them in the universal Church, have justly assumed the power of reserving some graver criminal causes to their own peculiar judgment. (See Supremacy, Papal.)

XXVIII. The more weighty criminal charges against bishops which deserve deposition and deprivation may be judged and determined only by the supreme Roman pontiff. (See Pope.)