The Council of Trent (1545–63, with two breaks of several years each; Councils of the Church 4) was the official answer of the Roman Catholic Church to the Reformation and its questions to theology, its preaching, and its ecclesiology. By means of definitions, judgments, and reforming decrees, and in spite of interruptions and internal worries, the council brought about a limited but effective renewal of the church (Catholic Reform and Counterreformation) and created presuppositions fo…