A further reason that the General Council never met was because of the Habsburg and Valois rivalry. This meant that popes could call the council so it did seem to everyone they were making an effort to sort the church out, but they actually had no intention of the council actually happening. For the council to sit Habsburg and Valois had to cooperate, as they had power over most of Europe, and the main problem was where it was to take place as it had to be on neutral land. If the council was held within the Holy Roman Empire then the French King would not attend. It was necessary for both Charles V and Frances I to attend; the meeting could not happen with out one of them.
Finally for a pope to call a General council it may look like an admission of weakness. Also it threatened the Pope’s supreme power and authority over the Catholic Church.
Popes before Paul III included Adrian VI, Clement VII, Leo X and Julius II. None of these Popes made a successful attempt to reform the church, they each had individual reasons. One of the closest Popes before Paul to reform was Adrian VI. This is because Adrian was not Italian, he was therefore a stranger to Italian politics he also had a serious interest in religion. He had no family so he didn’t use the corrupt ways of the church to gain richness fro himself. Adrian publicly admitted hat the church was in need of reform. However he was not successful because he was only Pope for a year, he died in 1523. He also started to go back to the corrupt ways of the church by exploiting the financial abuses of the church.
Clement VII had a limited interest in reforming the church, and he had a weak character. In the time that Clement was Pope Charles V invaded Rome and for more than a month 20,000 troops took over the city, raping nuns and stealing from people. Clement therefore had to sort out this problem before a reformation could happen. Clement managed to survive as a Pope by making vague promises that come kind of reform would happen in the future. Clement was the last Pope before Paul and the idea of the Sack of Rome became known to many people. This was the idea that God was not happy with the church and the way it was run, this therefore put urgency on reforming the church. This put more pressure on Paul to do something.
When Paul first became Pope it did not look likely that he would be a Pope that would reform the Catholic Church. This was because eh was from a typical Italian family who saw the church as a source of power and wealth and not for religion. Paul did typically as other Popes did when he first became a Pope; he made his two fifteen year old grandsons cardinals. He also made his son the ruler of the duchy of Parma and Piacenza, therefore making in family property and not the papacy’s. Paul become Pope at 66 and was therefore not expected to be Pope for long. Paul showed no interest in religion early on in life, however after a spiritual awakening later in life he was ordained priest, but he still was interested in worldly things.
Paul however did decide to reform the church because he became aware of things that may have threatened the Catholic Church later on. One of these being that Henry VIII became king in England and became head of his own church, the Church of England. Paul didn’t want more countries to do this as it would mean the number of supporters for Catholicism would decrease. Paul was under a lot of pressure from Charles VI to stop Protestantism from spreading. If it did spread then not so many people would want to be part of the Holy Roman Empire and therefore his power would decrease. He also acknowledged that Luther was a major threat by the 1930s. Paul did have a genuine belief that the abuses of the church needed to be corrected. He also wanted to safeguard the long term interests of the Papacy by building a solid base of support for Catholicism.
A general council needed to be called because it would make sure that any changes were made official, the general council had the authority to force rulers to comply. A general council would mean that Protestantism and Catholicism would be defined.
In 1536 Paul established a commission to make a recommendation for reform and a council was formed; Consilium de Emendenda Ecclesia. It wanted to stop the selling of exemptions to the wealthy and to stop young people from being ordained and for the authority of bishops to be circumvented. The findings at the meeting however could not be put into action as it would have been likely to cause a revolution. Some things were put into practice though but just subtly.
However although Paul called the council in 1536 it did not actually sit until 1545 this is due to several reasons. One of the reasons was that Charles V only agreed to going to the council if he gained something out of it, even though he wanted the same as Paul. Charles wanted the Pope to support the Hasburg’s against Valois. This therefore causes delay. Paul also wanted French representation at the council, but he wanted the Protestants to stay as he believed it would weaken his rival Charles. Frances therefore only saw loss in going to the meeting and Paul had nothing to offer Frances as he had only managed to get Charles to come due to a promise. Going back on that would mean no Charles at the meeting. Therefore Paul had to wait till the situation changed so that Frances would attend.
A big problem that faced Paul was where to hold the meeting. It had to be on neutral land for both Frances and Charles to agree to attend. Otherwise it was thought that the persons whose land it was on would have a greater influence. The pope would have liked it to be held with in the Papal States but this would be on German soil and Frances would not agree to meet there. However the place could not be to far from the Pope otherwise there would be security risks and communication problems. A city was therefore needed that was technically in the empire but was sufficiently independent to be acceptable to Charles and Frances as an acceptable state. Trent was therefore decided as it was an independent bishopric.
The war is Europe also caused a major problem, the council was originally scheduled to meet in 1542 but in couldn’t due to the war. The war was Charles against Frances; therefore neither of these two most important people would attend. Charles was also busy fighting the German Lutherans. A peace treaty was signed in 1544 between the two rivals and the Lutheran league began to fall. Also Paul didn’t want the council to weaken the papacy, he therefore says before the meeting that anything that is said is just a proposal and will not necessarily be put into action. Paul also wanted to adjust the Voting by Nations method as he thought it unfair as people could influence or change others ideas. So Paul had to take time to change it to one man has one vote and no one could change it. Due to all these reasons the Council of Trent took a long time to actually be called and sat.