VI. Decisions Crystallized Into Catechism and Creed

The council stressed medieval Catholicism as the sole custodian of truth and compacted it with iron bands into a rigid system of doctrine, incapable of any alteration or essential reform. The decrees of the council were confirmed, January 26, 1564, by a bull of Pius IV. In December of the same year the Creed of Pius IV—a brief summary of the doctrinal positions of the council in the form of a creed—was immediately received throughout the Catholic Church as an accurate, explicit, and official summary of the Catholic faith. ^{26Buckley, op. cit., p. 519; Philip Schaff, Creeds, vol. 1, pp. 96-99.} The publication of the Latin A Catechism of the Council of Trent, authorized by the council, followed in 1566. It was a manual of instruction chiefly for priests. These two documents set the standard of Catholic faith and practice to the present day. Only two cardinal Roman Catholic tenets have since been added—the Immaculate Conception (of Mary), in 1854, and the infallibility of the pope and the universality of his episcopate, in 1870. ^{27A convenient chronological Summary of council proceedings, in English, appears in Landon, op. cit., vol. 2, pp. 180-241.}PFF2 475.2

The Creed of Pius IV utterly denies salvation to those who differ from Rome; requires unreserved adherence to the published canons and decrees of preceding councils, as well as of Trent. ^{28Joseph Faà di Bruno, Catholic Belief, pp. 250-254.}PFF2 476.1