Beginning of the Council of Trent

Date: December 13, 1545 • Location: Rome, Italy

The Council of Trent begins as the embodiment of the Counter-Reformation.

The Council of Trent, held between 1545 and 1563 in Trent, in Northern Italy, was the 19th ecumenical council of the Catholic Church. Prompted by the Protestant Reformation at the time, it has been described as the "most characteristic embodiment of the ideals of the Counter-Reformation." It was the last time a Catholic ecumenical council was organized outside the city of Rome, and the second time a council was convened in the territory of the Holy Roman Empire.