Tradivox Volume 7: Trent (The Catechism of the Council of Trent)

Volume 7 of the Tradivox series contains the most authoritative Catholic catechism ever composed: the Catechism of the Council of Trent.

In the nearly five centuries since its publication, this text has been known by many names, perhaps most commonly as the Roman Catechism. Partly in answer to the expanding errors of the Protestant Revolt, this catechism was composed by order of one of the greatest ecumenical councils in history, the Council of Trent (1545–1563). Written especially for priests, the text was authored by a team of the Church’s most eminent theologians under the personal direction of the great Saint Charles Borromeo, patron of bishops and catechists. When completed, it was promulgated in 1566 as the first universal catechism in Church history, by Pope Saint Pius V, the great Pontiff of the Counter-Reformation. It was subsequently praised and repeatedly required for priestly formation, by popes and councils across the centuries. Amid its continuous reprintings across the world, it was declared “far removed from every danger of error” by Clement XIII in 1761, hailed as a “precious summary of all theology, both dogmatic and moral” by Leo XIII in 1899, and more recently affirmed as “a work of the first rank as a summary of Christian teaching and traditional theology” by John Paul II in 1979. 

Among the many versions of this monumental catechism that are currently in print, this Tradivox volume stands as the definitive English edition, as well as a scholarly tool of the first rank, by several counts: First and most notably, it recovers the approved and unabridged 1923 translation by the renowned Dominican priests and scholars, Fathers McHugh (d. 1950) and Callan (d. 1962) – their expert introduction, copious footnotes, and recommended sermon cycle have all been retained, offering detailed insight and apparatus for further study. Second, all footnotes have been sourced, expanded, and standardized for the benefit of the common reader, with the translators’ notes clearly marked in order to differentiate them from the original manuscript references. Third, additional citation numbers for the current Code of Canon Law (983) have been included wherever relevant. Produced in the same superlative quality common to the entire Tradivox collection, Volume 8 is therefore the definitive critical edition of the Roman Catechism; a text that princes of the Church have referred to simply as “that golden book.”