The Council of Trent, the Bible, and Tradition

The Council [of Trent] agreed fully with Ambrosius Pelargus, that under no condition should the Protestants be allowed to triumph by saying that the council had condemned the doctrine of the ancient church. But this practice caused untold difficulty without being able to guarantee certainty. For this business, indeed, ‘well-nigh divine prudence’ was requisite—which the Spanish ambassador acknowledged as belonging to the council on the sixteenth of March, 1562. Indeed, thus far they had not been able to orient themselves to the interchanging, crisscrossing, labyrinthine, twisting passages of an older and newer concept of tradition. But even in this they were to succeed. Finally, at the last opening [see editors’ note] on the eighteenth of January, 1562, all hesitation was set aside: [Gaspar de Fosso] the Archbishop of Reggio made a speech [see No. 1443] in which he openly declared that tradition stood above Scripture. The authority of the church could therefore not be bound to the authority of the Scriptures, because the church had changed circumcision into baptism, Sabbath into Sunday, not by the command of Christ, but by its own authority. With this, to be sure, the last illusion was destroyed, and it was declared that tradition does not signify antiquity, but continual inspiration.

[Editors’ note: This "last opening" of the Council of Trent was not the last day, but the opening of the 17th session, the first meeting of the last series of sessions that was opened, after a lapse of time, under a new pope. The council was in session for longer or shorter periods over a series of years.]

Neufeld, Don F. and Julia Neuffer, eds., Seventh-day Adventist Bible Student’s Source Book, Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1962, p. 888, no. 1444.
(Source: Heinrich Julius Holtzmann, Kanon und Tradition ("Canon and Tradition"), Ludwigsburg: Druck und Verlag von Ferd. Riehm, 1859, p. 263. German.)

Holtzmann, Heinrich Julius, Kanon und Tradition, Ludwigsburg: Druck und Verlag von Ferd. Riehm, 1859, p. 263.

"A Letter from Heaven" Concerning the Observance of Sunday: Wendover

Command of the Lord, which came from heaven to Jerusalem, concerning the observance of the sabbath.

About that time a letter came from heaven to Jerusalem and was hung up over the altar of St. Simeon, in Golgotha, where Christ was crucified for the redemption of the world; this letter hung for three days and nights, and those who beheld it fell to the earth, asking mercy of God, and beseeching him to show them his will; but on the third day, after the third hour of the day, the patriarch, and the archbishop Zachariah, raised themselves from their prayers, and, opening the fillet over the high-altar, took the sacred letter of God, and after inspecting it, found this inscription on it:--"I am the Lord, who have ordered you to keep holy the day of the sabbath, on which I rested from my labours, that all mortals might on that day rest forever;  and ye have not kept it, nor have ye repented of your sins. As I spake by my gospel,--'The heaven and the earth shall pass away, but my word shall not pass away.' I caused repentance of life to be preached to you, and ye did not believe; I sent upon you pagans, and gentiles, who shed your blood upon the earth, and still ye did not believe; and, because ye did not keep holy the Lord's day, for a few days ye endured famine; but I soon gave you plenty, and ye afterwards did worse: therefore it is my will that, from the ninth hour of the sabbath till sunrise on Monday, no one shall do any work, except that which is good, and whoever shall do so, shall atone for it; and if ye obey not this my command, verily I say unto you, and I swear by my seat and my throne, and by the cherubims which guard my holy seat, that I will not send you any orders by another letter, but I will open the heavens and, instead of rain, I will shower on you stones, and wood, and hot water, by night, such that no man can avoid, since I will destroy all evil-doers. This I say unto you, ye shall die the death, on account of the holy day of the Lord and the other festivals of my saints which ye have not observed. I will send on you beasts with the heads of lions, the hair of women, and the tails of camels, and they shall be so hungry, that they will devour your flesh, and ye shall desire to fly to the sepulchres of the dead to hide yourselves for fear of the these beasts; and I will take away the light of the sun, and send darkness on you, so that not seeing, ye shall slay one another; and I will turn my face from you, and will show you no mercy, for I will burn your bodies, the the hearts of those, who do not keep the Lord's day holy. Hear then my voice, lest ye perish on the earth on account of the sacred day of the Lord; depart from evil and repent of your sins, which if ye do not, ye will perish like Sodom and Gomorrah. Know now, that ye are safe through the prayers of my most holy mother Mary, and of my holy angels who pray daily for you. I gave you corn and wine in abundance, and then ye obeyed me not, for daily do widows and orphans cry unto you, to whom ye show no compassion; pagans have pity, but ye have none. Trees which bring forth fruit will I cause to rot, for your sins; and rivers and fountains shall not give you water. On the mount of Sinai I gave you a law, which ye kept not. Wicked men that ye are, ye have not kept holy the Sunday of my resurrection; ye take away the property of others and treat the matter with no consideration: for this will I send on you worse beasts, who will devour the breasts of your women. Them will I curse who act unjustly towards their brethren; them will I curse who evilly judge the poor and the orphan: but ye have deserted me, and are following the prince of this life. Hear my voice, and ye will receive mercy; but ye cease not from your evil deeds, nor from the works of the devil, inasmuch as you commit perjury and adultery, and so nations will surround you and devour you like wild beasts."

Of the preaching of Eustace abbat of Flaye, on the said mandate.

 But when the patriarch and all the clergy of the Holy Land had carefully examined into the tenor of this letter, and beheld the words of it with mixed admiration and fear, it was determined by the common opinion of all, that it should be transmitted for the consideration of the Roman pontiff, that all might be satisfied with whatever he determined ought to be done. The letter having at length been brought under the notice of our lord the pope, he immediately ordained priests, who were sent out into every quarter of the world to preach the purport of the letter, the Lord co-operating with them, and confirming their discourse by miracles resulting therefrom. Amongst these the abbat of Flaye, Eustace by name, a religious and learned man, set out for England, and there shone forth in performing many miracles [...]

Wendover, Roger de, Flowers of History, 2 vols., trans. J. A. Giles, London: Henry G. Bohn, 1849, vol. 2, pp. 167, 188-190.

Pope Sylvester I Transfered the Sabbath to Sunday

Pope Sylvester first among the Romans ordered that the names of the days [of the week], which they previously called after the name of their gods, that is, [the day] of the Sun, [the day] of the Moon, [the day] of Mars, [the day] of Mercury, [the day] of Jupiter, [the day] of Venus, [the day] of Saturn, they should call feriae thereafter, that is the first feria, the second feria, the third feria, the fourth feria, the fifth feria, the sixth feria, because that in the beginning of Genesis it is written that God said concerning each day: on the first, "Let there be light:; on the second, "Let there be a firmament"; on the third, "Let the earth bring forth verdure"; etc. But he [Sylvester] ordered [them] to call the Sabbath by the ancient term of the law, [to call] the first feria the "Lord's day," because on it the Lord rose [from the dead], Moreover, the same pope decreed that the rest of the Sabbath should be transferred rather to the Lord's day [Sunday], in order that on that day we should rest from worldly works for the praise of God.

Odom, Robert L., Sabbath and Sunday in Early Christianity, Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1977, pp. 247-248.

Eusebius on the Transference of Sabbath to Sunday

... and all things whatsoever that it was duty to do on the Sabbath, these we have transferred to the Lord's day, as more appropriately belonging to it, because it has precedence, and is first in rank, and more honorable than the Jewish Sabbath.

Eusebius' Commentary on the Psalms, Psalm 91 (92), A Psalm or Song for the Sabbath-day, vss. 2, 3.

(Migne's Patrologia Graeca, 1857, vol. 23, col. 1171 & 1172.)