Celebrated at Bologna, on the twenty-first day of the month of April, MDXLVII.

This sacred and holy, ecumenical and general Synod, which lately was assembled in the city of Trent, and is now lawfully assembled in the Holy Ghost at Bologna, the same most reverend Lords Giammaria del Monte, bishop of Palaestrina, and Marcellus, of the title of the Holy Cross in Jerusalem, priest, [Page 69] cardinals of the holy Roman Church, and Legates apostolic a latere, presiding therein in the name of our most holy Father in Christ, and Lord, Paul III., by the providence of God, Pope; considering that, on the eleventh day of the month of March of the present year, in a general and public Session celebrated in the said city of Trent, in the usual place, all the formalities being observed in the usual manner; (the Synod) ,-for causes then pressing, urgent, and legitimate, and with the interposition also of the authority of the holy Apostolic See, specially also granted to the said most reverend Presidents,-decreed and ordained, that the Council was to be transferred, as it did transfer it, from that place to this city, and likewise that the Session,-indicted there for this twenty-first day of April, that Canons touching the matters of the Sacraments and of Reformation, whereon It had purposed to treat, might be established and promulgated,-ought to be celebrated in this city of Bologna; and considering that some of the Fathers who have been accustomed to be present at this Council,-being some engaged in their own Churches during these last days of the great week (of Lent), and of the Paschal solemnity, and some also detained by other hindrances, -have not as yet come hither, but who nevertheless, it is to be hoped, will shortly be present; and that, from this cause, it has happened that the said matters of the Sacraments and of Reformation could not be examined and discussed in an assembly of prelates as numerous as the holy Synod desired: wherefore, to the end that all things may be done with mature deliberation, with due dignity and gravity, (the Synod) hath resolved, and doth resolve, that it is good, opportunie, and expedient, that the aforenamed Session, which, as has been said, was to have been celebrated on this day, be deferred and prorogued, as it is now deferred and prorogued, to the Thursday within the approaching octave of Pentecost, for the expediting of the matters aforesaid; which day It has deemed, and deems, to be most opportune for the business to be transacted, and most convenient especially for the Fathers who are absent; adding however, that this holy Synod may and can, even in a private congregation, limit and abridge the said term, at Its will and pleasure, as It shall think expedient for the business of the Council.