No…the fact is that the Trent only affirmed what had been already accepted centuries before.
Why vote? Because that is what councils do?
Can you provide any documentation that anyone at Trent rejected the 73 book canon that we have had for 2,000 years?
I see a lot of implied allegations in your post, but no substantiation.
However,
this article shows that even the earliest church sources considered the DCs as Canon.
Can you do better in support of your post?
Maybe you are aware, or maybe you are not, but quite a few Catholics on this board seem to think the earlier councils were binding for the whole church and that the issue was settled at that time, which it wasn’t.
From the earliest days in the church to Pope Gregory the Great to Cardinal Bellarmine at the reformation we find Catholics who reject the deutero’s either in part or in whole. Certainly “some” did in fact accept the the deutero’s that later became part of the canon of Trent but certainly not all.
Trent had a vote to establish the canon. If Trent only wished to re-affirm or re-establish what was already universally accepted, it would make no sense to have a vote and certainly it would make no sense for some of the Tridentine fathers to reject the books that were already universally accepted.
From Gary Michuta’s website (Catholic apologist for those who don’t know him)
*From these we see that the bishops at Trent were not silent about their silence on this question. They had a discussion about it. At the end of that discussion, they took a vote. This is a matter of record, not of interpretation. On March 29, 1546 the Council Fathers took up the fourth of fourteen questions (Capita Dubitationum) on Scripture and Tradition. At issue was whether those books that were not included in the official list, but were included in the Latin Vulgate (e.g. The Book of Esdras, Fourth Ezra, and Third Maccabees), should be rejected by a Conciliar decree, or be passed over in silence.
Only three Fathers voted for an explicit rejection. Forty-two voted that the status of these books should be passed over in silence. *
The context of the above quote is the discussion Gary and James White had on Trent passing over in silence one of the books that was included in the two earlier councils canons. Now, it’s a fact that three fathers rejected these books explicitly and 42 voted to pass over the book in question in silence.
I only bring up the fact that Trent voted on the books to accept or reject them in order to demonstrate that:
The issue of the deutero’s wasn’t closed for the RCC until Trent. The earlier councils were apparently not binding upon the whole church.
If someone wants to argue that the earlier councils settled the matter they need to explain:
a.) Why did Trent need to vote at all on the books to accept or reject if the matter was already settled?
b.) Even if you explain away the vote, how do you explain the rejection of the books by some of the fathers at Trent?
Now, I have no doubt that someone will take what I have said out of context so let me say again, I have only mentioned this to show that the issue of canonocity for the deutero’s wasn’t settled until Trent.
BTW, I quoted the above section from Gary’s website so that no one would worry about me bringing in a biased text.
