AP European History

AP Achiever by Chris Freiler

The Reformation

Catholic Revival and Reform

Even before 1517, many Catholics recognized the need for reform. In fact, reform was already under way if we consider the lay piety movement and the writings of Christian humanists. Under Cardinal Ximénes de Cisneros (1436-1517), Spain had already addressed many clerical abuses and had tightened regulations for the training of priests. However, the institutional church, led by the papacy throughout the early 16th century, “fiddled while Rome burned.” Finally, under the pontificate of Paul ill (1534-1549), the hierarchical church responded to the challenge of the Protestant Reformation. The Catholic response to the reformation was multi-pronged and complex. Those actions designed to revive Catholic spirituality are often termed the Catholic Reformation, while those designed to halt the spread of the Protestant Reformation are called the Counter-Reformation. Below is a list of the actions, positive and negative, taken by the Catholic Church in response to the Protestant Reformation.

New religious orders For most Catholics, their connection to the church was their parish priest. Thus, a major dement of reform involved the revival of religious orders and the establishment of new ones. The most important of these was the. Society of Jesus or Jesuits, founded by Ignatius Loyola (1491-1556) in the 1540s. Like Luther, Loyola underwent a spiritual conversion. After being injured in battle, Loyola practiced rigorous acts of self-discipline and recommitted himself to the mysteries of the church. His important book, Spiritual Exercises, contains the famous phrase, “If I see a thing to be white but the institutional church commands it to be black, I will see it as black.” Jesuits had no national base, seeing themselves as the “troops of the Pope” and missionaries to those who did not know Christ. Jesuits worked primarily through education and argument, and their efforts paid off by re-Catholicizing large parts of Eastern Europe, including Poland and Hungary after 1560. Other religious orders focused on charitable works and education. Angela Merici (1474-1540) founded the Ursulines to bring education to girls. The Spanish mystic, Teresa of Avila (1515-1582), experienced visions of Jesus and founded the Carmelites, dedicated to a life of contemplation and service. Also, a group of clergy and laypeople formed the Oratory of Divine Love to push for reform in the church and assist one another in leading lives of simply piety. Finally, a new breed of austere and hard-working bishops emerged, such as Gian Matteo Giberti (1495-1543) of Verona and Cardinal Charles Borromeo (1538-1584) of Milan.
Council of Trent (1545-1563) Though rather tardy and poorly attended, this council finally put the church’s house in order. First, the Cardinals (most from Italy and Spain) . eliminated many church abuses and provided for better education and regulation of priests. Second, the church refused to compromise on religious doctrines, reaffirming distinctive Catholic practices like clerical celibacy, the importance of good works, the authority of the papacy, and transubstantiation. According to the last, the bread and wine, though retaining the incidents of bread and wine such as taste and texture, are truly transformed into another substance (the body and blood of Jesus) during the Mass.
Strengthening the papacy and Inquisition (1542) To better meet the challenge of unorthodox belief, the papal bureaucracy was centralized and strengthened. A major feature of this revamping was the creation of the Roman Inquisition (not to be confused with the Spanish Inquisition), designed to root out perceived heresies. In the long run, the Inquisition had a chilling effect on intellectual life in Italy, as can be seen by the Galileo incident in 1633 (see Chapter 6).
Index of Prohibited Books Under the conservative pontificate of Pope Paul IV (1555- 1559), the church decided to clamp down on any printed materials that threatened to mislead the faithful away from the orthodox interpretations of the magisterium. Though of limited impact in stopping Protestantism, the Index continued until the 20th century.
Baroque art In an effort to revive Catholic spirituality, the church patronized an artistic movement that emphasized grandeur, illusion, and dramatic religiosity. In music, Palestrina composed numerous masses and sacred pieces geared toward arousing strong religious emotion. Multi-talented artists such as Giovanni Lorenzo Bernini (1598-1680) rebuilt Rome as a showplace of Catholic piety (see Chapter 7 for more on Baroque).

SKILL SET Another classic question to consider: compare and contrast the Protestant and Catholic Reformations on religious doctrines and practices (COMP). If you encounter such a question, remember to capture complexity in your interpretation and avoid a one-sided portrayal that may reflect your own sympathies.
How successful was the Catholic response? By 1560, the religious divide in Europe was an accomplished fact; in that sense, the Catholic response came too little and too late.· However, some parts of Europe had been re-Catholicized, and the church emerged from its reforms stronger and more militant than in 1500, before the Reformation had begun. One fact is clear: after the completion of the Council of Trent’s work in 1564, no religious compromise was . possible. With a militant Calvinism and revived and rearmed Catholic Church, an extended period of religious conflict lay on the horizon.