AP European Histor

CliffsNotes

The Reformation

The Catholic Reformation

The Catholic Reformation or Counter Reformation is the term used to describe the efforts taken by the Roman Catholic Church to combat Protestantism during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The reform of the Church began under the leadership of Pope Paul III (who reigned from 1534–1549). He supported the creation of the Index of Prohibited Books in Catholic countries that listed heretical works that Catholics were forbidden to read, including the writings of Desiderius, Erasmus, and Galileo. The Church, under Pope Paul III, also revived the medieval Inquisition (church courts), which put heretics on trial for their religious beliefs and killed many of them. The centerpiece of the Counter Reformation was the Council of Trent (1545–1563), which was convened by Pope Paul III and reaffirmed the dogma of the Church. Its main resolutions were the following:

The rejection of the Protestant belief that salvation was obtained solely by faith. Salvation, instead, was obtained by a combination of good works and faith.
The statement that the Bible, Church tradition, and Church law were sources of religious authority and faith.To that end, the individual needs the guidance of the Church in understanding the Bible.
The reaffirmation of seven sacraments, celibacy, and the monastic life.
The condemnation of abuses, such as nepotism and simony, within the Church.
The mandatory seminary education of the clergy in each diocese.
The call for more religious art. (Some believe that these efforts played a role in the development of the Baroque style of art.)

The Jesuits

The Jesuits (Society of Jesus) became the spiritual soldiers of the Counter Reformation to combat Protestantism. Saint Ignatius Loyola (1491–1556), a former Spanish soldier and nobleman, founded the Jesuits in 1534. They were committed to pious living and Loyola demanded absolute obedience and absolute faith. They were a tight-knit organization and received rigorous training in education and philosophy. The Jesuits played a significant role in upholding the Church’s dogma for the following reasons:

They won political influence as advisors to kings.
They educated the youth in schools and universities.
They carried the Christian message to Latin America, Asia, and Africa and preserved Catholicism in southern Germany and much of Eastern Europe.
They used the Inquisition, especially in Italy and Spain, to suppress heresy, to control Protestantism, and to reassure the dominance of Catholicism.

Although the Council of Trent had re-established the power and influence of the papacy, the Protestant Reformation had dealt the Church a serious blow in the following ways:

The religious unity of Europe was destroyed.
Northern Europe (England, Scotland, Wales, Holland, northern Germany, Switzerland, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden) was Protestant and Southern Europe (Southern Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Austria, Hungary, and southern Poland) was predominantly Catholic.
Civil authority gained control over church authority. The idea that the state was superior to the church in all matters except spiritual led to the rise of nationalism.
The importance of the individual reading the Bible encouraged the growth of education and the rise of capitalism. Max Weber, a nineteenth-century German sociologist, claims that the Calvinistic stress on hard work and material success as a symbol of salvation contributed to the growth of capitalism in many Protestant countries.
In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, wars of religion erupted in Europe between Protestants and Catholics.