The Counter
-Reformation
What “is” the Counter-Reformation?
•The response of the Roman Catholic Church to the
reformers’ demands.
•It is the period of Catholic revival from the
pontificate of Pope Pius IV in 1560 to the close of the Thirty Years’ War in
1648.
•Many aspects of this movement were genuine reforms.
•Founder of the Jesuits
•A brilliant and visionary man; also an uncompromising
and severe fanatic
•The origins of his fanaticism to obedience can be
found in his conversion experience in 1521 after he was wounded by the French.
•While recovering he read the classics of
Christianity--Really impressed by all the saints and martyrs
•Instills in him a deep value of absolute sacrifice
•Will cause him to dedicate his life to the level of
self-sacrifice seen in the lives of the saints
The Jesuits (Society of Jesus)
•The basis of the society was a return to the
strictest and most uncompromising obedience to the authority of the church and
its ecclesiastical hierarchy
•The spirit of the society is summed up in Rule 13 of Rules for Thinking with the Church:
•“I will believe that the
white that I see is black if the hierarchical Church so defines it.”
2nd Theme:
Self-Mastery
•Spiritual Exercises:
designed to teach people how to deny themselves completely. The purpose was
obedience to the Church.
•One could only obey the
dictates of the church hierarchy when they could perfectly deny one’s self and
one’s feelings
•They sanctioned the revival of the Inquisition (try
heretics and punish the guilty
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•The Jesuits started out small with 10 members. By
1630, had over 15,000 members all over the world.
•Became the most influential carrier of western
culture and Christianity to the non-western world.
•The Protestant gains in Europe and the
evolution of the Reformation forced Pope Paul III to convene a war council in
Trent in 1545.
•Purpose? To finally define church doctrine
•Three separate sessions were held from 1545 to 1563
•Three issues under examination:
•Two
involved broad resolves to clarify doctrinal issues in order to still internal
disputes and solve the problem of ecclesiastical abuses among the clergy
• Third
was the initiation of a crusade against the “infidels”
·
Paul
III hoped to get widespread approval to condemn the Protestant heresy, and
thereby gain support for suppression of the reformers by force.
•Advised some far-reaching reforms in
abuses in the Church:
•Indulgences
•Bishops must reside in the region they preside over
•Cannot sell church offices
•Church seminary to be built in every diocese to fully and accurately interpret doctrine
•Insists on strict morals, behavior, and dress for the clergy
•In doctrine, salvation can be assured through faith and
good works
Result?
•Too little, too late
•The new Protestant Churches were the wave of the future
•Catholicism would, in a few centuries, cease to be the major
religion in the Western World
•However, a atmosphere of dedication swept the Church…
•That dedication inspired
thinkers and artists throughout Europe to lend their talents to the cause.
–Result?
•Baroque art: painters, architects, and musicians
expressed their faith in brilliant and dramatic portrayals of religious
subjects and in churches that were designed to dazzle, unlike Protest. Churches
•Paul
III’s successors used their personal authority and resources to continue the
enormous cleansing operation within the Church and to lead the counterattack
against Protestantism. They insisted on strict morality to restore their
reputation for piety and as example for the faithful.
•Ex:
A pope ordered clothes painted on the nudes in Michelangelo’s Last Judgment
in the Sistine Chapel.
•With
the leaders of the Church bent on reform, the restoration of the faith and the
reconquest of “lost souls” could proceed with maximum effect.
•How
would the popes do this? Who did they have ready and waiting to answer their
call?
Ignatius of Loyola and the Jesuits!
•
A far-reaching
local movement of St. Philip Neri.
•
Catholicism took the offensive in Europe, and the
Jesuits and Capuchins helped win Austria, Poland, & parts of Germany,
Hungary, and Bohemia back to the Roman Catholic Church
•
Missionaries will spread R. C. religion in America, Spain, and France
Women and Family in the C.-Ref.
•Women
played a major role in the C.-R.
•Some
as Public leaders
•
Most as a quieter-type of leader
»Patrons of the
Saints
»Thinkers
»Preachers
»Family Motivators
»Community
Involvement
•The
post-Trendentine church took a stronger interest in family life, the roles of
husband and wife, parent and child, and parents’ responsibility to train their
children up in faith
• Many of the “family values” we now think of as “Catholic” were formed during this time and were a response to the Puritan tendencies of the Protestants