Catholic Reform

The Catholics Fire Back

Morgan Bradshaw
March 12, 2013 English IV
7th Hour
Through the years there have been many religious reforms. Some reforms had more consequences than others, but the Catholic Reformation was one of the biggest. The Catholic-Counter Reformation was a fighting force that did not start with a huge bang, even though the reform started slow, it eventually began to gain heed; the Reformation was a fire back at the Protestants.
The Catholic-Counter Reformation was the period of revival for the Catholic Church in the 16th Century (Pollen, John). The Reformation began because many educated Catholics felt the need for change. Most of the feelings to make advancements began during to Renaissance Era. During this time, people began to question what was considered “normal” or not. People also began to want a more emotional and touching religion. At this time the Catholic Church did not transition and eventually became dated (Trueman, Chris, Catholic). Martin Luther initially began leading the Catholic Reformation, until he became a Protestant. But, the initial driving force behind the start of the Reformation was Ignatius Loyola (Kreis, Steve). “Ignatius Loyola was… a Spanish reformer who sought to create a new religious order… he fused the best of the humanist tradition of the Renaissance with reformed Catholicism, he hoped this would appeal to powerful economics and political groups…” (Kreis).
Loyola’s drive led to the creation of the Society or Brotherhood of Jesuits, in 1534; this group was essentially the backbone of the Catholic-Counter Reform (Kreis). “All Jesuits swore an oath of poverty, chastity, and obedience to the pope.” (Trueman, Jesuits). Jesuits came from many different backgrounds, such as Peter Canisius. Peter was a Dutch Jesuit who founded many Jesuit Colleges in and around Germany. The Catholic Reformation depended on many individuals such as Peter (Trueman, Catholic). “Cardinal Ximenes from Spain tightened clerical discipline and encouraged scholarship at schools and universities… Gian Pietro Caraffa helped find the Theatines… an order of priests working within the community but living in monastic austerity.” (Trueman, Catholic). Another influential man was St. Thomas Aquinas; he was optimistic towards humanity and believed that man could decipher between right and wrong. He also had a philosophy known as Thomism. Even though all of these men had some different philosophies they all shared the same ideas when it came to the Catholic Church. They all had the same basic ideas of traditional discipline with dedicated teachers and preachers. Also, all of these individuals pushed within the Catholic Church to have a more spiritual religion (Kreis). The Jesuits were the right hand men to the Pope. They were sent into Protestant areas to convert people back to Catholicism and to eventually establish religious based colleges (Trueman, The Jesuits). The first Jesuit College opened in 1548, the school was such a large success that petitions were being signed left and right for more colleges to be built in Rome (About the Jesuits). Even with all of the excitement, the Brotherhood still kept a fire burning under Protestantism; “The Jesuits highlighted one central flaw in the Protestant theology… predestination. Predestination offered hopes of salvation for the literate and prosperous. It also… included the possibility of doom, despair, and abyss for other individuals.” (Kreis). To the Jesuits there was nothing but hope for every individual. “… The Jesuits tilted the balance strongly in favor of helping others, striving to find God, precisely in an active ministry.” (About the Jesuits). The Jesuits also developed a theory that allowed “small sins” for just causes. Basically it was okay to commit a small sin if it was for a greater good. This initially made Christianity more emotional (Kreis).
A more emotional religion was exactly what the Catholic-Counter Reformation needed, “… one of the reasons why the Reformation… took place was because the people wanted a more emotional and direct spirit life.’ (Kreis). They had tried to reform the Church within, but had little affect because many people did not want to clash with spiritual authority. With not much help from within they kept their force on the converters. Many of the Catholics took hostility to the followers of the recently converted Luther and Calvin. But, not gaining as much head way as they would have liked, they turned to new measures. The Catholic Church took drastic measures, where Catholicism obtained official status; in that anyone caught practicing Protestantism was to be torture to death. The Church also turned to censorship. They burned all books that may have any fragment leaning towards Protestantism (Kreis). Eventually after the hostility from both the Catholics and the Protestants, many people wanted a compromise. The Reforms were actually tearing families apart (About the Jesuits). But, this couldn’t happen. The church officials did not want to make a compromise, even though they knew there had been many attempts to gap the bridge between the two religions they themselves did not want to make any attempts. The Reformation ridded of any religious unity across Europe. The Catholic Reformation went on for many more years and caused many people to make a choice between Protestantism and Catholicism. This caused many people to lose relationships between friends and family. People even began to question authority. The Church saw the questioning of kings just because, “… all men are governed by the laws of God, punishment should be given to those who break these laws.” (Kreis). This eventually led to the execution of Charles I in 1649 (Kreis)
Through the Reformation many things were put into question. People questioned the Church and its standing point in the “battle” between Protestantism and Catholicism, what was considered normal and not, and if there should be an emotional appeal to religion. Also, religious groups had sub groups that lived basically for bettering the Church. The main group was the Jesuits. Even with working in the church to change it within, the Jesuits pushed to create a better education. They created many religious schools and universities to serve for the greater good of humanity. They created a form of work ethic. But, in the end every man woman and child had to make a choice. With the reform they had a little bit more of a choice though. Religion now had emotion behind it which appealed to many people and helped persuade people to the Catholic Church.
Through the years there have been many religious reforms. The Catholic Reformation was one of the biggest. The Church has been changing ever since the Renaissance era, but this was by far the biggest change in the church history. It brought many new followers, converted back the converters, and eliminated any doubt in the followers looking to leave the catholic faith. The Catholic-Counter Reformation was a fighting force that did not start with a huge bang, even though the reform started slow, it eventually began to gain heed; the Reformation was a fire back at the Protestants and soon gained most of the converters back.

Work Cited
Kreis, Steven. "Lecture 5: The Catholic Reformation." The History Guide. N.p.. Web. 22 Feb 2013. <http://www.historyguide.org/earlymod/lecture5c.html>.
Pollen, John Hungerford. "The Counter-Reformation." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 4. New York : 1908. <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04437a.htm>.
Trueman, Chris. "The Catholic Reformation." History Learning. N.p.. Web. 23 February 2013. <http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/The-Catholic-Reformation.htm>.
Trueman, Chris. "The Jesuits." History Learning. N.p.. Web. 25 February 2013. <http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/Jesuits.htm>.
"About the Jesuits." Marquette.EDU/Faith. Marquette University. Web. 25 February 2013. <http://www.marquette.edu/faith/about-the-jesuits.php>.

Cited: Kreis, Steven. "Lecture 5: The Catholic Reformation." The History Guide. N.p.. Web. 22 Feb 2013. &lt;http://www.historyguide.org/earlymod/lecture5c.html&gt;. Pollen, John Hungerford. "The Counter-Reformation." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 4. New York : 1908. &lt;http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04437a.htm&gt;. Trueman, Chris. "The Catholic Reformation." History Learning. N.p.. Web. 23 February 2013. &lt;http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/The-Catholic-Reformation.htm&gt;. Trueman, Chris. "The Jesuits." History Learning. N.p.. Web. 25 February 2013. &lt;http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/Jesuits.htm&gt;. "About the Jesuits." Marquette.EDU/Faith. Marquette University. Web. 25 February 2013. &lt;http://www.marquette.edu/faith/about-the-jesuits.php&gt;.