Counter-Reformation

The Counter Reformation� 1530s-1648

• The Catholic Church’s Response to the Protestant Reformation
• 1500s & 1600s Catholic Church set out to defeat Protestantism = Counter – Reformation

​

The Counter Reformation

• The Church had two tactics:
• Reform the Church from Within
• Stop the Spread of Protestantism

​

Catholic Reform

• Concerned about the number of converts from Catholicism to Protestantism, Pope Paul III began reform within the Catholic church
• He organized the Council of Trent (1545-1565) to establish Catholic practices and reforms:
1. Salvation through faith AND good deeds
2. Bible is one but not the ONLY source of religious truth
3. Began punishing corrupt and worldly clergy

The Inquisition

• To deal more directly with the threat of Protestantism, Pope Paul strengthened the Inquisition
• The Inquisition was a Church court system established in the Middle Ages
• Used secret testimony, torture, and execution to root out heretics, and developed a list of works considered too immoral for Catholics to read
• Resulted in a number of new torture methods and witch hunts

Witch Hunts

• Religious fervor of the time led to a wave a witch hunting
• From 1450-1750, tens of thousands of women and men (mostly women) died as victims of witch hunts
• Typically, people accused of witchcraft were social outcasts—beggars, poor widows, midwives blamed for infant deaths, or herbalists whose potions and cures were seen as gifts of the devil

Jesuits

• Ignatius of Loyola was a Counter-Reformer who founded the Society of Jesus, or Jesuits.
• The Jesuits were “soldiers for Christ” who were missionaries and teachers of Catholic teaching.
• They spread through Africa, Asia, and the Americas.

The Jesuits

• Jesuits had to follow a strict program of discipline, undergo intense training, and be completely obedient to the church.
• They travelled throughout Europe pushing Catholic reform and converting Christians back to Catholicism

Teresa of Avila

• Teresa was the daughter of rich merchants. She joined a convent of nuns at a young age, but was disappointed by the lack of order and religious devotion.
• Teresa founded her own convent, stressing prayer and religious duty over all else. The nuns in her new convent ate little and rarely slept, dedicating themselves to prayer and meditation.
• As news of her strict convent spread, the Catholic church asked her to reform other convents and monasteries.

Persecution of Jews

• Religious turmoil brought an increase in persecution of European Jews
• Jews were pressured to convert to Christian religions
• Forced to live in ghettos- separate quarters of cities (both in Italy and Germany)
• Germans required Jews to wear a yellow badge if they travelled outside of the ghetto
• Luther had hoped Jews would convert to his teachings, but when they didn’t, he called for them to be expelled from Christian lands and their synagogues destroyed

​

Religious Wars

• French Wars of Religion- from 1562-1598 between Catholics and Protestants
• Thirty Years’ War- mostly within the Holy Roman Empire (Germany) between Catholics and Protestants and Protestants…
• It ended with the Peace of Westphalia.
• This was peace between the Protestants and Catholics and set boundaries for the two.

Results of the Catholic Reformation

• The Catholic reformation had several important results:
• Stopped the rapid spread of the Protestant Religion
• Returned the church to its Religious foundations
• Europe remained divided between Protestants in the North and Catholics in the South
• Hundreds of thousands were killed by inquisition, religious attacks and witch hunts.

Causes and Effects

Protestant Reformation

​

Time of change and questioning the Roman Catholic Church