Catholic Counter Reformation Research Paper

The Catholic Counter Reformation: Its Fight to Save Catholicism

The Catholic Counter Reformation, also known as the Catholic Revival, was an effort taken by the Roman Catholic Church to counteract the effects of the Protestant Reformation and keep it from spreading. The reformation begun by the Protestants aimed to change the inner workings of the Catholic Church, while the Counter Reformation aimed to keep practices and procedures the same. The Counter Reformation took place between the 16th and 17th centuries and began shortly after the beginning of the Protestant Reformation.
The request and calling for reforming of the Catholic Church began with concerns about corruption of the popes, clergy, and many of the church’s policies. Religious groups such as the Theatines, the Capuchins, the Ursulines, and the Society of Jesus are all branches of Catholicism that were formed to solve minor issues in the church

without breaking away. These groups also promoted the Catholic Church by combating protestant teachings like Lutherism.
However, the Catholic Church had ignored Protestant actions and their requests for reformation until the mid 16th century.

Pope Paul III, the first pope of the Counter Reformation, was the first to address the issue of Protestants. He formed the Council of Trent in 1545. The council focused on teaching against the Lutheran belief of faith and the Protestant teachings on the amount and purpose of the sacraments. There was an attempt to illuminate the corruption of clergy through disciplinary reforms and better the schooling of potential priests. Actions were also taken against clergymen living too extravagantly and being appointed into church offices by relatives.
The Roman Inquisition was created in 1542 in order to fight heresy. This act controlled both doctrine and practice more successfully than in other countries due to the fact that the Roman Catholic Church had more power in Rome than it did elsewhere. The involvement of politics and military with the policies of Emperor Charles V and Philip II against Protestants were more effective in other

areas.
Jesuit Robert Bellarmine along with many other theologians targeted the doctrinal positions of the Protestants, but had much trouble arguing against the theology and morality of Lutheranism and Calvinism. Roman Catholic teaching focused on the worshipping of subjects such as the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist, the Virgin Mary, and St. Peter, which is what most Protestants were against.
Missionary work was a large part of the Counter Reformation. Most of this work took place in areas on the world that had been colonized by Roman Catholic countries. Francis Xavier along with many others spread Roman Catholicism in Asia and the New World, resulting in millions of baptisms and conversions. Missionaries also worked to reconvert previously Catholic areas such as England and Sweden.