In order to understand the Counter Reformation one must consider the political factors and motivators behind them as well as the belief factors when examining clashes with the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church during 16th century experienced a reformation that was both politically and belief driven. The Catholic Reformation also known as the Counter Reformation allowed the church to clearly define its position, eliminate unchristian practices and examine its role in world.
This paper will address the political motivators of the Counter Reformation, the unchristian practices that fueled corruption and the clearly defined religious concerns of reformers. It will establish that the use of patronage and nepotism ultimately undermined the spiritual piety of the church. Also, the movements that brought spirituality back to the church will be addressed along with those movements that led to separation from church. In detailing the events and character of this era and analyzing the outcomes of reform it will be concluded that the Counter Reformation was the beginning of a stronger church and an end to an era that quite possibly could have led to the dissolution of the Catholic Church.
One must understand the political make up of the Catholic Church during this period prior to addressing the reforms to the church. The church was far more than a religious institution. The Catholic Church was supreme in Europe. The power of the pope was total and this was supplemented by the power the Holy Roman Emperor had as temporal defender of the Catholic Church. Even though the church had no determinate territory it was a state. It had a monarch as a pope, it princes in prelates and its subjects in Western Christendom. It had legislative assemblies in ecumenical councils, a constitution in cannon law, and fiscal agency in the Curia. It went to war, negotiated treaties and collected taxies. The church was the Holy Roman Empire with a stronghold throughout Europe. But this would quickly change.(www.History)
At the time of the reformation there was great concern that the Old Church with all its history and tradition was in trouble. This concern came from both within the church and outside the church. Protestant and Catholic reformers alike were troubled by the corruption in the church and its inner workings. Reformers saw that the Christian faith had in many ways been taken...
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...ounter-Reformation after the Council of Trent a large shift in power occurred in Italy. The Pope who was once a large political figure in Italy had lost his political power but gained Religious Power. Patrons, who had dispersed kin as clergy members all over Italy, also lost power. Their power of placement of clergy was no longer allowed and bishops were given the choice of where clergy members should be located. The Political power that had once belonged to both the Pope and the Patrons had now been given to the sovereigns of the separated nations, who full well knew that in the Council of Trent their power would grow.
The Council of was a turning-point in the Catholic Church. There was a certainty in practices and beliefs, the church’s foundation had been strengthened and there was a base to grow. Catholicism had reestablished itself and it was a force to be dealt with. By the end of the sixteenth century the Catholic Church was still making some serious reforms. This reform movement which extended into the seventeenth century raised moral and educational standards of the clergy. All inspired by the church with a new zeal and morale. One must conclude that reform was needed.
The periods during the Reformation, Industrial Revolution, and the World at War all experienced religious and church conflicts. During the Renaissance and Reformation (1330 – 1650), the fundamental practices of the church came under fire. The church at this time was the largest and most political body. The pope, himself, was the most recognizable political figure. It was due to this authority that the church and its pope were more interested in political issues and less with the spiritual needs of the people (McGraw-Hill, p. 76). Many of the Roman Catholic Church’s high priests had bought their way into position and had very little religious experience. Often the only members of the community that were literate were the clergy thus adding to their control of the common people.
Also, the monarchs or Europe challenged the church and the pope’s power, since church was even more powerful than some of the European kingdoms and monarchies. European monarchies did not like that the church was wealthy and had influence upon people, so they got against the church and its pope.
The aim of this book is to recapture King Edward’s reformation of the Church of England from revisionists such as Haigh, Duffy and Pollard. They and others viewed that the reorganisation of the church was indecisive, weak and insignificant. MacCulloch intends to argue that the reformation was essentially consistent, effective and ultimately a Protestant one.
The Protestant Reformation was a period of time (1500-1700) where there became a change in Western Christendom. This reformation was caused by the resentment from the people because the Catholic Church abusing their powers for political and economic advances. In this time the church was selling pardons for sin and indulgences to forgive sins, decrease days spent in purgatory and save the dead from damnation. The reformation was when people became more aware with the back hand dealings with the church and men like Martin Luther and John Calvin created their own churches to what they believed was not corrupt unlike the church. Unfortunately there many consequences as far at the Roman Catholic church attempting to bring people back to the church,
The Counter-Reformation also known as the Catholic Reformation took place in Italy during the 1500’s. The Counter-Reformation was an event that happen within the Roman Catholic which tried to abolish the mistreatment of regulations within the church. The Counter-Reformation was essentially the attempt to reform the Catholic Church ideals, so they wouldn’t lose anymore citizens to the Protestant religion at the time. The Counter-Reformation arose largely due to the effects of the Protestant Reformation. The Protestant Reformation took place in the 16th century where there was a religious, intellectual, political, and culture uproar that divided South Europe. The Protestant Reformation was were the citizens started to question the Catholic religion
At the beginning of the sixteenth century church theologian, Martin Luther, wrote the 95 Theses questioning the corruption of the Roman Catholic Church. In this essay I will discuss: the practices of the Roman Catholic Church Martin Luther wanted to reform, what Martin’s specific criticism of the pope was, and the current practices Pope Francis I is interested in refining in the Roman Catholic Church today.
A 16th-century movement in Western Europe that aimed at reforming some doctrines and practices of the Roman Catholic Church and resulted in the establishment of the Protestant churches. The world of the late medieval Roman Catholic Church from which the 16th-century reformers emerged was a complex one. Over the centuries, the church, particularly in the office of the papacy, had become deeply involved in the political life of Western Europe. The resulting intrigues and political manipulations, combined with the church’s increasing power and wealth, contributed to the bankrupting of the church as a spiritual force.
There were many people and attempts made to change the way the church functioned before the Reformation, but they had always been crushed by the inquisition. There were many factors political, religious, and economic, which had been developing for centuries that would make it possible for the Reformation to come about. There were quite a few practices of the church that were in question at this time. Some of these practices included simony, indulgences, excessive papal wealth, and clerical violations of church and biblical rules of behavior (Fide, Scriptura, Solus, Sola, & Soli, 2014). The one that was the biggest concern to the people looking for church reform, was the selling of pardons from the pope to lessen the time a person’s soul would be in purgatory, these pardons were also called
Proving to be the paramount of the conflict between faith and reason, the European Enlightenment of the eighteenth century challenged each of the traditional values of that age. Europeans were changing, but Europe’s institutions were not keeping pace with that change.1 Throughout that time period, the most influential and conservative institution of Europe, the Roman Catholic Church, was forced into direct confrontation with these changing ideals. The Church continued to insist that it was the only source of truth and that all who lived beyond its bounds were damned; it was painfully apparent to any reasonably educated person, however, that the majority of the world’s population were not Christians.2 In the wake of witch hunts, imperial conquest, and an intellectual revolution, the Roman Catholic Church found itself threatened by change on all fronts.3 The significant role that the Church played during the Enlightenment was ultimately challenged by the populace’s refusal to abide by religious intolerance, the power of the aristocracy and Absolutism, and the rising popularity of champions of reform and print culture, the philosophes, who shared a general opposition to the Roman Catholic Church.
In conclusion, the Reformation brought about a wave of political devolution counteracting the surge of political centralization sweeping through post-Medieval Europe. The new religious sects which formed in the first half of the sixteenth century continued to separate themselves from the doctrines and practices of the Catholic Church, effecting not only the spiritual lives of the laity, but the social institutions of Europe for years to come. The war these religions will create will be a major part of European history in the years to come, with the conflict between Catholics, Lutherans, Calvinist, and other protestants defining the political landscape of Western Europe well into the 17th and 18th centuries.
The protestant reformation of 16th century had both: immediate and long term effects. Thus, we can see that it was a revolution of understanding the essence of religion, and of what God is. The protestant reformation is said to a religious movement. However, it also influenced the economical, political and social life of people. The most global, short term effect of the reformation was the reevaluation of beliefs, and, as a result, the loss of authority of the Holy Roman Empire. The long term effects were: the emergence of new heretical movements, the declining of papacy, thus the reevaluation of people’s view on the church and life values.
The Reformation was a decisive period in the history not only for the Catholic Church, but also for the entire world. The causes of this tumultuous point in history did not burst on the scene all at once, but slowly gained momentum like a boil that slowly festers through time before it finally bursts open. The Reformation of the Church was inevitable because of the abuses which the Church was suffering during this period. At the time of the Reformation, a segment of the Church had drifted away from its mission to bring Christ and salvation to the world. Throughout the Middle Ages, the Church had gradually become weaker because of abusive leadership, philosophical heresy, and a renewal of a form of the Pelagian heresy.
The Catholic Church was slow to respond to the ideals and publicity innovations of Luther and the other reformers. The Council of Trent which met off and on from 1545 through 1563. The Church’s answer to the problems that triggered the Reformation and to the reformers themselves.
The Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth century is one of the most complex movements in European history since the fall of the Roman Empire. The Reformation truly ends the Middle Ages and begins a new era in the history of Western Civilization. The Reformation ended the religious unity of Europe and ushered in 150 years of religious warfare. By the time the conflicts had ended, the political and social geography in the west had fundamentally changed. The Reformation would have been revolutionary enough of itself, but it coincided in time with the opening of the Western Hemisphere to the Europeans and the development of firearms as effective field weapons. It coincided, too, with the spread of Renaissance ideals from Italy and the first stirrings of the Scientific Revolution. Taken together, these developments transformed Europe.
The renaissance and the reformation were two of the most significant changes in history that has shaped our world today. Both of these great time periods are strikingly similar in some ways and totally different in others. This is because the renaissance was a change from religion to humanism whether it is in art or literature; it is where the individual began to matter. However, the reformation was,” in a nutshell,” a way to reform the church and even more so to form the way our society is today. The first half of this paper will view the drop in faith, the economic powers, and the artistic and literary changes during the renaissance, while the second half will view the progresses and changes the church makes during the reformation.