Reference
- Counter-ReformationRevival of the Roman Catholic Church in Europe during the 16th and early 17th centuries. It began as a reaction to the Protestant Reformation and was intended to strengthen the Church against Protestantism and the prevailing humanism of the Renaissance. The reforms were essentially conservative, trying to remove many of the abuses that had crept into the late medieval church and win new prestige for the papacy. The major impetus for reform emerged from the pontificate of Paul III and the founding of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits). The Council of Trent (1545-63) was the engine of the Counter-Reformation. It eradicated simony (such as the sale of indulgences), standardized Roman Catholic theology, and undertook institutional reforms. The second phase (1563-90) of the Counter-Reformation was administered by Pius V, Gregory XIII and Sixtus V.
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Perspectives
The Counter Reformation
The Counter Reformation is part of the Cambridge Topics in History series which looks at key A-level topics through a stimulating selection of original documents and other source material. In recent years historians have transformed the very meaning of the term 'Counter Reformation'. Scholarship has broken free of the partisan bias which misinterpreted the events of the decline and resurgence of the medieval Christian Church. In this text, Martin Jones uses a wide variety of original sources to reveal the true nature of the medieval religious landscape. He explores new insights into issues and events which explain why the old term 'Counter Reformation' is so inappropriate that it cannot now be used without major qualification. A wide range of primary sources, many previously unpublished, is combined with examination-based questions to test the students' skill in evaluating historical evidence. A full introduction, narrative and analysis accompany each topic.
Catholic Reformation in Protestant Britain
The survival and revival of Roman Catholicism in post-Reformation Britain remains the subject of lively debate. This volume examines key aspects of the evolution and experience of the Catholic communities of these Protestant kingdoms during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Rejecting an earlier preoccupation with recusants and martyrs, it highlights the importance of those who exhibited varying degrees of conformity with the ecclesiastical establishment and explores the moral and political dilemmas that confronted the clergy and laity. It reassesses the significance of the Counter Reformation mission as an evangelical enterprise; analyses its communication strategies and its impact on popular piety; and illuminates how Catholic ritual life creatively adapted itself to a climate of repression. Reacting sharply against the insularity of many previous accounts, this book investigates developments in the British Isles in relation to wider international initiatives for the renewal of the Catholic faith in Europe and for its plantation overseas. It emphasises the reciprocal interaction between Catholicism and anti-Catholicism throughout the period and casts fresh light on the nature of interconfessional relations in a pluralistic society. It argues that persecution and suffering paradoxically both constrained and facilitated the resurgence of the Church of Rome. They presented challenges and fostered internal frictions, but they also catalysed the process of religious identity formation and imbued English, Welsh and Scottish Catholicism with peculiar dynamism. Prefaced by an extensive new historiographical overview, this collection brings together a selection of Alexandra Walsham's essays written over the last fifteen years, fully revised and updated to reflect recent research in this flourishing field. Collectively these make a major contribution to our understanding of minority Catholicism and the Counter Reformation in the era after the Council of Trent.
Women and the Counter-Reformation in Early Modern Munster
Women and the Counter-Reformation in Early Modern Münster examines how women from different social backgrounds encountered the Counter-Reformation. The focus is on Münster, a city in the north of Germany, which was exposed to powerful Protestant influences which culminated in the notorious Anabaptist kingdom of 1534. After the defeat of the radical Protestants, the city was returned to Catholicism and a stringent programme of reform was enforced. By examining concubinage, piety, marriage, deviance, and convent reform, core issues of the Counter-Reformation's quest for renewal, this fascinating study shows how women participated in the social and religious changes of the time, and how their lives were shaped by the Counter-Reformation. Employing research into the political, religious, and social institutions, and using an impressive variety of sources, Simone Laqua-O'Donnell engages with the way women experienced the new religiosity, morality, and discipline that was introduced to the city of Münster during this turbulent time.
The Growth of Catholic Religious Passion
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Grasp how Spain was brought into the conflict of the Protestant Reformation. Assess the Catholic Counter-Reformation, as it sought to connect the faithful more directly to God through reinvigorated spirituality and mysticism. Learn how the Council of Trent, codifying Catholic doctrine, led to the horrors of the Inquisition, and how Catholic theology was expressed in glorious Baroque art.
Going Baroque - North versus South
- Kanopy This link opens in a new windowBaroque style flowered in key regional variations. See the influence of the Counter-Reformation in southern Europe in dazzling religious images intended to excite and teach. Grasp the classical ethos of French Baroque and the Dutch diversity of subject matter and dramatic use of light and space in the North.
Counter-Reformation
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The counter-reformation was a reaction against the growth of Protestantism--inspire enthusiasm and church membership. The term Counter-Reformation denotes the period of Catholic revival from the pontificate of Pope Pius IV in 1560 to the close of the Thirty Years' War in 1648.
The Counter-Reformation
- Films on Demand This link opens in a new windowThe highly ornate style of Baroque architecture emerged as part of the Catholic response to the Reformation. The Council of Trent rejected every Reformation idea, affirmed the Catholic tradition, and recognized a need for better priests.
Online Resources
- The "False Chronicles," Cardinal Baronio, and Sacred History in Counter-Reformation SpainThe forged histories known as the "false chronicles" touched upon controversial matters in early-modern Spain. Less familiar to scholars is that the forger Jerónimo Román de la Higuera, was also reacting the Roman reforms spearheaded by Cardinal Cesare Baronio. Higuera's 1589 letter to Baronio reveals his principal preoccupations, as well as the maneuvers that he would later employ in the false chronicles. These included direct interventions by Higuera on behalf of communities such as Sigu'enza, which were attemptinag to protect local historical and hagiographie traditions that they believed were jeopardized by Baronio's revisions of the Church's liturgical texts.
- Competition Between Exclusive Religions: The Counter-Reformation As Entry DeterrenceThis article sets forth a theory of competition between exclusive religions as an entry deterrence game, in which the incumbent may find it profitable not to accommodate but to deter the competitor's entry by precommitting to sufficient capacity expansion in the event of entry. If entry costs are high enough, deterrence is optimal and the incumbent remains a monopolist, although the entry threat distorts its effort upward. The model is then applied to the Catholic Church's reaction to the Protestant Reformation. It is argued that the model provides a better fit to the historical data of the Counter‐Reformation than the price‐cutting model proposed by economists Ekelund, Hébert and Tollison (, ).
- Long‐Distance Pilgrimage and the Counter Reformation in France: Sacred Journeys to the Mont Saint‐Michel 1520 to 1750In the Counter Reformation, a great upsurge in pilgrimage activity occurred across Europe. Much of this pilgrimage was to local shrines, often newly created. Another destination was Rome. Less well known is the post‐Reformation refashioning of ancient, long‐distance pilgrimages. This article examines the origins and nature of such revived pilgrimage, using the example of the Mont Saint‐Michel in northern France. In the Catholic Reformation, the traditional, distant centres of pilgrimage contributed to the devotional culture of individuals and groups who wanted to go beyond the local, to experience a challenge as part of their spiritual and social growth. At the Mont, revival of the shrine came from the universality of the cult of St Michael, his role in the struggle against heresy, and veneration tied increasingly to that of Christ through the Eucharist. While pilgrims continued to travel in search of, or in thanksgiving for, healing and other graces, there was also greater emphasis on spiritual healing and intimacy with God. Also, for many young men, they proved themselves and their Catholicity by undertaking this heroic journey. Through the pilgrimage to the Mont, reformed Catholicism spread many of its ideas and values around the cities and communities of northern France.