Week 7: The Catholic Reformation

Europe’s Reformation

Overview

• Union of 4 Aspects:
  • 1. Spiritual Energy associated new Religious Orders.
  • 2. Renewal of Moral Authority after Council of Trent (1545-1563).
  • 3. Criminalizaing Protestantism.
  • 4. Popular Loyalty to Catholicism.

New Religious Orders

The Jesuits

Ignatius of Loyola

• Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556).
• Founded the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) in 1540.
• Focused on education, missionary work, and combating Protestantism.

• Loyola was a Spanish soldier wounded in combat.
• During his recovery, he experienced a spiritual awakening and decided to dedicate his life to God.
• He became focused on pilgrimage to Jerusalem.
• Got university degree from Paris Sorbonne.
• Created a company to trave to Jerusalem after getting a University degree.
• Never made it to Jerusalem because of war.
• Redirected to Rome. Pope created the Society of Jesus.
• Loyola became the Society’s first Superior General (1540)..
• Jesuits Goals:
  • Foreign missions.
    • Sent Francis Xavier to India in 1542.
  • Education.
    • 1548, started a school in Messina, Italy.
    • Dedicated to humanist eduction.
    • Jesuit schools became known as the best in Europe.
      • Even Protestants sent their children to Jesuit schools.
      • Schools became a major source of Catholic renewal.

Jesuit Schools

• 1548, started a school in Messina, Italy.
• Humanist Education.
• Education to counter Protestantism.
• Created a global network of schools.

• Education.
  • 1548, started a school in Messina, Italy.
  • Dedicated to humanist eduction.
  • Jesuit schools became known as the best in Europe.
    • Even Protestants sent their children to Jesuit schools.
    • Schools became a major source of Catholic renewal.

Jesuits Abroad

• Francis Xavier (1506-1552) was the first Jesuit missionary.
• He traveled to India in 1542, then to Japan in 1549.
• Jesuits in North America:
  • 1608, founded a mission in Quebec.
  • 1611, founded a mission in New France (Canada).

• Francis Xavier (1506-1552) was the first Jesuit missionary.
• He traveled to India in 1542, then to Japan in 1549.
• Jesuits in North America:
  • 1608, founded a mission in Quebec.
  • 1611, founded a mission in New France (Canada).
• Jesuits in New Spain:
  • 1572, founded a mission in Baja California.
  • 1609, founded a mission in Sonora.

Other Orders.

• The Capuchins (1528) focused on preaching and caring for the poor.
• The Ursulines (1535) focused on educating girls

• The Capuchins (1528) focused on preaching and caring for the poor.
  • founded by a franciscan (Matteo da Bascio)
  • Recognized as a separate branch of the Franciscans in 1528.
  • Emphasized simplicity, poverty, and preaching.
  • Active preachers of the counter reformation.
• The Ursulines (1535) focused on educating women.
  • Founded by Angela Merici in 1535 in Brescia, Italy.
  • She and 28 other women founded the company of St. Ursula.
  • Took vows of virginity and became nuns.
  • Focused on education of girls.
  • they had to adopt a cloistered lifestyle.
  • They opened schools for girls.
  • they were some of the few formal instutions of education available to girls.

Council of Trent

Basics

• Three sessions: 1545-1547, 1551-1552, 1562-1563.
• Pronouncments on doctrine:
  • Salvation.
  • Church Tradition.
  • Priestly reforms.
• Seeking out Heresy

• interrupted by war and a Pope that refused to reconvene it (Pope Paul IV)
• Made rulings on doctrine:
  • Salvation
    • Human will can accept or reject God’s grace.
    • Salvation through grace and free will to accept it
    • humans must receive grace then their good works improve on that grace.
    • Salvation needs both. The works are the means by which we accept it.
      • “God touches the heart of man by the illumination of the Holy Ghost, neither is man himself utterly without doing anything while he receives that inspiration, forasmuch as he is also able to reject it; yet is he not able, by his own free will, without the grace of God, to move himself unto justice in His sight. Whence, when it is said in the sacred writings: Turn ye to me, and I will turn to you, we are admonished of our liberty; and when we answer; Convert us, O Lord, to thee, and we shall be converted, we confess that we are prevented by the grace of God.”
  • Church Tradition
    • Church tradition is an alternative avenue of divine revelation.
      • has authority equal to scripture. Apostolic Tradition.
    • As opposed to tradition being the way the church understands scripture.
  • Priestly Reforms:
    • Priests had to be at least 25 years old
    • Priests had to have a university degree.
      • Including training in theology.
    • All Bishops had to find resources to endow a seminary to train priests.
• Seeking out heresy.
  • Index of Forbidden Books (1559).
  • Papal Nuncios (diplomats in European courts)
    • pushed the adoption of these measures.
    • pushed secular rulers to suppress those forbidden books that promoted heresy.

Impact

• Reaffirmed Catholic doctrine.
• Reformed the clergy.
• By 1600, Papacy had regained much of its moral authority.

Criminalization of Protestantism

Rulers and Heresy

• Rulers and providentialism. (divine right)
• Medieval heresy laws: treason against God.
• Spanish Inquisition (state court to suppress heresy)
• Others used provincial courts to suppress heresy.

• Rulers and providentialism. (divine right)
  • Rulers were seen as God’s representatives on Earth.
  • Heresy was not just a religious crime, but a political one.
• Medieval heresy laws: treason against God.
  • Heresy was seen as a crime against God and the Church.
  • Punishments included excommunication, imprisonment, and execution.
• Spanish Inquisition (state court to suppress heresy)
  • Established in 1478 by Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I.
  • Focused on finding those not truly converted amongst the Jewish and Muslim populations.
  • Also targeted Protestants and others later on
• Charles V used provincial courts to suppress heresy.
• Bavaria did the same.
• France kept the Parlement of Paris as a court to suppress heresy.
• Differing outcomes:
  • Where protestants were few, suppression of heresy through trial and execution worked.
  • In France and Flanders, where protestants were more numerous, suppression through trial and execution led to more resistance and more protestants.

Popular Loyalty to Catholicism

Novelty = Bad

• Peasants tended to hold closely to Catholicism.
• Lutheran success in peasantry. (Finland & Norway)
• Reactions to iconoclasm.

• Peasants tended to remain loyal to Catholicism.
• Peasants war was a short lived rebellion.
• Where peasants accepted Lutheranism from princely conversion
  • Largely because Princes tried to change as little as possible.
  • For many the felt change was in the transformation of the mass to the vernacular.
• Reformed tradition had much more difficulty.
  • Iconoclasm could have a major response amongst the devout.
  • Many viewed the end of the world as coming and iconoclasm as an example of it.
  • doomsday preaching was very common.
  • The people often took justice in their own hands.
  • Examples:
    • When a Calvinist attacked a priest has the wafer transubstantiated, the congrigation quickly jumped on the two Calvinists and murdered them.
    • In Paris, neighbors heard the sound of Calvinist plainsong, the neighbors rushed the house and killed those that lived inside blaiming them for recent attacks on Catholic statues.

Lay Confraternities

• Urban groups centered around a particular church or parish.
• Organized by laypeople.
• Involved in charitable work and religious activities.
• Major source of popular loyalty to Catholicism.

• Lay confraternities were lay religious organizations that were often associated with a particular church or parish.
• They were often involved in charitable work, such as caring for the sick and burying the dead.
• They were also involved in religious activities, such as organizing processions and festivals.
• They were a major source of popular loyalty to Catholicism.
• They were often seen as a way for laypeople to participate in the religious life of the community.
• They were often seen as a way for laypeople to express their faith and devotion.
• They were often seen as a way for laypeople to gain social status and prestige.
• Increasingly nobles started founding their own confraternities.