The Catholic Reformation is often viewed as a Counter Reformation, responding to the great Protestant Reformation that swept across Europe in the sixteenth century.[1]

A better view is that it was driven by factors that were largely independent of the Protestants. The Catholic Reformation had two components; a Catholic renewal of piety and virtue, and sporadic calls for Church reform in the face of unprecedented, rapid change in society; and internal abuses that resulted from those changes. Catholic renewal and the Jesuits were important elements in this view of the Catholic Reformation. At the Council of Trent, Catholic renewal combined with Catholic reformation and a new Church emerged. Its doctrine was clarified and its internal corruption was addressed, with steps taken to correct it. The moral of the Church was renewed and religious Orders like the Jesuits, who were tightly organized and aggressive in matters of doctrine and reform, spread out through Europe and the world proclaiming the “good news.” It is fair to say that this period, after the Council of Trent, was a period of Counter Reformation aimed at the spread of Protestants.

During the fifteenth century the Humanist revived classical pagan philosophy and generated a sea change in attitude about the role of man in this world and his relationship to god and to the Church. Man began to look at the beauty and wonder of the world in which he lived, not the world to which he would go. The new miracle of printing spread these new ideas and attitudes quickly throughout Europe. Humanist ideas challenged an entrenched and conservative Church which had strayed from its early teachings. The liberalizing winds of the Renaissance highlighted the lack of clarity in Church doctrine, the desiccation of scholastic thought and the familiar litany of internal abuses of the Church; including simony, multiple benefices, sale of indulgences, lax morals, corruption of the Curia and the Renaissance Popes. The Catholic Reformation began with these challenges. Thus, when Luther posted his 95 theses in 1517, he was asking for a discussion of Church reform in the long tradition of doctors of Theology.

The Catholic Reformation had its roots, not in the confrontation at the Diet of Worms in 1521, but rather in the Humanism of the Italian Renaissance as well as the evolved Christian Humanism of the northern Renaissance. Christian Humanism called for a renewal of Greek and Roman antiquity as well as a renewal of Christian antiquity. By the early sixteenth century, Christian Humanism was widely accepted in Europe as a means of reforming theology and re-invigorating Christian life[2]. The ad fontes of Italian Humanism effortlessly became the exegesis of Christian Humanism; and interest in the Bible and other religious works was pervasive. “The age was one of astonishing religious creativity, pullulating with saints, mystics, reformers, and original theologians.”[3]

Catholic revival was more than a revival of ancient Christian writings, it was also a revival of the ancient Christian values of piety, mysticism and asceticism as a response to the worldliness of the Renaissance.

Savanarola of Florence, an early participant in both branches of the Catholic Reformation, renewal and reform, cautioned: “…O prelates of the Church…you will not have any cure unless you mend your ways!”[4] Savanarola’s goal was revival of Christian virtue and faith in a wicked world; but he also saw the Church itself in need of reform and virtue. Cardinal Francisco Ximenes de Cisneros, Spain’s leading Humanist, established a new University at Alcala to educate a more competent and worthy clergy and he imposed strict rules of conduct on their behavior.[5] From 1502 to 1517, Ximenes sponsored and paid for the completion of the Complutensian[6] Polyglot Bible, one of the world’s great achievements in scholarship and printing. The Bible, published in 1522, contained side by side translations in Greek, Hebrew and Latin. This was important to the Catholics because it facilitated biblical exegesis; it was the Church that placed high priority on scripture not just Martin Luther.

 In the late fifteenth century, Erasmus of Antwerp became the most popular and influential Humanist of his time. His Handbook of the Christian Soldier called for a personal inward piety which was completely Christocentric[7]. While he promoted exegesis of the Bible and the ancient Fathers of the Church, his writings attacked the sophistry of the scholastics and the hypocrisy and abuses of the Church.

Other pre-Luther fifteenth century efforts at renewal and reform can be found in the Devotio Moderna, a Catholic revival movement involving the laity which encouraged active piety, moralism, spirituality, and a deep relationship with God. Lay organizations like the Brethren of the Life and the Roman Oratories of Devine Love in Italy sought to cultivate spirituality through works of charity and special religious devotions. Reform also appeared in the clerical orders that sought to return to their roots of piety, prayer and mysticism. Even Church councils were called to address the issues, but little was accomplished.

Erasmus sought to return to the scriptures as the root of Christianity, as did Martin Luther. There is some truth in the saying, “Erasmus laid the egg that Luther hatched.” It is well to recall that Luther was a proponent of Catholic revival and reform. He was an extremely introspective monk, known for his piety, and head of the Theology Department of Wittenberg University. He saw the need for clarification of Church doctrine, for accurate translations of the Bible, and for reform of the abuses in the Curia. In 1517 he posted his 95 theses as a way of discussing the failings of the Church and as a way of renewing its original grace. Rather than discuss the abuses identified by Luther, the Church characterized the theses as an attack on the papacy, and excommunicated him.

Luther’s subsequent declaration at Worms, in 1521, that Christianity’s highest authority was scripture, not the pope, created a parallel universe which precluded further profitable discussion. On one level, Luther began working out his theology of justification by faith alone and seeking reform through doctrinal change. On another level, a parallel level, the Catholic revival moved on, without Luther; and without reform.

 As the middle of the century approached, Catholic renewal became more militant. Several new orders were formed, including the Jesuits. More reformers and Humanists were elevated to powerful positions in the Church and the calls for a General Council of the Church became more insistent. Catholic spirituality was a reflection of, and a more insistent search for, its ancient Christian roots; not a reaction to the Protestant Reformation. The Jesuits exemplified this new spirituality; they were highly individualistic and activist with an emphasis on an individual’s interior religious experience, private prayer, meditation, self discipline, personal sanctification and spiritual growth.[8] Spirituality was expressed in an active exterior life where deed rather than words mattered. Charity, self discipline and service to others were emphasized. This inner spirituality combined with activist good works is found in the abundance of saints of the time;  Catherine of Genoa, St Theresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross and especially St Ignatius Loyola.

The Catholic renewal of virtue and good works was in stark contrast to the parallel universe of the theology of Luther. The most important thing, according to Luther, was to gain the right relationship with god which would eventually produce a “conversion experience.” He spoke of Christian freedom for each person to seek faith in his own interpretation of the Bible; yet, Luther’s interpretation was the foundation of his theology. He was against penance, fasting, self denial, abstinence and religious vows. Good works, always the core theology of the Catholic Church, were no longer required for salvation. Since salvation was gained by faith alone, indeed, even predestined for the “chosen”, good works were unnecessary.

Mid century also saw the occurrence of three events that marked a turning point in the history of the Church and an expansion of the Catholic renewal of virtue to a broader Catholic Reformation. The first event was the election of Pope Paul III in 1535. Paul III was a wily and seasoned Renaissance prelate who recognized the ills of the Church because he participated in them; as Pope he became a reluctant reformer. The second event was the invitation to Cardinal Gasparo Contarini and his circle of Venetian reformers to come to Rome and join the Curia. Contarini was a prominent Humanist in Venice who had ties with those Church reformers active in the reform proposals of the Fifth Lateran Council in 1513. This pre-Luther reform Council addressed many of Luther’s issues; such as the translation of the Bible into the vernacular, close supervision of the bishops, and careful selection and training of the clergy.  The arrival of Contarini in Rome was significant because, for the first time, it united papal power and leadership with the reform movement.[9] The third event was the founding of the Society of Jesus over the objection of some powerful Cardinals. With the help of Cardinal Contarini, the establishment of the Order was approved. In urging the Pope to grant the application of Ignatius, Contarini said, “The finger of God is here” [10]

Contarini also convinced Paul III to convene a reform commission in 1536, in anticipation of a General Council, to examine needed reforms in the Church. In 1537, the commission produced one of the most important and astonishing reports in the history of the Catholic Reformation, the Consilium de Emendanda Ecclesia. It was astonishing, not because the abuses identified were new; the abuses pre dated the Protestant Reformation. It was astonishing because Contarini and the commissioners had the temerity to attack the Papacy and the Roman Curia. Contarini wrote that long standing abuses and diseases have afflicted the Church “…and especially this Roman Curia.” The report went on to say “…it cannot be permitted even for the Vicar of Christ to obtain any profit in the use of the power of the keys conferred on him by Christ.”[11] Less than two decades before, when Luther complained about the sale of Church offices in 1521, the Church bitterly accused him of heresy. The report ended with an appeal to the Pope for action, but Paul III was a reluctant reformer especially in the face of an entrenched Curia protecting its livelihood. Moreover, remembering the problems created by the Western Schism, all of the most recent popes had been wary of calling a General Council.   

The third event, the founding of the Jesuits, is an example of the intervention of the Holy Spirit, from the Church’s point of view. Catholic Reformation produced a number of remarkable human beings and numerous saints; none, however, more remarkable or more influential during the Catholic Reformation than Don Inigo Lopez de Loyola, St. Ignatius. He was born into a noble Basque family; at the age of thirty-one he was gravely wounded defending Pamplona against the French. During his long recovery, he read the profound and scholarly Vita Jesu Christi by Ludolph of Saxony[12] and became convinced that he wanted to imitate Christ in all things. In 1540, after more than a decade of preparing himself and his companions, St. Ignatius founded the Societas Jesu with the permission of Pope Paul III.[13] The term Jesuit means one who appropriates the name of Jesus or who uses it too frequently. “Jesuit” was contemptuously applied to the order early in its existence by Calvin; eventually, the order adopted the name as a badge of honor, although Ignatius never used the term.[14]

The Jesuits had a military flavor about them. They were founded by a soldier, they owned absolutely nothing, they were designed to move at a moment’s notice, their leader was called “General”; their intended name, Campafiia, in Spanish, was a military fighting force; and the hallmark of the order was instant and absolute obedience, much as a military officer requires of a soldier. Ignatius wrote a book called Spiritual Exercises which was like a daily training guide for the soul, designed to get it in shape for the arduous tasks ahead. This military orientation was for “spiritual combat”, a metaphor of ancient Christian origin employed by the great Humanist, Erasmus, in his Enchiridion Militis Christiani.[15]

Ignatius considered the active life more useful than the contemplative and he thought asceticism was bad preparation for the active life. But there was much more; his goal was to imitate Christ in all things; to seek God in all things; abhor, utterly, the predilections of the world; and obey his superiors, as if the order came from Christ, in the spirit of Christian faith and love. His followers took the three vows of poverty, chastity and obedience; and, they took a fourth vow of special obedience to the pope, who they considered Christ’s vicar on earth.[16] All that they did was for the greater glory of God.[17]

The Jesuits were not organized to combat Protestantism, Ignatius’s original intent was to convert the Muslims. Given his background, he never lived in an area that was accepting of Protestants; it is doubtful that he had any understanding of the Protestant “threat”. But the Jesuits were soon to have an impact on the Council of Trent and on the reform measures of the Tridentine Church.

Calls for a General Council of the Church had been made by ecclesiastical and secular reformers for decades. The Popes hesitated, fearing loss of power, wars interfered, secular princes squabbled over influence; even the location was a major issue. Finally, in 1542, Paul III issued his Bull of convocation of a General Council to be held in Trent, Germany.  The goal of the Council was threefold; 1) to effect reform in the Church; 2) to clarify doctrine; and, 3) to restore peace and unity to the Church. The third goal quickly became impossible when the Protestants refused to attend, calling it a Council of the Antichrist because of the papal sponsorship. They were initially supported in this regard by kings Henry VIII of England and Francis I of France.[18] As a result, the jurisdiction of the Council from the beginning was limited to the Catholic world.

For fifteen years the Council did its work through wars, threats, politics, the death of the Pope, the deaths of kings and the death of Contarini. In spite of the problems that plagued the Council, it managed to clarify and issue decrees on Church doctrine including indulgences; Communion under both species; the Sacrifice of the Mass; the sacraments including Marriage and Holy Orders; and, veneration of the saints, relics and images. The theologians did their work well; when the decrees were promulgated, there was general admiration for the clarity of the doctrines and the amount of agreement that had been accomplished.[19] The Jesuits attended the Council from the beginning and were instrumental in preserving traditional doctrine as conceived by the scholastics and insuring the primacy of the Pope. Although no specific decree was issued on the topic, the Pope was designated to approve all Decrees issued by the Council before they were promulgated. These Decrees formed a striking contrast to the doctrinal splintering occurring amongst the various Protestant sects throughout Europe. 

Of the 255 prelates who signed the acts of the Council, 189 were Italians, “…some of them mere creatures, not to say stipendiaries of the Curia.”[20]Nevertheless, the Council recognized the abuses and issued decrees aimed at long term reform. Many decrees addressed the morals, quality and administration of the clergy. The abuses surrounding the administration of ecclesiastical benefices were addressed by requiring Bishops to be residents of their diocese with full power of administration. While the doctrinal decrees were generally accepted, the reform decrees were not. Reform came slowly due to the entrenched Roman Curia as well as the opposition of some Catholic sovereigns in countries like Spain and France. Perhaps the most important and far reaching decree directed every diocese without a university to establish a seminary for the training of men who will be cultured and learned.[21]

The Council of Trent was a watershed event in the life of the Church. It was the culmination of years of Catholic renewal of virtue and calls for administrative reform and it confronted major issues under the worst of circumstances. In the end it fixed and clarified Catholic doctrine along broad and systematic lines and it provided a foundation for genuine reform.[22] Perhaps most importantly, it demonstrated a preoccupation with reform of the individual and a concern for the restoration of the Church’s pastoral mission rather than dogmatic or structural change.[23] It is this factor that argues best for the parallel universe; the Church was not “countering” anything, it was returning to its roots; it was in fact recognizing Catholic renewal begun in the fifteenth century.

In truth, it would be difficult to deny that the calling of the Council of Trent and its discussion of issues like “justification” were not done with the Protestant Reformation in mind. Many in the Church saw the Protestants as a grave threat and they were desperate for some kind of solution that would provide a bulwark. Nevertheless, there is a thread of continuity that binds the renewal of faith and piety among the Christian Humanists, the early reformers like Savanarola, the Spanish mystics and spiritualists like St. John of the Cross, and the later reformists like Cardinal Contarini that was largely independent of Luther’s parallel universe. Many of the doctrines clarified by the Council of Trent, for example, were merely re-affirmations of doctrinal decrees issued by pre-Luther Church Councils. The doctrinal approach of the scholastics, hundreds of years old, was defended by the Jesuits and it prevailed over the Humanist approach at Trent.

While the Council of Trent may have resulted in part from Protestant pressure, the posture of the Church after Trent was more clearly a Catholic Counter-Reformation aimed at the Protestants. [24] The Council of Trent had produced the Tridentine Church which was more defiant, confident, sure of its beliefs and ready to reclaim its position of moral primacy. The Tridentine Church benefited from three reformist popes in succession as well as the incredible energy created by Trent. This led to the traditional view of the Catholic Counter-Reformation. Catholic schools and universities were established throughout Europe and the Jesuits and other missionaries carried the Faith not only throughout the world but also to the centers of Protestantism in Germany and France and England. The Jesuits gained political power and influence through their ability and cunning as confessors to the powerful and many lost their lives as martyrs. As they made themselves the most popular confessors of the time, they learned from the secret struggles of princes and paupers.[25]

Catholic sovereigns used force and violence to eradicate heresy in their kingdoms and to re-establish the Faith. Mary, the Spanish Queen of England, burned Protestant’s for heresy and tried to swing England back to the Church. Germany’s thirty years war (1618-1648) ended with the Edict of Restitution from Ferdinand II which restored all the Church lands that had been seized by the Protestants. Similarly, France suffered the Wars of Religion from 1562 through 1593. During the reign of Elizabeth in England, the Jesuits and Edmund Campion in 1580 brought the Counter-Reformation to England in the face of considerable persecution from the crown.[26]     

One of the most important decrees of the Council of Trent was the requirement  that every diocese have a university to be used in part for the training of the clergy. The Jesuits were the premiere educators. They focused particularly on the sons of the governing classes and charged no fees for tuition. They developed a methodology of teaching which included use of the very best textbooks to teach the whole range of secular and ecclesiastical learning, including proper manners, and training in the moral culture of the student.[27] In the generation following the Council of Trent, they made themselves the indispensable instructors of the Catholic world. Their fame was such that Protestants attended their schools and Francis Bacon declared them to be the best teachers that civilization had produced.[28]

In sum, The Counter-Reformation is a term often loosely applied to Catholic efforts to renew their spirituality and reform their Church as a reaction to Luther’s Protestantism. In fact, Catholic renewal of virtue and piety had roots in the fifteenth century when Catholics reacted to the pagan aspects of Humanism and the relaxing of morals in the Italian Renaissance. The Catholic reformers can be found as early as Wycliff in the fourteenth century and Savanarola in the 1490’s. Reformers like Luther and Wycliff began their efforts within the Church; the fact that they were compelled were compelled to seek reform through doctrinal changes outside of the Church does not convert the flow of Catholic renewal into a “Counter-Reformation.” While the faithful hewed closely to the pastoral teachings of the Church, the official but corrupt Church seemed dismayed at the explosive success of the little monk from Wittenberg. The Council of Trent changed much of this. The group of reformers, themselves powerful cardinals, came together with the authority of the Pope and began the reform from the top down while the faithful had, for decades, been reforming personal piety from the bottom up. When the two met in Trent, the Church was on its way to self renewal and on its way to the Protestant Counter Reformation.