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..D. Social Change and the Reformation

..12. The Catholic Reformation

..Tutor: Brian Yhearm

Contents

Introduction
1. The "Catholic Reformation"
2. Websites

Part I: The Pre-Tridentine Catholic Church and the Reformation
0. The "Established" Church
1. "Popular" Religion
2. Opposition to Luther
3. Opposition to Zwingli
4. Opposition to Calvin
5. Conclusion

Part II: The Catholic Reformation?
1. Ignatius of Loyola
2. The Jesuits
3. Overseas Missions
4. Teresa of Ávila
5. "Popular" Catholic Religion

Part III: The Council of Trent (1545-1563)
1. The Objectives of the Council
2. The Course of the Council
3. The Achievements of the Council

Part IV: Material for Week 13: The New Humanism
1. General Reading

Part V: Preparation for Week 14: Religion and the Rise of Capitalism
1. General Reading
2. Set Reading
3. Seminar Preparation

Introduction

1. The "Catholic Reformation"

Language is a tricky object as we have constantly noticed throughout this module. Terms such as "humanism", "Renaissance" and "Reformation" all require careful and deliberate definition. The historical phenomena now commonly called the "Catholic Reformation" is yet another term which requires some thorough and detailed unpicking.

First of all, whatever our specific use of language, it would be wholly incorrect to regard the "Catholic Reformation" as simply a response or a reaction to the Protestant Reformation(s). This opposition is in fact correct, and is most obviously brought out in the term the "Counter Reformation", however, we must not forget that the Reformation as Martin Luther knew it at Wittenberg was a "Catholic Reformation" and ‘many developments which used to be regarded as products of the Reformation had their roots in the later middle ages’ [4.2, Thompson, p. 298, who forcefully asserts that this "background" should be part of the foreground; see, 6.2, Janelle]. Indeed, much of the interpretation of Luther’s thinking can be done in terms of Luther as a Catholic monk. Remember, according to Pope Leo X, the Reformation began ‘as a monk’s quarrel’ - an issue about the theology of the Catholic Church. The "Reformation", then, first and foremost, is a Catholic Reformation even if it began as a reform or a renaissance of the Catholic Church [see the useful discussion in Brendan Bradshaw, "The Reformation and the Counter-Reformation" History Today 33:11 (1983), pp. 42-45].

In describing the various Reformations we still have cause to separate out distinct factions and tradents: the Reformation of Martin Luther, the Swiss Reformation, the Anabaptists Reformation and the Reformation of the ‘Common Man’ (Peter Blickle) and so on. So too we should separate out the "Catholic Reformation". But what should we properly call this separate historical phenomenon [see, 6.2, Evennett, pp. 2-8].

 

Ranke and After

There have been frequent name changes in describing this particular historical circumstance and it was Ranke, in his Geschichte der Päpste (History of the Popes ,1834-39), who coined the phrase the Gegenreformationen, the "Counter-Reformation", and it was in this situation, a response to Luther and Calvin than much modern scholarship took place. Ranke used the term in the plural and meant by it a series of Reformations or interlocking developments [4.3, Dickens/Tonkin, p. 170]. He did not mean to imply a reaction, as did many others who used the term, but that the Reformations began as streams on the same mountain top and diverged as they flowed relentlessly onward. More specifically, the term "Counter Reformation" is a legal concept defining the confessional allegiance of the Holy Roman Empire between 1555 (Peace of Augsburg) and 1648 (Peace of Westphalia) [so R. Po-Chia Hsia, The World of Catholic Renewal 1540-1700 (Cambridge: University Press, 1998), p. 2].

Modern historical works use the term "Counter Reformation" with an implicit, if not explicit, sense that this is a reaction to something and not proactive, ‘it has a certain constricting effect’ [6.2, Evennett, p. 2]. A similar sense of reaction is found in the phrase "Catholic Restoration" but its usage, too, has been challenged [6.2, Evennett, pp. 7f.] and is therefore not widely employed. But so too has the sweeping use of "Catholic Reformation" been challenged because it was more than simply a Reformation akin to those we have already examined in some detail.

Other suggestions have been made to change the misleading or even dubious terminology. Wolfgang Reinhard, for example, favoured the term ‘confessional age’ (konfessionelles Zeitalter) where each Reformation is represented as parallel developments within a larger historical framework [Gegenreformation als Modernisierung?’ Archiv für Reformationsgeschichte 68 (1977), pp. 226-52]. More recently, R. Po-Chia Hsia has used the term ‘Catholic Renewal’ in an attempt to link and to emphasise the continuity between the Medieval Church with the post-Reformation Church (which was also the thrust of, 5.1, Bossy, 1985, and who makes it plain in his preface that ‘nearly everybody in the West before the Reformation, and probably most people after it, were traditional Christians’, p. vii [see too, 5.1, Lindberg, p. 335; and, 6.2, Dickens, pp. 19-28]).

[Note: the more one considers the evidence, the more certain it becomes that the links between the Medieval period and the Reformation/Renaissance era are sometimes portrayed quite artificially. As long ago as 1927, Charles Haskins, The Renaissance of the Twelfth Century (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press), pp. v-vi, was suggesting that this division was a ‘sharp and violent contrast’ and that ‘the Middle Ages were less dark, less static, the Renaissance less bright, less sudden, than was once supposed’. The pointed division of history, we should remember, is for our convenience and not the historical reality itself reified].

Perhaps it is true to say that there should be two terms used for this period to describe this phenomena:

"Reformation" and all of its associations, then, is an appropriate description of the phenomenon under study. The word "Reformation", as we saw in "lecture" 5, has a variety of meanings [see, 4.3, Repgen]. The Latin noun reformatio means "transforming" or "reshaping" and was part of the vocabulary of the Church particularly in the phrase ‘reformation of the Church in head and members (reformatio ecclesia)’ [6.2, Olin, pp. xvi-xvii]. "Reformation" had been part of the Catholic Church from the Great Schism [6.2, Prosperi, p. 287] and the word therefore had no sense of a movement of protest or separation. The sixteenth-century reformers were hoping for a Christianismus renascens, a Christian renaissance, a rebirth of the Church through a return to the past (Scripture and the Patristic writers) [see, 2.1, Spitz, 1973, pp. 2-4].

 

Temporal Extent

Once we have demarcated the area under study, we next must delineate its beginning and its end. The Catholic Reformation is a difficult concept to assign a specific period to or to delimit specifically its extent. Many attempts have been made at setting a temporal framework. One such periodisation suggests 1495-1540, that is, that the Catholic Reformation ran from the reforms of Savonarola [see, 4.2.1, Bartlett, pp. 329-36] to those of Ignatius Loyola [6.2, Olin, p. x]. A narrow time-frame, perhaps, but understandable when Olin suggests that it is particularly difficult for many commentators to regard the Catholic "Reformation" as anything but a Counter Reformation after 1517 and the posting of the Ninety-Five Theses [6.2, Olin, p. xi].

Another suggestion is that the Catholic Reformation began with Cardinal Ximenes (Jiménez de Cisneros, 1436-1517), a Franciscan, who helped reform the Spanish church based on the humanist principle of Biblical study [6.2, Dickens, pp. 45f.]. Others suppose that the Catholic Reformation began in the early fifteenth-century [6.2, Prosperi, p. 288] with the rise of humanist thinking from individuals such as Jacques Lefèvre d’Étaples (1460?-1537) who pursued the study of the Bible in a manner divergent with scholasticism [6.2, Olin, pp. xxi-xxiii; and, 6.2, Dickens, pp. 45-62, has some useful things to say on a range of early reformers].

The origins of the Catholic Reformation are therefore not easy to pin down exactly as is the definition of its end [6.2, Evennett, pp. 19f.]. With hindsight, we might also reasonably suggest that the Catholic Reformation, in fact, began with Erasmus - or even with the devotio moderna, the school of thought which influenced both Erasmus and Luther [so Bossy, in, 6.2, Evennett]. Throughout his life ‘Erasmus remained a Catholic reformer’ [6.2, Olin, p. 68]. The Catholic Reformation, too, might reasonably be said to have begun with the posting of Luther’s the Ninety-Five Theses as it sparked an immediate and specific reaction (although this might be quite obviously better termed the "Counter Reformation") [6.2, Olin, pp. xx-xxi].

Whatever we regard as the temporal limits of the Catholic Reformation, as we begin this important topic for study - and one far too large to encompass in this short lecture - we need to keep one question at the forefront of our thinking: "Did the Catholic Church reform itself to defend itself against the Protestant Reformation or did it reform itself because there was already historic precedent for reform, coupled with a perceived need in the late fifteenth-century that the Catholic Church should develop piety to a greater extent?" The answer to this basic question answers the obvious question of the success of the Catholic Reformation.

2. Websites

The website for the important Council of Trent can be easily found at and other relevant websites can be found through the Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies which links them via a series of bookmarks.

In addition to those listed above, the letters between the Genevan church, from Cardinal Sadoleto and the reply from John Calvin forcefully highlight the issues of the Reformation as seen from the opposite sides of the debate:

Part I: The Pre-Tridentine Catholic Church and the Reformation

0. The "Established" Church

The Catholic Reformation is a massive area of research and cannot be studied in any depth in a single "lecture". The Catholic Reformation encapsulates at least 150 years of reforming, evolving and adapting to new social, political and religious conditions, not least of which was the Protestant Reformations and the opening up of the Americas and the Far East. The plan for this "lecture" is to simply reiterate the areas we have so far studied which are relevant for your thinking about the Catholic Reformation and to highlight only a few significant themes of this particular Reformation.

The Medieval Church was organised so that the Pope was at its head [4.2.1, Hay/Law, pp. 124-30] and successively beneath that Primates, archbishops, bishops and the local parish priests. Due to a growing regionalism in political, social and economic structures, the grip of the Papacy waned in the late Medieval period and Europe underwent a slow transition from feudalism to a city, province and state structure. The Papacy was regarded in the high Renaissance as a corrupt, worldly establishment [see 4.1, Burckhardt, pp. 81-96, a strong theme of his work] and with the rise of monarchies across Europe, significantly became regarded as a foreign power taxing the various nations. In Germany, in particular, the Papacy was considered as this foreign, alien, power [see, 5.1, Reardon, pp. 1-4]. Necessarily, the Papacy thereby lost some of its political , economic and moral authority [5.1, McGrath, 1988, pp. 34-37].

Within the evolving political map of Europe, the "established" Church adapted itself to these ever changing conditions [4.2.1, Bartlett, pp. 297-307; 1.1, Greengrass, pp. 207-18] and was characterized throughout the period by a great deal of ‘personal renewal and partial reform’ [6.2, Olin, p. xix]. The religious criticisms made of it both from within and without were significant and as we saw in "lecture" 5, ‘Martin Luther and the Origins of the Reformation’, there were a number of specific targets for reform:

The Council of Trent (Concilium Tridentine, hence Tridentine: see below, Part III) helped in the reform of the clergy and the offices of bishops etc. [Hsia, op cit., pp. 17, 23] as well as reiterating the central theological shape of the Catholic Church. The office of the Pope too was in many ways reformed [see Decrees from the Sixth and Seventh Sessions].

1. "Popular" Religion

In the last "lecture" we reiterated what we said in "lecture 4", ‘Late Medieval Religious Life’, that the Medieval world was a world of ritual and a world of religious observance whether we see it in terms of "established" or "popular" religion [6.2, Bossy, 1970].

Religion, we argued there, had a number of functions and "established" religion, in particular, was specifically concerned to secure the effective mediation of justification and sanctification. That is, "established" religion sought to save people (baptism, confession) and thus to sanctify them, make them "better", more "religious" individuals (for example, penance, pilgrimage etc.). "Popular" religion was no different to "established" religion in that it too endeavored to enact the mediation of the divine benefits. However, "popular" religion was diffuse, each area and even each sector of society may have had very different beliefs, rituals and practices and therefore popular religion was infinitely less "tidy" than established religion.

Central to the understanding of Medieval piety - which was a Catholic piety - was the cyclical nature of life and the ritual which surrounded each specific signpost of the passing of time. Within the liturgy, images and ritual abounded, each aspect interacting mutually with the other:

Any study of late Medieval religion must begin with the liturgy, for within that great seasonal cycle of fast and festival, of ritual observance and symbolic gesture, lay Christians found the paradigms and the stories which shaped their perception of the world and their place in it. Within the liturgy birth, copulation and death, journeying and homecoming, guilt and forgiveness, the blessing of homely things and the call to pass beyond them were all located, tested and sanctioned. In the liturgy and the sacramental celebrations which were its central moments, Medieval people found the key to meaning and purpose in their lives ... For the late Medieval laity, the liturgy functioned at a variety of levels, offering spectacle, instruction and a communal context for the affective piety which sought even in the formalized action of the Mass and its attendant ceremonies a stimulus to individual devotion [Eamon Duffy, The Stripping of the Altars: Traditional Religion in England 1400-1580 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1992), p. 11].

From these observations we can say that Medieval religion was therefore complex and multidimensional:

The Medieval religious world sought the transcendent and tried to make it immanent [7.3.5, Eire, 1986, p. 11], that is, God and the spiritual realm - the transcendent - were approached and experienced through ritual and representation (images), namely, the immanent. The functional aspect of Medieval religion was blurred by magic especially in the sacraments [see, 5.2.1, Thomas, pp. 58-89] and ‘the difference between the churchmen and the magicians lay less in what they claimed they could do than in the authority on which their claims rested’ [7.3.5, Eire, 1986, p. 11].

We should bear in mind in this "lecture" that what Luther and the other Reformation thinkers saw as abuse and superstition was regarded by the majority of Church members as legitimate and proper. The Protestant Reformation was not the victor in this historical epoch - it may have changed the Catholic Church by creating division and schism and hence its own particular brand of Christianity - but simply in terms of numbers the Catholic Church remained dominant. The success of the Reformation - if we want to think of it in this manner of term - came predominantly with a way of thinking. The Reformation opened the way to greater individualism in religion (as the Renaissance had emphasised greater individualism in all aspects of life) which may well have led to the rise of capitalism and developments in science and, in the longer term, skepticism and the Enlightenment.

2. Opposition to Luther

It is perhaps with the later opposition to Martin Luther that we can legitimately and confidently use the term "Counter Reformation". The Wittenberg reformer caused the Catholic Church severe difficulties as we have seen, and by his death in 1546 the separation of at least two arms of the Christian Church were all but complete. The details of the opposition to Luther do not concern us here [see, 2.1, Elton, pp. 176-80] - already your reading should have covered this in some depth - this section wishes simply to raise the issue of how the Catholic Church opposed Luther and his criticisms of its authority and theology [David Bagchi, Luther’s Earliest Opponents: Catholic Controversialists 1518-25 (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 19991), is good on the early days, and 5.2.1, Bainton, for the entire career].

For Luther, there were a number of targets for the reform of the Church:

1. the sale of indulgences;

2. antipapalism (based on a putative misuse of power);

3. anticlericalism (based on a putative misuse of power and/or perceptions of incompetence);

4. the authority of Scripture over tradition;

5. the primacy of justification by faith;

6. the seven sacraments;

7. the use (and abuse) of images of Mary, the saints and relics (a misplaced soteriology).

Some of these issues were dealt with directly by the Council of Trent (points 1, 4-7) in its reasserting of the theological position of the Catholic Church (see below, Part III). Other issues were dealt with by the reform of the Church from below, especially with the rise of the new religious orders and the growing devotion to the true realities of religious lie (see below, Part II, section 3).

3. Opposition to Zwingli

As we saw in "lecture" 10, the first Zurich disputation was a watershed in the Reformation in Switzerland and it was accompanied by socio-religious turmoil most obviously manifested in popular iconoclasm ("Lecture" 11) which marked a significant shift in attitude to the Reformation experienced in Germany [6.1.3, Potter, 1976, pp. 22-24]. The nature of the confederacy of cantons in Switzerland meant that Zurich would be alone in its Reformation unless alliances could be forged and additional supporters could be sought. By 1529 Berne was in alliance with Zurich against the Catholic cantons of central Switzerland [6.1.3, Potter, 1976, pp. 39-45]. Indeed, the confessional dichotomy brought cantons into open conflict and war [6.1.2, Greengrass, p. 94]. The result of conflicts was the defeat of many of the Reformation thinkers and followers and two battles in October 1531 saw the demise of the expansion of Protestantism and the death of many of Zurich’s political leaders including Zwingli [6.1.5, Greyerz, pp. 30-37]. Indeed, ‘his body was quartered and burnt as the corpse of a heretic and the ashes defiled and scattered’ [6.1.3, Potter, 1976, p. 44], ironically to prevent the body being retained as a resource for relics!

4. Opposition to Calvin

In "lecture" 8, we saw that, after a brief exile, Calvin was invited back to Geneva, perhaps on the strength of his reply to Cardinal Jacopo Sadoleto (1477-1535) who had taken the opportunity of Calvin’s absence to write to the Genevan church suggesting that they return to Catholic unity [6.1.2, Ganoczy, 1996, pp. 235f.].

The letters of Sadoleto and Calvin are an extremely useful illustration to the way in which the theological debates in the Reformation period were carried out. The letter of Sadoleto was from a humanist and Catholic reformer and it urged the Genevan church to return to the fold (Sadoleto was appointed bishop of Carpentras, Provence, in 1517, then made cardinal in 1536. He prepared some of the agenda for the Council of Trent and worked hard to heal divisions within the Church [see Richard Douglas, OER 3 (1996), pp. 467f.]). Sadoleto was of course not the only Catholic humanist, we must always remember the place of Erasmus, for example, and others, like Filippo Neri gave the Church some intellectual substance [see OER 3 (1996), pp. 135f.].

When reading Sadoleto’s letter consider the following central issues:

Calvin’s reply to Sadoleto is an excellent introduction to his thought and a useful summary of the key issues of the Reformation. Calvin deals with far more important issues than simply refuting Sadoleto point for point but he also indulgences in a catenae of accusations of corruption and superstition against the Catholic Church. Calvin shows himself in this as an heir of Erasmus in his humanist concern for the past and the pristine purity of true faith and also he shows himself and heir to Luther in his unabashed polemic against what he regarded as the clear, persistent and flagrant corruption of doctrine and practice within the Catholic Church.

5. Conclusion

The conflict between the Catholic Church and the inchoate Reformation can obviously be read in many different, but related, ways.

A correct understanding of the Catholic Reformation will only evolve from out of a collocation of these issues and single issue history, as we should be aware by now, is doomed to failure and ridicule.

Part II: The Catholic Reformation

1. Ignatius Loyola (1491-1556)

For many scholars, the thinking and the work of Ignatius Loyola was the most significant figure/event in the Catholic Reformation [see the comments of Bossy in, 6.2, Evennett, pp. 126-32]. Ignatius Loyola’s story is frequently told, and perhaps along with Martin Luther he is the greatest victim of Reformation scholarship in that he seems either to be loved [see, for example, J. H. Pollen, "St. Ignatius Loyola" Catholic Encyclopedia (1913) - through the website of the Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies] or loathed in equal measure. The man and the myth, like that of Luther, are hard to separate [ 5.1, Lindberg, pp. 345-50, 2.1; Elton, pp. 197-209].

His biography is easily discovered elsewhere [6.2, O’Malley, 1996, is as good as any] and we shall here concentrate on his importance for the emergence of a vibrant and effective Catholic Reformation.

Ignatius Loyola underwent a profound religious conversion which enabled him to come to terms with his ‘desolation’. In some ways, Ignatius Loyola and Martin Luther suffered greatly from spiritual anxiety or insecurity but their individual expressions of how that affected them and their conversion to security are radically different. The result of the conversion experience of Ignatius Loyola was a greater devotion to spiritual matters and the founding of an order of itinerants who emphasized both observance and good works alongside the need to teach and educate the laity in the true spiritual path. This movement began the Jesuits (see the following section, below).

Ignatius Loyola was prolific writer and as a spiritual guide to many and this resulted in an enormous extant correspondence. More important, however, were the theological, devotional and pedagogical writings [well and briefly analysed in Hugo Rahner, Ignatius the Theologian (London: Geoffrey Chapman, 1968), pp. 1-31].

The writing of Ignatius Loyola can be broken down into four sections, of which only the Spiritual Exercises were published in his lifetime:

There is a convenient translation of the work of Ignatius Loyola: Saint Ignatius of Loyola: Personal Writings (translated and edited, Joseph Munitz, Philip Endean, London: Penguin, 1996), which contain the entire three key religious texts, the Spiritual Exercises, the Spiritual Diary (or Constitutions), the Reminiscences and a good selection of his letters.

 

2. The Jesuits

The Jesuits, the Society of Jesus, were one of many of the new religious orders spawned by the Catholic Reformation [6.2, O’Malley, 1996, is a good place to start and, 1993, the most detailed and reliable recent work]. Among the new developments within the orders were with the Capuchins, the Theatines, the Ursulines and the Lazarists [Hsia, op cit., pp. 26-41]. An important figure in the Catholic Reformation was Philip Neri (1515-1595) who founded the Roman Oratory, a quasi mystic club or movement [see, [1.1, Greengrass, pp. 311f.].

As an example of the reforms made, we will focus briefly only on the Jesuits [1.1, Greengrass, pp. 187-98, has a good survey of many of the ‘new Catholic foundations’ and see, 6.2, Dickens, pp. 63-74]. These new religious orders are evidence that the urge for renewal which burst with the Protestant Reformation neither originated nor stopped there but these orders are directly related to the frequent and persistent call for reform of the Medieval Catholic Church [6.2, Olin, p. xi].

The Jesuits were founded by Ignatius Loyola and officially sanctioned in a Papal bull of Paul III, Regimini militantis ecclesiae (1540) [2.1, Chadwick, pp. 255-64; 1.1, Greengrass, pp. 192-97; 6.2, Dickens, pp. 75-90]. Their story is well covered in many places and will not detain us here save for the key aspects of their reforms. Unlike the other orders, the Jesuits did not share a communal liturgical life - they were modeled on the apostles of early Christianity and so led a life of wandering, teaching and preaching [6.2, O’Malley, 1996, p. 335].

The principle legacy of the Jesuits is their focus on missionary activity and teaching. Missionary activity, of course, was not just to America or Japan but also to Germany where they were especially successful in reclaiming the lost faithful of half a century before. This missionary activity took the form of education and preaching but also the reversal of the sort of propaganda and polemic we examined in "lecture" 11, ‘Image and Iconoclasm’ [see, for example, Kirsten Noreen, "Ecclesiae militantis truimphi: Jesuit Iconography and the Counter-Reformation " Sixteenth Century Journal 29 (1998), pp. 689-715]. Peter Canisius (1521-1597) was particularly successful in his activity in Germany and any relevant map of the later sixteenth-century will show how there was a diminishing expanse of Lutheran territory and a reciprocal growth of the Catholic Church [2.1, Chadwick, pp. 262-64; 6.2, Dickens, pp. 22-24].

Equally important was the Jesuit education of both the clerical and the lay elite: ‘famous alumni were legend: Emperor Ferdinand II, Duke Maximillian II of Bavaria, Cardinal Richelieu, Justus Lipsius and René Descartes [Hsia, op cit., p. 33]. The first Jesuit school opened in 1548 and was set out to work on humanist principles. By 1615 the Jesuits had 370 such schools [6.2, O’Malley, 1996, p. 334]. It is with education, in particular, that we can see a sharp contrast with the Protestant Reformation where, as we observed earlier (sessions 5-6, 8-9) Luther and Calvin both enjoined that their Reformations be associated with education. Luther chose his Catechism and Calvin his Institutes of the Christian Religion.

 

3. The Overseas Missions

While the Catholic Church was under siege in Europe from the various Reformations it experienced a spectacular growth overseas through the action of exploration and trade and with it the development of missionary activity. The opening up of the globe, and particularly the discovery of the "New World", meant that religious thinkers in Europe had to reconsider their own specific philosophical world views [6.2, Reinhard]. For the Church in Europe - of all kinds - the westward spread of religion (continuing from Israel) meant a spread too of Empire [see, David Armitage, "Discoveries in the New World" OER 1 (1996), pp. 486f., at p. 486].

The discovery of the "New World" meant a rethink of the categories of what it meant to be human. In 1511, at the Fifth Lateran Council, leading Spanish thinkers called for greater missionary activity in America to "save" the natives. Pope Paul III, in Papal Bull, Sublimus deus (1537), declared that ‘the Indians are truly men and that they are ... capable of understanding the Catholic faith’ [cited in Patricia Seed, "America" OER 1 (1996), pp. 26f., at p 26]. Allowing that the "Indians" were human meant that they should be "converted" and when converted recognise and obey the "New Laws" of 1542 where Spain declared that all were vassals of the crown. It was, of course, at this council that monks of the Catholic Church called for general ‘reform’ [6.2, Prosperi, p. 288] not least with the encouragement to translate the Bible into vernacular languages [1.1, Greengrass, pp. 279-84, as ever, has some relevant and accessible statistics].

 

4. Teresa of Ávila (1515-1582)

One of the fundamental aspects of the Catholic Reformation was the rise - or the perpetuation - of the exaltation of moral discipline, religious conformity and social obedience [6.2, Bossy, 1970]. The ‘observantist movements’ [6.2, Prosperi, p. 289], the growth of ‘new orders’ [2.1, Chadwick, pp. 253-55; 5.1 Lindberg, pp. 335-41], along with the growth of mysticism associated with individuals such as John of the Cross (Juan de Yepes, 1542-1591), were important parts of the Catholic Reformation with the emphasis on genuine poverty, the renunciation of the material things of life and a severe inner discipline. Among the many trends in this form of Catholicism was that of Teresa of Ávila which built on the devotional writing of inner contemplation, such as:

Teresa of Ávila (Teresa de Ahumada) was a Spanish born mystic writer and monastic reformer, indeed, she has been described as ‘the mystic-saint par excellence of Catholic renewal’ [Hsia, op cit., p. 123]. At about the age of forty, Teresa began to have profound religious experiences: seeing visions, hearing voices and achieving, so she claimed, mystical union with God and a terrifying vision of Hell. Teresa of Ávila founded a series of Carmelite convents vowing strict poverty and withdrawal from the world. Her profoundly pietistic Book of Her Life (El libro de sua vida) became a classic of introspection and renewed devotion, in every way typical of the Catholic Reformation [2.1, Chadwick, pp. 293-98].

 

5. "Popular" Catholic Religion

The question posed here is the sort of question which surrounds the Reformation itself: if piety was abundant, devotion intense, and religious life vigorously pursued in "established" and "popular" ways was it especially satisfying? It can be argued, for example, that Medieval religion actually fragmented the channels of access to the transcendent, that is, admission to the divine. With the increase in the use of images, relics, saints, the indulgence trade, the emergence of the devotio moderna and so on, religious anxiety may have increased due to individual’s feeling that they were completely unable to choose which was the most efficacious route or to know how at all to gain access to God [see, 7.3.5, Eire, 1986, pp. 24f.].

The changes wrought by the Reformations should now be quite evident. In particular, in terms of "popular" Protestant religion, for example, Lent took the place of carnival, psychologically anxiety took the place of spiritual comfort and socially, solitariness the place of kinship [6.2, Bossy, 1970].

The discussion so far has led us back to the question we raised in the ‘Introduction’: "Did the Catholic Church reform itself to defend itself against the Protestant Reformation or did it reform itself because there was already historic precedent for reform, coupled with a perceived need in the late fifteenth-century that the Catholic Church should develop piety to a greater extent?" The answer to this basic question answers the obvious question of the success of the Catholic Reformation.

Part III: The Council of Trent (1545-1563)

1. The Objectives of the Council

The Council of Trent was the nineteenth general council of the Church and had been in formation from 1521 when, at the Diet of Worms, there had been vigorous and extensive calls for another council. However, by the time to Council of Trent was to have its first session the Catholic Church had become ineradicably split.

The Council of Trent opened on 13 December 1545 (shortly before the death of Martin Luther) with three Papal legates at the helm: in all, there were 11 Papal legates at the entire span of the Council [1.1, Greengrass, p. 205], one of which, Giovanni Maria del Monte (1487-1555), who was to become Pope Julius III (and to die during the course of the council) [5.1, Lindberg, pp. 353f.]. The delegates sent to Trent represented only a minuscule amount of the Catholic Church [Hsia, op cit., pp. 10f.]. The Council of Trent aimed to establish firm ground with regard to making reforms and eradicate heresy [2.1, Chadwick, pp. 273-81]. The shape and the constitution of the Council were formed through the interaction of empire and the Papacy. Emperor Charles V sought to reduce the instability of the Holy Roman Empire but had a markedly different agenda to the Pope [5.1, Lindberg, p. 351]. For Paul III (1534-49), a reformer, the combating of heresy was the priority rather than healing schism and he sought to balance the growing materialism with the Catholic Church with spiritual reform [1.1, Greengrass, pp. 198f., 313f.; 2.1, Elton, pp. 186-97]. The venue of Trent was itself a compromise and was chosen as it stood at a geographic and linguistic divide between Germany and Italy.

 

2. The Course of the Council

The Council of Trent went through three distinct phases [and the course of the Council is described in sequence in, 1.1, Greengrass, pp. 198-205]:

Phase
Date
Pope
Sessions

Significant Subject Matter
1
1545-1547
Paul III
1-11

Scriptureoriginal sinjustificationsacraments
2
1551-1552
Julius III
12-16

Eucharistpenanceextreme unction
3
1561-1563
Pius IV
17-25

Massmatrimonypurgatoryinvocation of the saintsIndex of Banned Booksmonasticism

It can immediately seen that the Council of Trent did not constitute a single sitting but three separate and interlocking phases of twenty-five sessions in all. The first phase of the council (1545-47) consisted of key sessions on Scripture, the sacraments and justification by faith (the 9th and 10th sessions were held in Bologna due to disturbances in the neighboring area caused by the troops of Charles V and Francis I). The content of the sessions are plainly a challenge to the new Protestant orthodoxy [6.2, Alberigo, pp. 173f.]. The session on justification by faith resulted in a Decree of 16 Chapters and 33 Canons within it. Especially important are canons 12, 26 and 32 [1.1, Greengrass, p. 202]. The Decrees on justification by faith show us that Council of Trent was not about Reformation but clearly about "Counter Reformation". As can be found from reading the other texts of the Council of Trent, the Canons and Decrees are firmly concerned with upholding the tradition of the Catholic Church: the principle of sola scriptura was rejected, the seven sacraments are shown to be valid and that justification by faith without works is useless.

 

 

The second phase of the council (1551-52) went back over issues around the sacraments, the Eucharist, penance and Extreme Unction, in particular, and their efficacy were justified as witnessed in Scripture and tradition. It was after the second phase of the Council of Trent that Julius III died (1555) and was replaced as Pope by Marcellus II - ‘a proponent of reform humanism’ [6.2, Alberigo, p. 174] although he was replaced after 22 days through his untimely death by Paul IV who was vigorously opposed to the Protestant Reformation.

 

 

It was in 1555 that the ‘Peace of Augsburg’ was sanctioned where Charles V agreed to the principle that ‘whoever the king, his religion’ which meant that states and lands would expect the population to take on the same religion as that of the specific ruler. Coupled with this decree, Paul IV reacted to his change of status by actively repressing dissent and dogmatic opposition. In the assertion of dogma, the Council of Trent gives us a clear expression of the "Counter Reformation" in that the thinking was regressive and rigidly traditional. Paul IV also reactivated the Roman Inquisition [see, 5.1, Lindberg, pp. 341-45; 6.2, Haliczer, and the essays collected there; Henry Kamen, The Spanish Inquisition: An Historical Revision (London: Phoenix, 1998), is a well balanced and informative survey] and published an Index of Prohibited Books [1.1, Greengrass, pp. 272f., has the entire list of sixteenth-century Indices]. (Pope Pius IV was succeeded by Michele Ghisleri, his Grand Inquisitor, and elected Pope Pius V, 1565-1572 [2.1, Chadwick, pp. 281-84], and, not surprisingly, followed through a ruthless campaign against dissent).

The third phase of the Council of Trent (1561-63) began under a fifth Pope, Pius IV (1559-65) (Marcellus and Paul IV both failed to live long enough to be Pope when Trent was actually in session) and focused on the Mass and returned again to other sacraments where ‘purgatory, indulgences and the veneration of the saints were defined’ [6.2, Alberigo, pp. 174f.]. This phase of the Council was played out against a developing backdrop of political maneuvering between the Papacy, Spain, France and the Holy Roman Empire [Hsia, op cit., pp. 18f.].

 

3. The Achievements of the Council

The Council of Trent was neither the origins nor the defining moment in the Catholic Reformation even though it ‘substantially modified ecclesiastical organization’ [6.2, Prosperi, p. 292]. It was a peculiar affair, since it took so long to complete, and because the composition of those in attendance changed so frequently, we cannot look upon the Council of Trent as a monolithic, uniform or homogenous event. The real force of the Decrees and Canons of the Council of Trent remain debatable. The council depended upon the sanction of Rome and the Pope for the full force of their deliberations and decisions. However, despite Pope Pius IV acceptance of its principles, Rome required each state or nation to enact these Canons and Decrees. However, as the Papacy had lost much of its Medieval political power with the shifting vicissitudes of the European nation states, the effectiveness of instilling the reforms were patchy.

It is in this interaction of Rome and the States that the birth of the modern Catholic Church occurred [6.2, Alberigo, p. 176] where Rome, in effect, sought determined the interpretation of the council and only held a spiritual power, as its temporal power was now effective only in the new world.

Part IV: Material for Week 13: The New Humanism

1. General Reading

1.1 Week 13, ‘The New Humanism’ is replaced in this module with a revision week (after Week 14, ‘Religion and the Rise of Capitalism’ - which moves forward one week] when we will actively practice examination technique. The originally planned shape of the "lecture" is briefly given on the relevant web page.

1.2 The reading for this topic is indicated in section 4.2.2 of the main bibliography but especially in section 4.2.2.3. Other books give a sense of the subject matter:

 

1.3. The main texts under scrutiny were to be on free will and salvation and were as follows:

 

1.4 The purpose of the session was to reassess the place of humanism in the Reformation after we had gained first-hand experience of the works of Martin Luther, John Calvin and Huldrych Zwingli.

Part V: Preparation for Week 14: Religion and the Rise of Capitalism

1. General Reading

1.1 The reading for next week is indicated in section 8.1 of the main bibliography. The standard books on the Reformation we have been using do not describe this aspect of the Reformation in much detail but can still give you a brief notion of the scope of the problem:

Other works which are especially helpful are:

2. Set Reading

2.1 The essential reading is Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, especially, chapters 1, 2 and 4 (part A only). Alongside this you might also read R. H. Tawney, Religion and the Rise of Capitalism chapter 2, part iii.

2.2 In addition to the above (2.1), Reinhardt Bendix, "Max Weber" in D. Sills, ed., International Encyclopaedia of the Social Sciences (New York: MacMillan, 1968), volume 16, pp. 493-502, is a useful resource and brief guide to Weber. Donald MacRae, Weber (Fontana Modern Masters, London: Fontana, 1974) is a good place to start thinking about the full range of Weber’s works.

3. Seminar Preparation

3.1 Define or describe the following concepts with regard to Weber’s thesis:

3.2 Here are some questions which should help you form in detail your thinking about religion, capitalism and the Reformation:

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