WHI.31

media type="custom" key="29537125" align="right" =Explain the purposes and policies of the Catholic Counter-Reformation, including the influence and ideas of Ignatius Loyola.=
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** Topics on the Page **

 * Background for the Counter Reformation **
 * Purposes and Policies **
 * ** The Council of Trent **
 * Art During the Counter Reformation **
 * Ignatius Loyola, the Jesuits and Pope Francis I **
 * Women in the Counter Reformation **

Background:
The Catholic Counter-Reformation was a period of Catholic resurgence as a response to the Protestant Revolution.

The image to the right from 1729 is called Catholic Faith Defeating Protestant Heresies
 * It began in 1545 with the forming of the Council of Trent, which identified Protestant heresies and clarified the proper teachings and important ideals of the Catholic Church.
 * Main objectives completed during the counter-reformation included creation of seminaries and proper training of priests, and establishing the laypersons need for a more personal relationship with Jesus.
 * The Counter-Reformation drew to a close in 1648 at the end of the Thirty Years' War with the Peace of Westphalia.


 * [|Council of Trent] Canons and Decrees.
 * The [|Peace Treaty of Westphalia], and see an explanation of the treaty [|here]

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[|Martin Luther] was the most famous figure to emerge from the Protestant Reformation, as he was the producer of the [|Ninety Five Theses] that demanded changes within the Catholic Church.=====

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In 1517, he nailed these complaints, mainly about indulgences in the Church, to the door of the Wittenberg Church in East Germany. When his ideas were rejected, Luther was branded a heretic, but the damage to Catholicism was done, and Protestantism emerged as a result.=====

Click [|here] for an entertaining video that summarizes Martin Luther and the background of the Protestant Reformation in Europe.

Purposes:

 * The [|Catholic Counter-Reformation] occured in the late 1500s as a response to the [|Protestant Reformation] that spread throughout Europe.
 * Up until the period of the Protestant Reformation, Catholicism had been the only Christian religion recognized by state powers.
 * As the Church struggled to uphold its validity due to various scandals and periods of corruption that ran throughout the church between the 13th and 16th centuries, people began to question its authority.
 * The counter-reformation aimed to bring back strict religious (Catholic) conformity to Europe.

**Policies:**

 * The Catholic clergy knew they had to make some reforms in order to regain the Church's reputation and followers.
 * Europe, which had been previously united by its Catholic faith, had been divided into regions of Protestants and Catholics.
 * The Catholic Church had also been harshly criticized during this time period for its practice of selling indulgences, one of Luther's main grievances.
 * Led by Ignatius Loyola, the Catholic clergy decided to meet to review its policies and solidify its doctrines. This became known as the [|Council of Trent], in which several important issues were discussed, including:
 * The affirmation that the Pope was the ultimate authority
 * The continued importance of the veneration of saints
 * Reaffirming of doctrines including good works and the importance of indulgences
 * The Church would invest money into building churches that featured more artwork and intricate designs
 * To clear up internal disputes about the doctrine and abuses by the clergy
 * Attempt (and success) to unify the Church and its followers in order to prove its validity and discourage further conversions to the Protestant faith [|[1]]
 * The Reformation acted as a time for the Catholic Church to 1) reaffirm doctrine 2) begin campaigns to spread Catholic faith 3) get rid of heresy



The Council of Trent
Website for the Council of Trent


 * Primary Documents for the Council



[[image:Screen Shot 2018-01-06 at 11.48.22 AM.png]]Art during the Counter Reformation
To emphasize the importance of art in the Counter Reformation, watch this video from Khan Academy.
 * During the Reformation, Protestants began to attack Catholic images. This was called iconoclasm
 * This was especially prominent in Northern Europe, with the mass destruction of Catholic artwork including painting and sculptures.
 * The Council of Trent combated this violence by reaffirming the purpose of art. They wrote that paintings acted as a way for bishops to teach the stories to the lay people, many of whom were illiterate.
 * The art created for the Counter Reformation emphasized the doctrines of the Church and condemned the growing Protestant faiths.

**Ignatius Loyola, the Jesuits and Pope Francis I**

 * [|Ignatius Loyola] was the founder of a Catholic order called the [|Jesuits]. For more, see [|A Brief History of the Jesuits] from a faculty page at Fairfield University.


 * Loyola and his Jesuit followers were responsible for ensuring that priests were following Catholic doctrine throughout Europe. The Jesuits largely rejected the worldly components of the Catholic Church and strictly adhered to the orders that were given to them by the Pope.
 * While orders other than the Jesuits were responsible for following the same guidelines, the Jesuits were by far the most effective group in converting and educating people in the Catholic faith. The Jesuits almost single-handedly gained respect back for the Catholic religion following the Council of Trent.

Loyola is also know for his //**[|Spiritual Exercises]**//, a set of prayers and meditations to help the misguided soul return to Jesus Christ.

Jesuit focus on issues of social justice in Latin America in the 20th century sparked controversy between the order and the Vatican who feared the Jesuits were embracing Marxist ideologies.

For a modern-day expression, see [|Our Guiding Jesuit Philosophy] from Marquette University. In 2013, there are 3,730 Jesuit schools worldwide serving 2.5 million students.

In March 2013, Jorge Bergoglio, the archbishop of Buenos Aires was elected Pope Francis I. He was the first Jesuit Pope to be elected as the Pope. For more, see [|Who is Pope Francis?] from NPR.
 * Pope Francis I**

Click here for link to the [|Vatican website].

For background, see [|Pope Francis and the Dirty War] from the New Yorker which explores Bergoglio's connections to human rights abuses during a period of political upheaval between 1976 and 1983/

[[image:Female_Rose.png]]Women in the Counter Reformation[[image:resourcesforhistoryteachers/tumblr_niucansboq1qby31ao1_500.jpg width="267" height="332" align="right"]]

 * Religious orders of women helped to encourage the education of lay people in the Catholic faith.
 * The most prominent of these was the Ursulines, created by St. Angela de Merici.
 * [|The order] helped to educate women on the importance of their role in the faith and on general understandings of the Catholic faith.
 * Angela struggled to direct the order of women due to the challenge of members living with their families. For 17 years, the group had to set up times to meet for conferences and devotional exercises. It was not until 1535 that the institute was truly formed.
 * Their ideologies quickly spread to other areas Italy and Europe including Germany and France.
 * In 1540, the year of St. Angela's death, the Pope affirmed the order. With the Council of Trent beginning only five years later, the Ursulines were already established in educating the people on the doctrines of the Church, one of the Council's goals.
 * Their work in women's education also traveled to the United States, eventually leading to the founding of two Catholic all-women's universities.

Click [|here] to learn more about women during this time-period.