Early European History

by Hutton Webster

235. THE CATHOLIC COUNTER REFORMATION

THE REFORMING POPES

The rapid spread of Protestantism soon brought about a Catholic Counter Reformation in those parts of Europe which remained faithful to Rome. The popes now turned from the cultivation of Renaissance art and literature to the defense of their threatened faith. They made needed changes in the papal court and appointed to ecclesiastical offices men distinguished for virtue and learning. This reform of the Papacy dates from the time of Paul III, who became pope in 1534 A.D. He opened the college of cardinals to Roman Catholic reformers, even offering a seat in it to Erasmus. Still more important was his support of the famous Society of Jesus, which had been established in the year of his accession to the papal throne.

ST. IGNATIUS LOYOLA, 1491-1556 A.D.

The founder of the new society was a Spanish nobleman, Ignatius Loyola. He had seen a good deal of service in the wars of Charles V against the French. While in a hospital recovering from a wound Loyola read devotional books, and these produced a profound change within him. He now decided to abandon the career of arms and to become, instead, the knight of Christ. So Loyola donned a beggar's robe, practiced all the kinds of asceticism which his books described, and went on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. The turning-point of his career came with his visit to Paris to study theology. Here Loyola met the six devout and talented men who became the first members of his society. They intended to work as missionaries among the Moslems, but, when this plan fell through, they visited Rome and placed their energy and enthusiasm at the disposal of the pope.

[Illustration: ST. IGNATIUS LOYOLA]

THE SOCIETY OF JESUS

Loyola's military training deeply affected the character of the new order. The Jesuits, as their Protestant opponents styled them, were to be an army of spiritual soldiers, living under the strictest obedience to their head, or general. Like soldiers, again, they were to remain in the world, and there fight manfully for the Church and against heretics. The society grew rapidly; before Loyola's death it included over a thousand members; and in the seventeenth century it became the most influential of all the religious orders. [21] The activity of the Jesuits as preachers, confessors, teachers, and missionaries did much to roll back the rising tide of Protestantism in Europe.

JESUIT SCHOOLS

The Jesuits gave special attention to education, for they realized the importance of winning over the young people to the Church. Their schools were so good that even Protestant children often attended them. The popularity of Jesuit teachers arose partly from the fact that they always tried to lead, not drive their pupils. Light punishments, short lessons, many holidays, and a liberal use of prizes and other distinctions formed some of the attractive features of their system of training. It is not surprising that the Jesuits became the instructors of the Roman Catholic world. They called their colleges the "fortresses of the faith."

JESUIT MISSIONS

The missions of the Jesuits were not less important than their schools. The Jesuits worked in Poland, Hungary, Bohemia, and other countries where Protestantism threatened to become dominant. Then they invaded all the lands which the great maritime discoveries of the preceding age had laid open to European enterprise. In India, China, the East Indies, Japan, the Philippines, Africa, and the two Americas their converts from heathenism were numbered by hundreds of thousands.

ST. FRANCIS XAVIER, 1506-1552 A.D.

The most eminent of all Jesuit missionaries, St. Francis Xavier, had belonged to Loyola's original band. He was a little, blue-eyed man, an engaging preacher, an excellent organizer, and possessed of so attractive a personality that even the ruffians and pirates with whom he had to associate on his voyages became his friends. Xavier labored with such devotion and success in the Portuguese colonies of the Far East as to gain the title of "Apostle to the Indies." He also introduced Christianity in Japan, where it flourished until a persecuting emperor extinguished it with fire and sword.

COUNCIL OF TRENT, 1545-1563 A.D.

Another agency in the Counter Reformation was the great Church Council summoned by Pope Paul III. The council met at Trent, on the borders of Germany and Italy. It continued, with intermissions, for nearly twenty years. The Protestants, though invited to participate, did not attend, and hence nothing could be done to bring them back within the Roman Catholic fold. This was the last general council of the Church for over three hundred years. [22]

WORK OF THE COUNCIL

The Council of Trent made no essential changes in the Roman Catholic doctrines, which remained as St. Thomas Aquinas [23] and other theologians had set them forth in the Middle Ages. In opposition to the Protestant view, it declared that the tradition of the Church possessed equal authority with the Bible. It reaffirmed the supremacy of the pope over Christendom. The council also passed important decrees forbidding the sale of ecclesiastical offices and requiring bishops and other prelates to attend strictly to their duties. Since the Council of Trent the Roman Church has been distinctly a religious organization, instead of both a secular and religious body, as was the Church in the Middle Ages. [24]

THE INDEX

The council, before adjourning, authorized the pope to draw up a list, or Index, of works which Roman Catholics might not read. This action did not form an innovation. The Church from an early day had condemned and destroyed heretical writings. However, the invention of printing, by giving greater currency to new and dangerous ideas, increased the necessity for the regulation of thought. The "Index of Prohibited Books" still exists, and additions to the list are made from time to time. It was matched by the strict censorship of printing long maintained in Protestant countries.

THE INQUISITION

Still another agency of the Counter Reformation consisted of the Inquisition. This was a system of church courts for the discovery and punishment of heretics. Such courts had been set up in the Middle Ages, for instance, to suppress the Albigensian heresy. After the Council of Trent they redoubled their activity, especially in Italy, the Netherlands, and Spain.

INFLUENCE OF THE INQUISITION

The Inquisition probably contributed to the disappearance of Protestantism in Italy. In the Netherlands, where it worked with great severity, it only aroused exasperation and hatred and helped to provoke a successful revolt of the Dutch people. The Spaniards, on the other hand, approved of the methods of the Inquisition and welcomed its extermination of Moors and Jews, as well as Protestant heretics. The Spanish Inquisition was not abolished till the nineteenth century.