Counter-Reformation

The Counter-Reformation or Catholic Reformation was a movement within the Catholic Church to reform itself and to protect itself from Protestant attacks(protests), starting with the middle of the sixteenth century, in the wake of the Protestant Reformation. The Catholic Reformation was comprehensive and comprised five major elements:

Doctrine.
Ecclesiastical or Structural Reconfiguration
Religious Orders
Spiritual Movements
Political Dimensions

Such reforms included the foundation of seminaries for the proper training of priests in the spiritual life and the theological traditions of the Church, the reform of religious life to returning orders to their spiritual foundations, and new spiritual movements focus on the devotional life and a personal relationship with Christ, including the Spanish mystics and the French school of spirituality.

The two terms developed to highlight different aspects of the movement. Scholars such as John C. Olin, late of Fordham University, and Henri-Daniel Rops^[1], began using the term "Catholic Reformation" in the last half of the 20th Century to emphasize the attempts at reform, theological and disciplinary, within the Roman Catholic Church that began before the traditional date of the launch of the Protestant Reformation by Martin Luther or before the Council of Trent (events such as the Fifth Lateran Council, the sermons on reform delivered by John Colet in England, the publication of Consilium de Emendanda Ecclesia by Gasparo Contarini, the founding of the Oratory of Divine Love, and so on), and to point out that many of Trent's reforms and the work of such reformers as St. Philip Neri, St. Ignatius Loyola and St. Teresa of Avila, while influenced by the response to the Protestants were far wider and more comprehensive than a mere response to the challenge of growing Protestantism. They argue that much of this was about suppressing abuses and corruption within the Roman Catholic Church for the sake of its own virtue, and that the activities of these people were in no way confined to trying to stamp out Protestant "heretics."

The term Counter-Reformation, which grew up primarily in a non-Catholic educational context, tends to emphasize the view that these reforms within the Roman Catholic Church were completely prompted by the rise of Protestants and the threat to Catholic institutions posed by them, and that they were aimed primarily at suppressing Protestant growth.

The Council of Trent

Pope Paul III (1534-1549) initiated the Council of Trent (1545-1563), a commission of cardinals tasked with institutional reform, to address contentious issues such as corrupt bishops and priests, indulgences, and other financial abuses. The Council clearly rejected specific Protestant positions and upheld the basic structure of the Medieval Church, its sacramental system, religious orders, and doctrine. It rejected all compromise with the Protestants, restating basic tenets of the Catholic faith. The Council clearly upheld salvation appropriated by faith and works (not just faith as the Protestants contended). Transubstantiation, during which the consecrated bread and wine were held to become (substantially) the body and blood of Christ, was upheld, along with the Seven Sacraments. Other practices that drew the ire of Protestant reformers, such as indulgences, pilgrimages, the veneration of saints and relics, and the veneration of the Virgin Mary were strongly reaffirmed as spiritually vital as well.

But while the basic structure of the Church was reaffirmed, there were noticeable changes to answer complaints that the Counter Reformers tacitly were willing to admit were legitimate. Among the conditions to be corrected by Catholic reformers was the growing divide between the priests and the flock; many members of the clergy in the rural parishes, after all, had been poorly educated. Often, these rural priests did not know Latin and lacked opportunities for proper theological training. (Addressing the education of priests had been a fundamental focus of the humanist reformers in the past.) Parish priests were to be better educated, while Papal authorities sought to eliminate the distractions of the monastic churches. Notebooks and handbooks thus became more common, describing how to be good priests and confessors.

Thus, the Council of Trent was dedicated to improving the discipline and administration of the Church. The worldly excesses of the secular Renaissance church, epitomized by the era of Alexander VI (1492-1503), exploded in the Reformation under Pope Leo X (1513-1522), whose campaign to raise funds in the German states to rebuild St. Peter's Basilica by supporting sale of indulgences was a key impetus for Martin Luther's 95 Theses. But the Catholic Church would respond to these problems by a vigorous campaign of reform, inspired by earlier Catholic reform movements that predated the Council of Constance (1414-1417): humanism, devotionalism, legalist and the observatine tradition.

The Council, by virtue of its actions, repudiated the pluralism of the Secular Renaissance Church: the organization of religious institutions was tightened, discipline was improved, and the parish was emphasized. The appointment of Bishops for political reasons was no longer tolerated. In the past, the large landholdings forced many bishops to be "absent bishops" who at times were property managers trained in administration. Thus, the Council of Trent combated "absenteeism," which was the practice of bishops living in Rome or on landed estates rather than in their dioceses. The Council of Trent also gave bishops greater power to supervise all aspects of religious life. Zealous prelates such as Milan's Archbishop Carlo Borromeo (1538-1584), later canonized as a saint, set an example by visiting the remotest parishes and instilling high standards. At the parish level, the seminary-trained clergy who took over in most places during the course of the seventeenth century were overwhelmingly faithful to the church's rule of celibacy.

Reform

The reign of Pope Paul IV (1555-1559), who is sometimes deemed the first of the Counter-Reformation popes for his resolute determination to eliminate Protestantism - and the ineffectual institutional practices of the Church that contributed to its appeal - marks these efforts of Catholic renewal. Two of his key strategies were the Inquisition and censorship of prohibited books. In this sense, his aggressive and autocratic efforts of renewal greatly reflected the strategies of earlier reform movements, especially the legalist and observantine sides: burning heretics and strict emphasis on Canon law. It also reflected the rapid pace toward absolutism that characterized the sixteenth century.

While the aggressive authoritarian approach was arguably destructive of personal religious experience, a new wave of reforms and orders conveyed a strong devotional side. Devotionalism, not subversive mysticism would provide a strong individual outlet for religious experience, especially through meditation such as the reciting of the Rosary. The devotional side of the Counter-Reformation combined two strategies of Catholic Renewal. For one, the emphasis of God as an unknowable absolute ruler - a God to be feared - coincided well with the aggressive absolutism of the Church of Paul IV. But it also opened up new paths toward popular piety and individual religious experience to its strong emotional and psychological side.

The Papacy of St. Pius V (1566-1572), in this sense, represented a strong effort not only to crack down against heretics and worldly abuses within the Church, but also to improve popular piety in a determined effort to stem the appeal of Protestantism. A man of impoverished upbringing taken in by the Dominicans, he was trained in a solid and austere piety. It is thus no surprise that he began his pontificate by giving large alms to the poor, charity, and hospitals rather than focusing on patronage. As pontiff he practiced the virtues of a monk, known for daily meditations on bent knees in presence of the Blessed Sacrament. Known for consoling the poor and sick, St. Pius V sought to improve the public morality of the Church, promote the Jesuits, support the Inquisition. He enforced the observance of the discipline of the Council of Trent, and supported the missions of the New World. The Spanish Inquisition, brought under the direction of the absolutist Spanish state since Ferdinand and Isabella, stemmed the growth of heresy before it could spread.

The pontificate of Pope Sixtus V (1585-1590) opened up the final stage of the Catholic Reformation characteristic of the Baroque age of the early seventeenth century, shifting away from compelling to attracting. His reign focused on rebuilding Rome as a great European capital and Baroque city, a visual symbol for the Catholic Church.

The orders

New religious orders were a fundamental part of this trend. Orders such as the Capuchins, Ursulines, Theatines, the Barnabites, and especially the Jesuits strengthened rural parishes, improved popular piety, helped to curb corruption within the church, and set examples that would be a strong impetus for Catholic renewal. The Theatines were an order of devoted priests who undertook to check the spread of heresy and contribute to a regeneration of the clergy. The Capuchins, an offshoot of the Franciscan order notable for their preaching and for their care for the poor and the sick, grew rapidly in both size and popularity. The Capuchin fathers were an order based on the imitation of Jesus' life as described by the Gospels. Capuchin-founded confraternities thus took special interest in the poor and lived austere lifestyles. These differing approaches were often complementary, as with the missions to rural areas poorly served by the existing parish structure. Members of orders active in overseas missionary expansionism expressed the view that the rural parishes, whose poor state of affairs contributed to the growth of Protestantism, often needed Christianizing as much as heathens of Asia and the Americas. The Ursulines focused on the special task of educating girls. Their devotion to the traditional works of mercy exemplifies the Catholic Reformations reaffirmation of salvation through faith and works, and firmly repudiated the sola scriptura of the Protestants emphasized by Lutherans and other Protestant sects. Not only did they make the Church more effective, they reaffirmed fundamental premises of the Medieval Church.

However, the Jesuits, founded by the Spanish nobleman and ex-soldier Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556), were the most effective of the new Catholic orders. His Societas de Jesus was founded in 1534 and received papal authorization in 1534 under Paul III. An heir to the devotional, observantine, and legalist traditions, the Jesuits organized their order along military lines, they strongly reflected the autocratic zeal of the period. Characterized by careful selection, rigorous training, and iron discipline, the worldliness of the Renaissance Church had no part in the new order. Loyola's masterwork Spiritual Exercises reflected the emphasis of handbooks characteristic of the earlier generation of Catholic reformers before the Reformation. The great psychological penetration that it conveyed was strongly reminiscent of devotionalism. However, the Jesuits are really the heirs to the observantine reform tradition, taking strong monastic vows of chastity, obedience, and poverty and setting an example that improved the effectiveness of the entire Church. They became preachers, confessors to monarchs and princes, and educators reminiscent of the humanist reformers, and their efforts are largely credited with stemming Protestantism in Poland, Bohemia, Hungary, southern Germany, France, and the Spanish Netherlands. They also strongly participated in the expansion of the Church in the Americas and Asia, conducting efforts in missionary activity that far outpaced even the aggressive Protestantism of the Calvinists. Even Loyola's biography contributed to the new emphasis on popular piety that had been waning under the eras of politically oriented popes such as Alexander VI and Leo X. After recovering from a severe battle wound, he took a vow to "serve only God and the Roman pontiff, His vicar on earth." Once again, the emphasis on the Pope is a key reaffirmation of the Medieval Church as the Council of Trent firmly defeated all attempts of Conciliarism, the belief that general councils of the church collectively were God's representative on earth, rather than the Pope. Firmly legitimizing the new role of the Pope as an absolute ruler strongly characteristic of the new age of absolutism ushered in by the sixteenth century, the Jesuits strongly contributed to the reinvigoration of the Counter-Reformation Church.

Spiritual Movements

In addition, between 1512 and the 1560s a movement of evangelical Catholics of high-ranking member of the curia, called Spirituali, actively tried to reform the Church through reform of the individual. This movement was strong and significant era in the Church.

Church and its music

The demand by the Council of Trent for simplicity in music in order that the words might be heard clearly placed a serious stumbling block in the path of the development of polyphony in the mid-16th Century.

The Council, in their Canon on Music to be used for the Mass, stated: All things should indeed be so ordered that the masses, whether they be celebrated with or without singing, may reach tranquilly into the ears and hearts of those who hear them, when everything is executed clearly and at the correct speed. In the case of those masses which are celebrated with singing and with organ, let nothing profane be intermingled, but only hymns and divine praises. The whole plan of singing should be constituted not to give empty pleasure to the ear, but in such a way that the words be clearly understood by all. And thus the hearts of listeners be drawn to desire of heavenly harmonies in the contemplation of the joys of the Blessed. They shall also banish from church all music that contains whether in the singing or in the organ playing things that are lascivious or impure.

While this was worded fairly vaguely, the intent was clear. Complex polyphony was no longer deemed acceptable by the Council.

Palestrina's musical mastery and his skill at word setting greatly affected the outcome of this difficult situation. By composing a six-part polyphonic mass, called the Missa Papae Marcelli (Pope Marcellus Mass), of 1555, Palestrina demonstrated that polyphony was compatible with the mandates of the Counter-Reformation. Using an economy of notes, the mass setting conveys its words with surprising clarity. This represented a marked shift from the composer's earlier compositions, which often paired a single syllable with long strings of notes, called melismas, which obscured the text. The new, tighter style (which did, incidentally, resort to homophony in here and there) was both shorter and more comprehensible to the worshipper. The Pope Marcellus Mass may therefore have been instrumental in preventing the abolition of polyphony. Recent, however, scholarship shows that this mass was composed before the cardinals convened to discuss the ban (possibly as much as ten years before). The mass may not, therefore, have been solely responsible for "saving" Catholic church music, as is sometimes claimed. Still, Palestrina's music would become the model for future generations of Catholic composers, and it continues to be held as an exemplar for polyphonic clarity.

Like Palestrina, the Netherlandish composer Jacob de Kerle (1531/32-1591) also demonstrated to Council delegates that polyphony was capable of projecting the words in a coherent manner. It is quite possible that Kerle, not Palestrina, should be credited as the first "savior" of polyphony. Another composer, Vincenzo Ruffo (c. 1508-1587), also complied with the reforms of the Council of Trent. Ruffo devoted himself entirely to sacred music in the spirit of the Counter-Reformation. Ruffo, however, took a different approach by dispensing with polyphony in favor of composing chordal, or homophonic, mass settings. Later in life, he apparently grew dissatisfied with homophony and returned to polyphony.

After all of the debate during the third meeting of the Council of Trent, the council's solutions gave composers very little room for artistic expression. Composers such as Palestrina and Lasso would find other ways of expressing their sacred themes during the Counter-Reformation.

The Council of Trent brought about other changes in music: most notably developing the Missa Brevis, Lauda and "Spiritual Madrigal" (Madrigali Spirituali).

The inadvertent start of the scientific revolution

Some historians such as James Burke have noted some of the directives initiated in the Counter-Reformation had consequences that would ironically create even more formidable challenges to the Catholic Church's authority and very world-view.

This came about with the initiative to make the Catholic Church more attractive to the common person. In addition to better training for the clergy, there was also the idea of making the Church's facilities and activities more attractive to the laypeople. Part of this included extensive decorations that would eventually spawn the elaborate baroque art style and more celebrations of holidays and similar events.

The need to have these events followed closely throughout the dioceses raised the problem with the accuracy of the calendar. By the sixteenth century the Julian calendar was almost ten days out of step with the seasons and the heavenly bodies. Among the astronomers who were asked to work on the problem of how the calendar could be reformed was Nicolaus Copernicus, a canon at Frombork (Frauenburg). In the dedication to De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (1543), Copernicus mentioned the reform of the calendar proposed by the Fifth Council of the Lateran (1512-1517). As he explains, a proper measurement of the length of the year was a necessary foundation to calendar reform. By implication, his work replacing the Ptolemaic system with a heliocentric model was prompted in part by the need for calendar reform. An actual new calendar had to wait until the Gregorian calendar in 1582.

At the time of its publication, De revolutionibus passed with relatively little comment in the Catholic Church itself, which treated the conception as little more than a mathematical convenience. However, the fact that the Earth's motion directly contradicted literal readings of the Bible and Aristotle's philosophy eventually became an unavoidable issue. This occurred when scholars like Galileo Galilei began to amass physical evidence supporting heliocentrism, or at least undermining Ptolemy. This examination of the Copernican theory was a factor in starting the scientific revolution outside the Catholic Church, which banned the study of Galileo's works until the mid-eighteenth century.^{[citation needed]}

Major Figures

Pius II (1503)
Paul III (1534-1549)
Julius III (1550-55)
Paul IV (1555-59)
Pius IV (1559-65)
St. Pius V (1566-72)
Gregory XIII (1572-85)
Sixtus V (1585-90)
St. Ignatius of Loyola
St. Teresa of Avila
St. John of the Cross
St. Francis de Sales

References

^ http://www.ewtn.com/library/HOMELIBR/ROPSCARE.TXT

Philipp M. Soergel: Wondrous in His Saints: Counter Reformation Propaganda in Bavaria. Berkeley CA: University of California Press, 1993