The Counter Reformation, otherwise known as the Catholic Reformation, initiated by the Council of Trent in 1545, which was held for the majority to give a strict definition to Rome’s doctrines, which at the time seemed like the necessary response to the challenges that were brought by the Protestant reformation. It is both a very important in the history of Catholicism, as well as a very historically valuable event that still has influence on the modern Church, and this response to the threats lasted until 1963. There were a few goals that the Catholic Church had in mind when they embarked on this mission of Counter Reformation.
The Catholic Church had a few goals in mind when embarking on this path of Counter Reformation, or undoing what the trouble the Protestants brought the Church during their reformation. One of the main goals that they put in place was for the papacy to accept and acknowledge certain new religious orders that were in place. They used these new religious orders, specifically focusing on the Society of Jesus, or the Jesuits, who are an order that function by working with the people who were of a shared faith, rather than separating or removing themselves from the majority of society in the way that the Monks do. They also addressed a good amount of the corruption, as well as the complaints, that had been plaguing and weakening the core of the Church. This was very important because this structural weakening through these points of corruption and the complaints were exactly what those who were apart of the Reformation their arguments to support their case as to why it was necessary to reform the Church, and if the Church were to accept the Jesuits as a new order in their faith, they would finally be able to begin fighting back and reclaiming the ground that was lost during this particular portion of the reformation.
Luckily despite all of these claims and arguments, the Church was still able to hold onto, or at least reclaim, most of the Southern and Eastern parts of Europe through all of this. This is extremely important because the territories that ending up being made a part of the Counter Reformation came from these regions, including almost all of Spain, Italy, France, Germany, Poland, and Hungary. The role that these areas played in this was perhaps the main thing that was able to bring this plan of Counter Reformation to fruition. In a joined effort, all of the regions still loyal to the Catholic Church and the mission of this counter to the Protestants by making sure to clarify exactly what the Catholic theology included, and on top of that they reduced the number of practices that were on the more objectionable side that were previously apart of this Church. This was done in hopes that it would be able to completely neutralize the Protestant movement or to reabsorb this movement back into the Catholic Church.
Although the Counter Reformation was largely focused on decreasing the blow of the Protestant Church and hoping to get rid of it, the Council did not solely focus on this. Another major thing that was on the Churches agenda to achieve during this Counter Reformation was to make sure of the establishment the Inquisition. The reason that the Inquisition was deemed something necessary to establish is because within the world of the Catholic church, this was a feared organization, with its success in Spain leading Paul III to decide to revive it during 1542. The Inquisition was designed to hunt down or expose heretics, or anyone who practiced any sort of belief or opinion that was contrary to those of the Catholic Church. Anyone who was found and accused by the Inquisition of this behavior was always guilty until they could prove otherwise, and were often tortured along with witnesses, and if found guilty could be subject to anything ranging from execution to the removal of property from the guilty party.
Although it had already proved an effective method, many Catholic rulers did not agree with this method and would refuse to allow it in their territory as they saw it as a threat to themselves. Due to this, most of the Inquisition’s work was done in Spain and Italy, where there was a minimal number of Protestants already anyways. Even though the threat in these areas was relatively small in size, the Protestants in these regions still posed a threat, not necessarily directly to the Catholic Church, but to those who were in positions of power, specifically Philip II of Spain, whether the threats were financial or political. In the end, even though it was successfully established in certain regions, it was not as highly effective as it was originally thought it would be, but it still did manage to solve a fair amount of smaller problems that made it possible to keep Catholic kings on the thrown and in prosperity which aided the Catholic mission in the long run. Also, it is important to realize that after the Council was dismissed the Inquisition was able to gain significant strength through authority and power and were able to continue their mission afterwards. The last of the main missions that the Counter Reformation sought to bring to fruition was the implementation of the Tridentine Doctrines by the Council. Putting this into action would have both centralized the church bureaucracy as well as ban secret marriages within the Church. It also issues condemnations on what were defined as heresies towards the Catholic Church as a part of the Protestant movement, as well as defining clearly the teachings of the Church regarding scripture, tradition, justification, sacraments, original sin, the Eucharist, and lastly the veneration of saints. On top of this it put in place numerous decrees that covered the topics of salvation, the biblical canon, and the sacraments as a way to respond to the disputes of the Protestants.
The Council that started this whole response to the Protestant Reformation, the Council of Trent, was dismissed after eighteen years in 1563 after twenty-five sessions. The second half of the Counter Reformation began when the council ended in 1563 and lasted all the way until 1648, with the conclusion of the Thirty Years War between the Catholics and the Protestants, due to the continuation of support towards what the Church and the council had worked for in the almost twenty years prior. when the council had been dismissed and the Church sought out to finish their mission. This “second part” of the Counter Reformation also came with a plethora of reforms and one of the areas that was largely focused on was religious revival. Those in positions of power in the Church began to focus heavily on reviving the Church’s piety, through giving to the poor, charity, and hospitals instead of patronage. The Spanish mystics also began to heavily stress the nature of faith on a personal level, and saw that love was at the core of this faith, and it was not seen as a burden or a duty that one must feel obliged to partake in. Meanwhile, the French spirituals were focused on the Church’s role or duty to carry on Jesus’ mission for the world as well as the need for the individual’s personal faith.
This second phase of the Counter Reformation also got rid of what was considered the main evil in church life: simony. This also included the removal of the preaching of indulgences to the mass. They reorganized the government that was in place in the Holy See, or the See of Rome, as well as standardized worship. Another huge thing that happened was that educational requirements were introduced and provided for the priests. All of these factors slowly started to make it feel as though there was a new, fresh spirit flowing through the Church and allowed the Church to make up serious ground, not just growing back to where they were, but extending their reach to continents such as China that were previously not very exposed or acceptant of this Church. This success also allowed for the reach of the Inquisition to be extended in the Papal States, as well as a few other regions that the Church now had influence over.
In the end, after all of this, it is often hard to answer the question of whether or not this Counter Reformation was a success or not. This is because although there were definite growths and positive changes made by the Church through decrees and edits of practices and the way tradition is handled, the Church did not necessarily achieve to the fully extent that they desired to, as they were neither able to get rid of the Protestant movement or re-absorb it back into the Church, they were just able to put an end to the fighting at that level between the two religious communities. In terms of growth, it was not simply a success either, but is viewed as both a success and a failure. For the argument of success, the Church was able to gain a lot of Catholic followers in regions of Asia and South America, which were previously not exposed to or a part of the Church. This was achieved largely through the acts of the newly accepted Jesuit missionaries who proved themselves both courageous, but also aggressive about spreading the reach of the Church through their actions. However, it was still a failure on the other hand due to the fact that, as mentioned above, the Church was not able to regain many of the members who were lost to the Protestant movement, particularly in Northern Europe. Luckily they were still able to keep their hold in places such as France, Poland, parts of Germany, Spain, and Italy. Another question that is often brought up when trying to decide whether or not this movement was a success or otherwise, and that question is whether or not the Counter Reformation helped or allowed people to grow spiritually. This question, like the previous, also can be answered in both ways. On one side of things, it definitely brought back the idea of genuine piety, as mentioned previously, through the mystics and spirituals of different regions in Europe such as Spain and France, which proved to be very inspiring to those who were believers. However, it is also the truth that the more suppressive side of this had a lasting, very negative effect on the history of the Church and its development, as well as on general history, particular the Inquisition. It was only through the Second Vatican Council that the Church opened up more to the rest of the world and left behind its past of suppression and allowed others who previously did not feel welcome by the Church to feel as though the Church was now open to them to join and immerse themselves in.
When looking back on it, if it is indeed the case that both the Counter Reformation, or Catholic Reformation, and the Protestant Reformation came to life due to concern about the Church’s situation and a desire to better it and open it up more, then technically both sides of this fight had similar objectives, although they did not accept each other’s methods and chose to go down different roads in order to achieve their goals. Due to this reality, by both the Catholic Church and the Protestant Church, it is accepted and acknowledged the Catholic Church of today is fundamentally not the same Church as the one that Martin Luther rebelled against and that caused this whole series of councils and changes to take place. Which at the end of the day, whether or not the Counter Reformation can be said to have been one hundred percent successful, shows that it was able to accomplish something that is now deemed as positive, which may be more important that either side succeeding or failing as it has brought both of these Churches together and allowed them to accept and appreciate both of their differences as well as admire the changes that both sides have made through their own development to allow this mutual respect to take place hundreds of years after the Reformations. This mutual respect eventually led to the “Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification” in 1999 by the Vatican as well as the Lutherans, who are a denomination of the Protestants, and state that due to the newly accepted basic truths that the churches share, the condemnations that were placed upon each other during the sixteenth century that came with both the Reformation and the Counter Reformation, no longer apply to each other. In the end, this result is the reason why it is not as important to label these Reformations and successes or failures, because later down the road it led both churches to a mutual understanding and respect of each other and allowed them to put all previous hostility behind them to continue moving forward and progressing, which is the most important thing that any legitimate religious establishment can do, as it shows that they are capable of learning from their mistakes.