What was the Counter-Reformation

The Counter-Reformation, or also known as the Catholic Reformation, is a movement that emerged in the second half of the sixteenth century as a response of the Catholic Church to the Protestant Reformation of Martin Luther started in the first years of the 16th century which consisted in the creation of new dogmas based on Catholicism. The bridge figure between the Reformation and the Counter-Reformation was Erasmus of Rotterdam. Next in this lesson from a TEACHER we will summary of the Counter-Reformation so that you know what this historical moment was based on and the changes that occurred with it.

The Catholic Reformation happened because decades ago Martin Luther started a Protestant Reformation which had left a Christianized Europe divided into Protestant Christians and Catholic Christians. Both the Reformation and the Counter-Reformation do not differ much when it comes to renewing the Church, however they are completely antagonistic in theological aspects.

To all this we must add the political question since it always existed: a struggle between kings and popes to be the highest representatives of power. Charles I of Spain and V of the Holy Roman Empire was the one who had to maintain Christianity at that time, however many of the German princes were They joined the Lutheran dogma to not depend on the king and get more freedoms since the Church was the one that established most of the taxes on to pay.

Among many of the reforms imposed by Luther was not having to pay for the sacraments to get paradise and although Luther was never involved in political matters, the German princes relied on this to defend themselves from the king and be the ones who could control their churches within their domains. In order to stop the advance of Protestantism, the Trento council to try to clearly establish what the doctrine of the Church was and to reform the structure and discipline of the Church.

In this other lesson from a PROFESSOR we will discover what the Protestant Reformation.

We continue this brief summary of the Counter-Reformation by talking about the Trento council what was the meeting of all the authorities of the Catholic Church as well as the bishops to try to stop the Protestant reforms given by Martin Luther. It was divided into three sessions, the first started by Paul III in 1545, the second by Julius III between the years 1550 - 1555 and concluded with the session of Pius IV in 1563. Some reforms carried out in this council they are:

Doctrine

The salvation of Christ is achieved by faith and works, whether of charity, devotion or penance. The doctrine of free will is also confirmed, where the Christian has freedom to do good and evil, as long as you have faith in God.

Scripture and tradition

He defends that the Bible is the foundation of the Christian faith, but completed with tradition and that means the interpretations they gave the ancient authors, the first fathers of the Church, of the apostles and the decision of the previous ecumenical councils and of the Potato.

Sacraments

With Luther only three were recognized, however the Church claims seven; Baptism; Marriage; Eucharist; Priestly order; Confirmation; Confession and Penance. Within the Eucharist its nature is in the Transubstantiation; that it is the real presence of the body and blood of Christ under the appearance of bread and wine, something that the Protestants denied.

Veneration of Mary and Saints

Although Christ was the first to be venerated, that did not take away from venerating Mary and the Saints who also considered themselves intercessors and therefore had to be worshiped.

Authority of the Pope and the Church

His power was unlimited, the figure of the Pope was strengthened since he considered himself the successor of Saint Peter. The fact that the papal authority was competent is that struggle between kings and popes that we commented previously and is that many kings wanted to participate in ecclesiastical affairs and vice versa.

In this summary of the Counter-Reformation we will also know exactly what this period consisted of and, to Therefore, we are going to discover the most important characteristics of this movement that took place in the sector religious.

The Most outstanding characteristics of the Counter-Reformation are as follows:

• Persecution of the infidels: the context in which the Counter-Reformation developed was at a time when infidels were being persecuted, that is, all those people who did not follow the Catholic religion. This led to the persecution of other people in society who were considered impure, such as the alleged witches those who were hunted indiscriminately.
• Inquisition: the Counter-Reformation established the appearance of a very specific organ, the Inquisition, who was in charge of persecuting anyone who did not agree with Christian thought. This made this period today is considered one of the darkest in Catholicism.
• Missionary movements: the atmosphere of the Counter-Reformation resulted in the creation of movements that had as objective to Christianize societies belonging to other cultures such as the American, the African or the Asian. Different European colonies were established around the world that, among other things, sought to spread the Catholic religion.
• Convulsive period: Due to the brutality with which religion was imposed, many peoples and societies rebelled and this caused wars and confrontations between the Catholic communities and the protestants.

To continue with this summary of The Counter-Reformation, we will talk about the creations of new religious orders that they constituted an important role in the Counter-Reformation because with them the doctrine of the Trento council.

Among them we highlight the Jesus company founded in 1540 by Ignacio de Loyola. It is an order of educators because the Jesuits had a great intellectual capacity, they teach, create schools and not convents, they know how to write and thanks to them they will recognize everything that so many scholars, translators, humanists…. They were also characterized by their evangelizing dissemination for America and Asia and his spiritual life through religious meditation.