why did counter reformation take place ? explain
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Counter-Reformation, also called Catholic Reformation or Catholic Revival, in the history of Christianity, the Roman Catholic efforts directed in the 16th and early 17th centuries both against the Protestant Reformation and toward internal renewal. The Counter-Reformation took place during roughly the same period as the Protestant Reformation, actually (according to some sources) beginning shortly before Martin Luther’s act of nailing the Ninety-five Theses to the door of Castle Church in 1517.Early calls for reform grew out of criticism of the worldly attitudes and policies of the Renaissance popes and many of the clergy. New religious orders and other groups were founded to effect a religious renewal—e.g., the Theatines, the Capuchins, the Ursulines, and especially the Jesuits. Later in the century, St. John of the Cross and St. Teresa of Ávila promoted the reform of the Carmelite order and influenced the development of the mystical tradition. St. Francis of Sales had a similar influence on the devotional life of the laity.There was little significant papal reaction to the Protestants or to demands for reform from within the Roman Catholic Church before mid-century. Pope Paul III (reigned 1534–49) is considered to be the first pope of the Counter-Reformation. It was he who in 1545 convened the Council of Trent. The council, which met intermittently until 1563, responded emphatically to the issues at hand. Its doctrinal teaching was a reaction against the Lutheran emphasis on the role of faith and God’s grace and against Protestant teaching on the number and nature of the sacraments. Disciplinary reforms attacked the corruption of the clergy. There was an attempt to regulate the training of candidates for the priesthood; measures were taken against luxurious living on the part of the clergy, the appointment of relatives to church office, and the absence of bishops from their dioceses. Prescriptions were given about pastoral care and the administration of the sacraments.
The Roman Inquisition, an agency established in 1542 to combat heresy, was more successful in controlling doctrine and practice than similar bodies in those countries where Protestant princes had more power than the Roman Catholic Church. Political and military involvement directed against Protestant growth is most clearly reflected in the policies of Emperor Charles V and in those of his son Philip II, who was associated with the Spanish Inquisition.
Various theologians—especially the Jesuit St. Robert Bellarmine—attacked the doctrinal positions of the Protestant reformers, but there was no one to rival the theological and moral engagement evident in the writings of Luther or the eloquence and passion characteristic of the works of John Calvin. Roman Catholics tended to emphasize the beliefs and devotional subjects that were under direct attack by the Protestants—e.g., the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist, the Virgin Mary, and St. Peter. The Index Librorum Prohibitorum (“Index of Forbidden Books”) was established in 1559 in an attempt to combat the spread of some of the writings of the Protestant Reformation.
Education was foremost in the minds of many of the leaders of the Counter-Reformation. Capable priests were needed for the education of the faithful, and, thus, seminaries multiplied to prepare the clergy for a more austere life in the service of the church. There was a flowering of utopian ideas; writings such as La città del sole (“The City of the Sun”) by Tommaso Campanella and La repubblica immaginaria (“The Imaginary Republic”) by Lodovico Agostini are examples of this new vision of the church and of the duties of Christians. The Society of Jesus, founded in 1534 by St. Ignatius of Loyola, was not specifically a teaching order but was nevertheless very important in this field. The first Jesuit college was opened in Messina, Sicily, in 1548. By 1615 the Jesuits had 372 colleges, and by 1755—just 18 years before the suppression of the order—the number had risen to 728. (The society was not reestablished until 1814.)
Another major emphasis of the Counter-Reformation was an ongoing missionary endeavour in parts of the world that had been colonized by predominantly Roman Catholic countries, such as Spain and Portugal. The work of such men as St. Francis Xavier and others in Asia and of missionaries in the New World was rewarded with millions of baptisms, if not true conversions. There were also attempts to reconvert areas of the world that had once been Roman Catholic—e.g., England and Sweden. Most of the “German lands” in which Luther had worked remained Protestant after his death in 1546, but major territories, above all Bavaria and Austria, were regained for Roman Catholicism by the end of the 16th century.