The Catholic Reformation

Introduction While Protestant churches won many followers, millions remained true to Catholicism The Catholic Church now had a new duty To keep followers in the Church To do this, it was forced to reform itself This movement is known as the Catholic Reformation or the Counter-Reformation

The Counter/Catholic Reformation Important leaders in the Reformation were Ignatius Loyola and Pope Paul III and Pope Paul IV

Ignatius Loyola He was injured in war is 1521, and while recovering, he thought about his past sins and the life of Jesus He believed that his daily devotions to Jesus cleansed his soul He wrote the book Spiritual Exercises It laid out a day by day plan of meditation, prayer, and study He compared physical and spiritual exercise

Members were called Jesuits They had 3 missions: Loyola spent 18 years gathering followers, and in 1540, he created a religious order called the Society of Jesus Members were called Jesuits They had 3 missions: Built excellent schools that taught Christianity Convert non-Christians to Catholicism Stop the spread of Protestantism

Reforming Popes Pope Paul III took steps to reform the church as well He directed a council to investigate corruption Approved the Jesuit order Used the Inquisition (the church court) to seek out and punish heretics Called for the Council of Trent

Council of Trent 1545-1563, Catholic Bishops and Cardinals met in Italy to discuss church doctrine They agreed on 4 main ones…

The Catholic Church’s interpretation of the Bible was final Christians need faith AND good works for salvation The Bible AND Church tradition were equally as powerful Selling of indulgences was banned

The next pope, Paul IV, spent his reign carrying out the rules He also went as far as having the council draw up a list of books that went against church teachings This list was called the Index of Forbidden Books,… They were all burned