AP® European History review sheet from Aim for Five (aimforfive.com/euro/units/2/2-5)
Unit 2 · Topic 2.5
2.5 The Catholic Reformation
The Catholic Church answered the Protestant challenge with its own reform movement. The Council of Trent restated Catholic doctrine and fixed abuses, new orders like the Jesuits spread Catholic education and missions, and the Inquisition and Index tried to stamp out heresy.
Key terms
- Council of Trent
- Jesuits
- Ignatius of Loyola
- Index of Prohibited Books
- Roman Inquisition
- Teresa of Ávila
Reform and counter-attack
Historians use two terms. The Catholic Reformation means genuine efforts to renew Catholic life, some of which began before Luther. The Counter-Reformation means efforts aimed at fighting Protestantism. Both happened at once, and you can use either term if you explain it.
Pope Paul III (reigned 1534–1549) pushed reform forward. He appointed reform-minded cardinals, approved the Jesuits and called the Council of Trent.
The Council of Trent (1545–1563)
The council met in the northern Italian town of Trent in three rounds of meetings over 18 years. It drew a clear line between Catholic and Protestant beliefs and tried to fix the problems critics had named.
| Doctrine (beliefs it reaffirmed) | Discipline (abuses it fixed) |
|---|---|
| Salvation comes through faith together with good works | Banned the professional sellers of indulgences |
| Scripture and Church tradition are both authorities | Required a seminary in each diocese to train priests |
| All seven sacraments are valid | Ordered bishops to live in their dioceses |
| In communion, bread and wine become Christ's body and blood (transubstantiation) | Cracked down on simony and pluralism |
| The Latin Vulgate is the official Bible; priests stay celibate | Encouraged religious art that taught and inspired |
New and reformed orders
Ignatius of Loyola, a Spanish soldier who turned to religion after a war wound, founded the Society of Jesus, or Jesuits. The pope approved the order in 1540. Jesuits took a special vow of obedience to the pope and were trained through Loyola's Spiritual Exercises. They built hundreds of schools and colleges, served as advisers to Catholic rulers, won back parts of Poland and southern Germany, and sent missionaries worldwide. Francis Xavier preached in India and Japan, and Matteo Ricci reached the Chinese court.
Women took part too. Teresa of Ávila reformed the Carmelite order of nuns and wrote about mystical prayer. The Ursulines, founded by Angela Merici in 1535, educated girls. The Capuchins, a reformed branch of the Franciscans, preached to the poor.
Controlling heresy
In 1542 the pope set up the Roman Inquisition, a church court that tried suspected heretics, mainly in Italy. In 1559 the Church issued the Index of Prohibited Books, a list of works Catholics were forbidden to read, including Protestant writings. Later, Galileo's 1633 trial showed the Inquisition's reach into science (see 4.2).
Baroque art and architecture were another tool: dramatic churches and paintings aimed to move worshippers emotionally (see 2.7). By 1600 the Catholic Church had stopped Protestant expansion in southern Europe, regained ground in central Europe and spread across the globe.
Worked examples
Try each one yourself first, then open the solution.
- Example 1
An effect argument
Short-answer practice: Explain one way the Catholic Reformation was successful in the period 1540 to 1648.
Show the solutionHide the solution
- Step 1: Define what success means, such as winning back territory or fixing abuses.
- Step 2: Give specific evidence.
- Step 3: Explain how the evidence shows success.
Answer: Model answer: The Jesuits, approved in 1540, built schools and served as advisers to Catholic rulers in Poland and southern Germany, helping return those regions to Catholicism. Their work shows the Catholic Reformation succeeded in stopping and partly reversing the spread of Protestantism in central Europe.
Common mistakes
- Saying Trent abolished indulgences. It banned their sale and the professional sellers but kept indulgences as part of Catholic practice.
- Saying Trent compromised with Protestants. It firmly rejected Protestant teachings on faith alone and scripture alone.
- Mixing up the Roman Inquisition (papal, 1542) with the Spanish Inquisition (royal, 1478).
On the exam
- Compare Catholic responses: reform of discipline (seminaries), restating doctrine (seven sacraments) and repression (Index). Exam questions often ask about one type.
- Jesuit education and missions are strong evidence for the global reach of the Catholic Reformation.
Connected topics
Videos
Check yourself
5 questions on 2.5 The Catholic Reformation. Pick an answer to see if you got it, and why.
Whereas the power of conferring Indulgences was granted by Christ to the Church . . . the sacred holy Synod teaches, and enjoins, that the use of Indulgences, for the Christian people most salutary, and approved of by the authority of sacred Councils, is to be retained in the Church; and It condemns with anathema those who either assert, that they are useless; or who deny that there is in the Church the power of granting them.
In granting them, however, It desires that, in accordance with the ancient and approved custom in the Church, moderation be observed; lest, by excessive facility, ecclesiastical discipline be enervated. And being desirous that the abuses which have crept therein, and by occasion of which this honourable name of Indulgences is blasphemed by heretics, be amended and corrected, It ordains generally by this decree, that all evil gains for the obtaining thereof . . . be wholly abolished.
Source: Council of Trent, "Decree Concerning Indulgences," Session XXV, December 1563. Translated by J. Waterworth, 1848.
Compared with Luther's position in the Ninety-Five Theses, the decree
The decree is best understood as part of which broader development?
The Society of Jesus (the Jesuits) contributed to the Catholic Reformation chiefly by
Source 1: I saw in his hand a long spear of gold, and at the iron's point there seemed to be a little fire. He appeared to me to be thrusting it at times into my heart, and to pierce my very entrails; when he drew it out, he seemed to draw them out also, and to leave me all on fire with a great love of God. The pain was so great, that it made me moan; and yet so surpassing was the sweetness of this excessive pain, that I could not wish to be rid of it.
Source 2: Gian Lorenzo Bernini's marble sculpture The Ecstasy of Saint Teresa (1647–1652), made for a family chapel in a church in Rome, shows the swooning saint lying on a cloud with her eyes half closed and her mouth open. A smiling angel stands over her holding a golden arrow. Gilded bronze rays stream down behind them, lit by a hidden window above, and carved members of the patron's family watch from balconies on the chapel's side walls as if from theater boxes.
Source 1: Teresa of Ávila, Spanish Carmelite nun, The Life of St. Teresa of Jesus, written in the 1560s. Translated by David Lewis, 1904. Source 2: Description of a sculpture in the Cornaro Chapel, Santa Maria della Vittoria, Rome.
Bernini's sculpture best reflects which purpose of Baroque religious art?
Teresa's writing and the Church's later celebration of her are best understood in the context of
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