Catholic Reformation

The Catholic Reformation or the Counter-Reformation was a strong reaffirmation of the doctrine and structure of the Catholic Church, climaxing at the Council of Trent, partly in reaction to the growth of Protestantism.

Related Topics:
Catholic Church - Council of Trent - Protestantism

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Even before the posting of Martin Luther's Ninety-Five Theses in 1517, there had been evidence of internal reform within the Church, combating trends that heightened radical demands to fundamentally alter the doctrine and structure of the Medieval Church and even contributed to the anticlericalism of figures such as Jan Huss and John Wycliffe in the late fourteenth century. The Catholic Reformation, aimed at correcting the sources of the Reformation, and pronounced since the pontificate of Pope Paul III, was both retaliatory, committed to protecting Catholic institutions and practices from heresy and Protestantism, but also reformist, committed to reform the Church from within to stem the growing appeal of Protestantism. Broadly speaking, the Catholic Reformation, which climaxed in the Council of Trent, the nineteenth of twenty-one ecumenical councils, represented a three-sided strategy: an autocratic church at the top linked to the individual by the parish church. (The first Ecumenical Council was the First Council of Nicaea in A.D. 325; the 21st and latest was the Second Vatican Council, which convened in the mid-1960s under Pope John XXIII.) The Catholic Reformation was a strong reaffirmation of the doctrine and structure of the Medieval Church, presiding over reforms that would preserve its influence.

Related Topics:
Martin Luther - Ninety-Five Theses - 1517 - Reform - Jan Huss - John Wycliffe - Fourteenth century - Pope Paul III - Heresy - Ecumenical council - First Council of Nicaea - Second Vatican Council - 1960s - Pope John XXIII

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