1534-1789 - The Counter-Reformation
The victories of Protestantism seemed, for a time, to doom the Church to destruction; but she rose up again with new strength, and recovered much of the ground that had been lost. In the period before us, the Church becomes rich again in zealous missionaries, learned scholars, and gifted artists. Abuses are corrected; magnificent institutions and powerful religious orders are founded; Catholic science flourishes; a generation of saintly priests conduct the people in the way of virtue; the faith is carried to distant lands by tireless missionaries; and finally the Apostolic See, occupied by popes eminent for wisdom and virtue, becomes again the center of universal reverence and affection.
Paul III (1534-1549) was an able ruler, who selected excellent men as cardinals and bishops. He reformed the papal court, established the Congregation of the Index to proscribe dangerous books, and convoked the long expected ecumenical council. The Nineteenth Ecumenical Council of Trent (1545-1563) defined clearly and precisely the doctrines of the Church that had been disputed by Protestants; and also issued decrees on discipline for the correction of the abuses that had afflicted the Church so disastrously. An invitation was extended to the Protestants to attend the sessions of the council; but they declined, because their demands (e. g., to adopt the Bible as the only rule of faith) were rejected. At the eighth session (1547), the council was transferred to Bologna, where it was soon prorogued (1549)
In 1551, Pope Julius III (1550-1555) transferred the council back to Trent, where it was again suspended in 1552. Reassembled again at Trent, it concluded its sessions there (1561-1563). The final decrees were signed by 252 members; whereas, at the opening of the council, only 40 bishops had been present. "With newt youth and strength," says Ranke, "Catholicism again faced the Protestant world."
St. Pius V (1566-1572), a man of great energy, renewed piety in Rome and throughout Italy. He was assisted by St. Charles Borromeo and St. Philip Neri in carrying out the reforms decreed by Trent. During his pontificate, the "Catechism of the Council" was published, the Breviary and Missal were revised, and many abuses within the Church were corrected. To Pius V we are indebted for the splendid victory over the Turks at Lepanto, in the Gulf of Corinth (1571).
Gregory XIII (1572-1585), a famous jurist, directed his attention chiefly to the promotion of ecclesiastical science. He published a new edition of canon law; and, in place of the old Julian Calendar, he substituted the new Gregorian Calendar (1582), which was a great improvement and gradually came into universal use. At Rome he founded six colleges, among them the Irish and German colleges, and the Roman college for the youth of Rome. He also established nuntiatures at Lucerne, Vienna and Cologne.
Sixtus V (1585-1590) possessed an extraordinary capacity for government, and ruled the states of the Church with admirable skill. He established fifteen congregations for the administration of public affairs, enlarged the Vatican library, founded various colleges, and established new printing offices for the purpose of securing improved editions of the Church Fathers. He had obelisks brought from Egypt, completed the dome of St. Peter's Church, built a hospital for 2,000 patients, constructed a superb aqueduct on the Quirinal Hill and, by his good business methods, left the Holy See in a financially sound condition.
Among the successors of Gregory, the following deserve special mention: Clement VIII (1592-1605), promoter of the new edition of the Vulgate, who surrounded himself with eminent scholars such as Baronius and Bellarmine; Paul V (1605-1621), who erected magnificent buildings and labored with great zeal for the reformation of the clergy; Gregory XV (1621-1623), who established the Congregation of the Propaganda and gave a fixed form to papal elections; Urban VIII (1623-1644), who was a zealous promoter of science; Benedict XIV (1740-1758), one of the most learned men of the age, who was especially famous as a master of canon law.
Protestantism inflicted severe wounds upon the religious orders. Many members of the various communities fell away, discipline was relaxed, and the religious life came to be despised and ridiculed. But holy men founded new orders, the older ones were thoroughly reformed, and the religious life flourished again.
The belief in witchcraft was general in this period, and persons were readily suspected of having entered into a compact with Satan for the performance of malevolent deeds. Supposed witches were punished sometimes by the secular and sometimes by the ecclesiastical court. In 1484, Innocent VIII published a Bull authorizing James Sprenger and Henry Kramer, two inquisitors of Cologne, to proceed against every form of crime, including heresy and witchcraft. The effects of this Bull, which really enacted nothing new, have been greatly exaggerated. About 1489 these two inquisitors published a book, "Malleus Maleficarum," or "Witches' Hammer," which gave rules for discovering, trying and punishing witches. It awakened much opposition, notably on the part of the Bishop of Brixen, and after that, trials for witchcraft were usually left to the secular power. The Protestant provinces of Germany were much more active than the Catholic, in prosecuting supposed witches; and the strongest protest against the cruel custom was made by the Jesuit, Friedrich von Spee, under the title " Cautio Criminalis," in 1631.
Among the most notable chapters in the history of the Church is the story of the foreign missions begun in the sixteenth and seventeeth centuries. While multitudes were falling away from the faith in the old Catholic countries, other multitudes were being converted in the New World. The great explorers were quickly followed by numerous missionaries, drawn mainly from the religious orders,— Franciscans, Dominicans, Augustinians, and especially Jesuits. Missions rapidly grew into dioceses, monasteries and schools multiplied, baptisms were innumerable, martyrdoms were frequent. By 1622, the foreign missions had developed to such an extent that Gregory XV then established the Congregation of the Propagation of the Faith, composed of fifteen cardinals, to superintend the work of the missionaries, and to distribute alms to needy missions. Urban VIII made two important improvements. He founded the Collegium Urbanum (1627), an international college where non-European students could be trained for the priesthood and for missionary work in their own countries; and he initiated a new sort of apostolate, by setting up a printing-press for the publishing of books and catechisms in all languages.
Cornelius Jansenius, a professor of Louvain, and Bishop of Ypres, was like his predecessor Baius (+ 1589), the exponent of certain views about divine grace. After the death of Jansenius, in 1638, his work on the teaching of St. Augustine, which he had wished to submit to the judgment of the Church, appeared under the title of "Augustinus" (1640). In it, Jansenius maintained that man, after his fall into sin, had no freewill and could not resist the grace of God. Despite the condemnation of these errors by the Apostolic See, especially by Clement XI (1700-1721) in the Bull, Vineam Domini (1705), and in the Constitution, Unigenitus (1713), the disciples of Jansenius upheld the erroneous doctrines by means of subterfuges and false distinctions. The Jesuits were especially hated by the Jansenists who accused them of laxity. In the Netherlands, the Jansenists effected a complete separation from the Catholics and, by the Schism of Utrecht (1723), formed an independent church.
Like Gallicanism in France, certain movements in Germany aimed to take away the rights of the Church and transfer them to the civil power. Nicholas of Hontheim, co-adjutor bishop of Treves, in 1763, published a book called "Justinus Febronius," limiting the authority of the pope. "He tied the pope's hands, while kissing his feet." This tendency was known as Febronianism.
The new philosophy began with Descartes (+ 1650), who made universal doubt the basis of his system. Soon came Spinoza (+ 1677), who directed the human mind toward pantheism. Men were led astray by naturalism, teaching them to reject supernatural revelation; by deism, rejecting the possibility of communication between man and God; and by rationalism, the system which makes the human reason the source and standard of religious truth.
The fundamental principle of Protestantism, that each individual may interpret Scripture according to his own judgment, substituted the individual mind in place of authority as a guide in matters of faith. The logical development of this principle was the " religion of reason," that is the rejection of all supernatural belief.
About the middle of the reign of Pius VI (1775-1799), occurred the French Revolution of 1789, which all but destroyed the Church in France. Lesser storms had preceded this terrible outbreak. The Austrian Emperor, Joseph II, had oppressed the clergy and violated the rights of the Church to such an extent that, in 1782, the pope went to Vienna in person, in order to remonstrate with him. The same policy of "Josephim" was pursued by other Catholic powers, Spain, Sardinia, Venice, and, notably, the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. At the Congress of Ems (1786), even the archbishops of Germany displayed opposition to the pope's authority. Pius was obliged to condemn the Synod of Pistoia, in Italy (1786), and to censure the bishop, Scipio Ricci, for repudiating papal supremacy and adopting the doctrines of Jansenius and Quesnel.
The leaders of the French Revolution called upon the clergy to subscribe to a Civil Constitution which put the state above the Church; but Pope Pius threatened to suspend any priest who should subscribe (1791). One result of this action was the French invasion of the Papal States in 1796. Napoleon proclaimed Rome a republic; and the pope was carried a prisoner to France, where he died in 1799. Pius VI permitted the Jesuits, although suppressed, to retain their schools in Prussia; and to keep up their organization in Russia. In 1789, he created the See of Baltimore, the first bishopric in the United States.
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