Catholic Reformation Research Paper

The catholic reformation was a reform movement that had to do with the Roman Catholic that took place during the 1500’s and the 1600’s. It was caused because catholic popes were using their high amounts of religious power to gain things. The catholic wanted to change. So they relied on individuals to do that. There was a dispute between the Catholics and Protestants. The Catholic Reformation was the intellectual counter-force to Protestantism. The desire for reform within the Catholic Church had started before the spread of Martin Luther. Erasmus and Luther were willing to recognize faults within the Papacy. Most other intelligent Catholics wanted change as well. During the l5th century, society was changing. The Renaissance taught people to

In the 16th century, Thomism was still a philosophy that was thought of. Cardinal Cajetan, Luther’s enemy at Augsburg in 1518, said that Thomism still had to do with society and Thomism made a strong effect to the Catholic Reformation. However Augustinian beliefs were still well known and alive in Catholic centers of learning. St. Augustine believed the opposite to St. Thomas. He said that Man was very bad and did bad things. Augustine’s beliefs had a huge affect on Luther. Francisco de Suarez and Luis de Molin (both Jesuits) tried to connect both Thomism and Augustinianism by saying that Man had a choice but ultimately God was omnipotent. Some Catholic reformers were also affected by late Medieval mysticism for example Master Eckhardt and Thomas a Kempis. In France, Lefèvre d’Etaples created translations of the mystic writers. The Dutch Jesuit Peter Canisius was affected by mystics. He provided for Jesuit colleges all over Germany. Many old monastic orders had become affected and are now using unacceptable standards. but, some had made the effort (such as the Carthusians) to maintain very high standards of discipline and learning. The Observants watched the normal strictness of the Dominicans and

Matteo Giberti was a member of the Oratory of Divine Love started in Rome in 1517 to encourage good acts in everyday life. He was also the secretary to Clement VII. Gian Pietro Caraffa, who later became known as Paul IV, helped to find the Theatines in 1524 – a group of priests who worked in the community but they lived in monastic austerity. These guys were very smart and thought who never wavered in adherence to the Catholic Church. All the men mentioned wanted a more spiritual and less worldly religion. Between 1520 and 1530, there was a lot of agreement between the Protestants and the Catholics. But the differences were noticed not the similarities. By 1550, the gap was unfixable and as it became worse and worse the laws of the Catholic Church were to become more aggressive. In 1545, the Leaders of Trent decided to highlight the differences and Augustinianism became rejected because it was too near the “Protestant belief”. The Catholic Reformation had a lot of widespread appeal to intellects. The Counter-Reformation did not. In an indirect way, Protestantism added to the growth of political