How Did The Catholic Church's Response To Counter Reformation

622 Words3 Pages

In reaction to the Protestant success, the Church responded with the Counter Reformation and the Catholic Reformation. In reaction to the Protestant movement, Pope Paul III called upon a council that last 3 sessions spanning over 18 years. This council was the Council of Trent and they were the group that pushed forward changes. The Council of Trent forbid the selling of offices, gave Bishops more power over priests and parishes, and made strict rules that Priests had to follow. This ensured that the church could not become wealthy from selling offices and underqualified people could not gain powerful positions. Bishops were able to control priests and parishes making sure that they behaved with this new power. Moreover, under strict rules, …show more content…

Furthermore, the direct Counter Reformation only sought to convert people back. Priests preached, taught, and encouraged protestant areas to come back to catholicism and many did especially in Germany and Austria. The Society of Jesus created by Ignatius of Loyola further aided in educating unorthodox areas about catholicism, as the monks who were the members traversed the world and taught the catholic doctrine. The Roman Catholic Church saw Protestantism as a completely different doctrine proved when Luther was tried for heresy, therefore it was only logically to stabilize the uproar by improving the education, discipline, and authority of the Roman Catholic Church. Nevertheless, Saint Ignatius Loyola aided significantly in this process. Protestantism argued that the Pope was not the representative of God for only what was written in religious scripture was the word of God. However, Loyola directly contradicts this in his "Rules for Thinking with the Church" by stating God chose the Pope and the Church to represent him and God makes no mistakes thus, one should always obey the

More about How Did The Catholic Church's Response To Counter Reformation