- published: 22 Oct 2013
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The Counter-Reformation (also the Catholic Revival or Catholic Reformation) was the period of Catholic revival beginning with the Council of Trent (1545–1563) and ending at the close of the Thirty Years' War, 1648 which is sometimes considered a response to the Protestant Reformation. The Counter-Reformation was a comprehensive effort, composed of four major elements:
Such reforms included the foundation of seminaries for the proper training of priests in the spiritual life and the theological traditions of the Church, the reform of religious life by returning orders to their spiritual foundations, and new spiritual movements focusing on the devotional life and a personal relationship with Christ, including the Spanish mystics and the French school of spirituality. It also involved political activities that included the Roman Inquisition.
Pope Paul III (1534–1549) initiated the Council of Trent (1545–1563), a commission of cardinals tasked with institutional reform, addressing contentious issues such as corrupt bishops and priests, indulgences, and other financial abuses. Paul had been appointed Pope as a genuine convert to and lover of Catholicism, in the hope that he would represent a movement away from what had become a Papal Monarchy and caused struggles of power in the years preceding - epitomised with the Sack Of Rome 1527. Paul had proposed a General Church Council as early as 1536 but was unable to hold it until 1545 due to vulnerability of the Papacy - support of the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V was needed, but he was occupied with the Hapsburg-Valois Conflict in Milan until the Peace of Crépy 1544. This fundamental political weakness is historically considered the reason which the outcomes of Trent were so conservative - the papacy could not afford to surrender power, and that power was held up by church abuses.