The Catholic Counter Reformation

1. The Catholic Counter Reformation OLLI, Fall, 2018, Tuscaloosa, Al. The fourth part of the story….

2. Began not with reactions to Luther, Calvin, Zwingli and other Protestant reformers, but With Isabelle of Castile in late fifteenth century and Other reformers within the Church itself, such as Francisco Jimenez de Cisneros. Reformation of Spanish Catholicism

3. Reformation of Spanish Catholicism, 2 • Problems with Catholicism • Prelates were given to secular concerns, much more than spiritual • Lower clergy woefully ignorant and insufficiently trained. Could barely say a Mass. • Monasticism at a low ebb • Some monasteries and nunneries positively luxurious and fashionable places of retreat for illegitimate children of royalty, nobility, and even prelates.

4. Reformation of Spanish Catholicism, 3 • Reform movement underway, such as the Devotio moderna, conciliarism, Christian humanism, penitential preaching, Observatine programs of monastic reform, founding of religious confraternities. • Combined zeal for moral and educated parish clergy, reform of the monasteries, biblical studies based on principles of Christian humanism, unswerving devotion to traditional orthodoxy, and repression of heresy by Spanish Inquisition.

5. Reformation of Spanish Catholicism, 4 • Resulted in a renewed spiritual life in Spain, flowering of quietistic mysticism, new techniques of meditative prayer, renovated Scholastic theology, revival of Thomism, founding of new orders, not the least the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) in 1540. More on Jesuits below.

6. Isabelle and Jimenez de Cisneros • Cisneros an austere Franciscan. Spent ten years in prison for being of high principles, then years in a strict Franciscan monastery, learning Hebrew, Chaldean, until called out in 1492, much against his wishes, to be Confessor to the Queen. Appointed Archbishop of Toledo, 1495, which he refused until ordered a second time by the Pope.

7. Together with Isabelle, Cisneros and she personally visited many of the most corrupt monasteries, enforcing discipline. Always a scholar, interested vitally in renewal of Scriptural studies. To this end, founded the University of Alcala de Henares in 1508. Isabelle and Jimenez de Cisneros, 2

8. Jimenez had the Complutense Polyglot published (named after Compluto, the Latin name for Alcala) was a great multilingual edition of the Bible, in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin. Published in 1520. Isabelle and Jimenez de Cisneros, 3 Portada del primer volumen de la Biblia Políglota con una orla de cuatro piezas y las efigies de los santos padres

9. Design of a page of the Polyglot

10. Under Tomas de Torquemada, uncompromising commitment to orthodoxy, Jewish converts expecially targeted for “Judaism.” In 1492 Jews forced to convert or leave Spain for exile. Edict of Expulsion The Inquisition

11. Anabaptist leaders and teachers were often burned at the stake, though sometimes after being strangled first. Burning of Maria and Ursula van Beckum, Deventer, 1544

12. Forced Conversion of Moors • By 1502, all remaining Moors had to conform to the same fate as Jews earlier: conversion or exile.

13. Summary of Jimenez’ life • “Thus, the scholar who directed the Complutensian Polyglot, the patron of books and learning, the reformer of the life of the church, was also the grand inquisitor who would brook no diversity or doctrinal deviation. In this he was typical of most of the Catholic Reformation, which sought to purify the church through austerity, devotion, and scholarship, but at the same time insisted on strict adherence to traditional dogma. The saints and sages of the Catholic Reformation, like Isabella, were pure, devout and intolerant.”

14. Jimenez and Sources of the Bible • Curiously, “it is said that when the work [Complutensian] was completed [in 1517; not published until 1520] Jimenez rejoiced at ‘this edition of the bible that, at this critical time, opens the sacred sources of our religion, from which will flow a much purer theology than any derived from less direct sources.’ Such a clear affirmation of the superiority of Scripture over tradition, had it been made a few years later, would have led to cries of ‘Lutheran heresy.’”!!!

15. New Orders • Three major players were St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross, and St. Ignatius Loyola. • The first two associated with a revival of Spanish mysticism and led to the formation of the Discalced Carmelites, and Loyola to the founding of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits).

16. St. Ignatius of Loyola Jesuits

17. St. Ignatius Loyola, 1491-1556 • Son—Don Iñigo de Oñez y Loyola-- of an aristocratic family. Served as a page at court of King Ferdinand. Looked to a military career to attain honor. Wounded at the French siege of Pamplona (NOT running with the bulls!) in 1521. During long recover, read lives of saints and Life of Christ. Decided to devote himself to Christ.

18. St. Ignatius Loyola, 1491-1556, 2 • …’made a pilgrimage in March 1522 to the Marian shrine at Montserrat, hung his weapons on the Virgin’s altar, and exchanged his knightly garments for those of a beggar.” • Medited for a year on The Imitation of Christ by Thomas à Kemper; subjected himself to harsh penance and experienced extraordinary raptures and visions.

19. St. Ignatius Loyola, 1491-1556, 3 • Wrote first draft of Spiritual Exercises, a “book to be used experimentally under the guidance of a spiritual director, such use culminating in an act of will, namely, the election of a new way of life.”

20. St. Ignatius Loyola, 1491-1556, 4 • “The Christian led…to submit wholly to God and to become an utterly disciplined member of the church, resolved to serve it in unquestioning obedience.” • “In Ignatian spirituality, obedience to the suffering Christ and to his (hierarchical) church thus came to occupy the central place that faith in god’s unmerited mercy for the crucified Christ’s sake held in Luther’s religion.”

21. St. Ignatius Loyola, 1491-1556, 5 • “Here may be seen a focal point of contrast between the Protestant and the Catholic Reformation.” • In 1523 Ignatius went on pilgrimage to Jerusalem to serve as a missionary to Muslims, but Franciscans sent him home…thought him too dangerous! The proverbial loose cannon!

22. St. Ignatius Loyola, 1491-1556, 6 • Then studied at universities of Alcalá and Salamanca, gathering around him followers who practiced his “exercises.” In 1528 enrolled at the Univ. of Paris. Gathered more friends there. • In 1537 he and other friends vowed to go to the Holy Land to convert Muslims, but barred by war, and instead offered themselves to the Pope in 1539, banded together as the “Company of Jesus.”

23. St. Ignatius Loyola, 1491-1556, 7 • The “Company” to teach children and illiterates, preach, serve as chaplains in hospitals, leaders of missions, and they all took a special vow of obedience to the Pope, to go wherever he should send them. • In 1540, Sept. 27, Pope Paul III authorized the “Society of Jesus.” Ignatius became its first “general” or director of the Order.

24. St. Ignatius Loyola, 1491-1556, 8 • A rigorous apprenticeship to become a Jesuit. (see Walker, History of Christian Church, pp. 508-509 for details). • The Society spread rapidly, number over 1000 members by Ignatius’s death. By end of 16th century, had become the most powerful force in the Catholic Reformation and the advance guard in the Counter-Reformation.

25. St. Ignatius Loyola, 1491-1556, 9 • Chief activities were missions and excellent schools, especially for the wealthy and well to do. • And, “as a response to Protestantism, the Society of Jesus was a powerful weapon in the hands of a reformed papacy. Their organization, pattered after the military, enabled them to respond rapidly and efficiently to various challenges and opportunities. Many of them were also scholars who contributed their knowledge to the polemic against Protestantism.” (Guttiérez, p. 118).

26. Council of Trent

27. Council of Trent, 2 • Convened by the Pope, Paul III, and the Emperor, Charles V to address two issues: the continued reformation of the Church, and to respond to the Protestant Reformation. • Meet, on and off, from 1545-1563, in northern Italy, in the Imperial City of Trent.

28. Council of Trent, 3 • It maintained the principal that Church tradition and canon law were as impt. as Scripture in authority, thus attacking one important area of Protestantism. • Many reforms enacted: bishops must reside in their sees, condemned plurarism (the holding of more than one office), regulated use of such things as relics and indulgences, founded

29. Council of Trent, 4 • Seminaries for training priests, promoted the study of Thomas Aquinas, etc. • Also took measures against Protestantism. Declared the Latin translation of the Bible, the Culgate, as autoritative; tradition has the same weight as Scripture; the sacraments are seven (not two or three), justification is based on good works done through the collaboration between grace and the believer, and other refinement of doctrine and rejection of Protestant “heresies.”

30. Council of Trent, 5 • The “council of Trent marked the birth of the modern Catholic Church.” (Gutierrez, p. 121)