The
Latin Church responds to Protestant reformers with a multi-faceted
Counter-Reformation.
1.
Society of Jesus (Jesuits)
Ignatius
Loyola (1491-1556,
fl. >1540): birth to conversion
Ignatius
is born into a wealthy aristocratic family in the castle of Loyola in the
kingdom of Navarre in northern Iberia (1491). Thirty years later a cannonball
shatters one leg of this haughty soldier during a battle in Pamplona. While
recovering, Ignatius decides to abandon weapons of the flesh and become a
conquistador of the spirit.
Spiritual
exercises
To
train himself in his new vocation, Ignatius develops a series of spiritual
exercises he designs to be done over a period of four weeks. Through these
prayers and meditations, he is able to better detach himself from the things of
this world and to focus more clearly on Jesus.
Paris:
first friends
Ignatius
leaves Iberia to study at the University of Paris (1528). While there, a small
group of men become his friends, adopt his spiritual exercises, and with him
commit their lives to witnessing to Jesus.
Rome:
Jesuits
Ignatius
and friends eventually travel to Rome (1538). There they promise complete
obedience to Paul 3rd (1468-1549), pope (>1534), and his
successors. Their goals are to share Latin Christianity especially with the
marginal: the young, uneducated, or unfaithful, both within Latin Christendom
and abroad. The pope officially approves their establishment of the Society of
Jesus (Jesuits) (1540). Given their commitment to the Latin Church, the pope
commits them to fight the Protestant Reformation and, if possible, to regain
lost governments, people, and land.
2.
Rome: restoration not Renaissance
Rulers
of the Latin Christian Church choose to become restorative champions rather
than remain Renaissance patrons for internally coherent reasons as well as from
competition with Protestant reformers.
Paul
3rd establishes the Roman Inquisition to suppress heresy (1542).
Paul
4th (1476-1559, r. >1555) forces all Jews in Rome to live in a
particular neighborhood which becomes known as the Roman Ghetto (1555). He also
requires them to wear distinctive clothing. He then creates the Index of
Prohibited Books. On it are listed all books by Protestant reformers.
3.
Council of Trent
A
council of Latin Church leaders meets in the Norican city of Trent three times
under three different popes (1545-47, 1551-52, 1562-63). There these leaders
decide to reject the changes advocated by various Protestant reformers such as
salvation by grace through faith, Sunday worship spoken in the vernacular
language of ordinary people, and both wine and bread to lay people during the
Lord’s Supper.
In
keeping with the decisions made at Trent, Pius 5th, (1504-72), pope
(>1566), strives to stop the sale of bishoprics and to provide all priests with
the education, skills, and self-discipline needed to fulfill their vocations.
4.
Wholesale oppression and war
Also
at Trent, Latin Church leaders come to see conflict with Protestant reformers
as one in which political oppression and war should be used without restraint.
5. Baroque cultural movement
Latin
Christian Church and State intentionally create the Baroque movement to
contrast with the austerity of Reformation art and architecture. It is massive
and expensive to emphasize the wealth, power, and permanence of Latin Church
and State against anything or anyone else. It expresses its supreme confidence
in total victory over all enemies in dramatic displays of detail and personal expressions
of intense emotion.
The
Jesuits in Rome construct the Church of the Gesu, the first church building in the Baroque style. On
its ceiling, Jesus ascends to Heaven carrying the cross. Ignatius follows him closely.
The two of them are surrounded by a host of similarly soaring saints. This too
is in conscious contrast with reformers who insist that Jesus is the only existing
mediator between man and God.