How did the Catholic Church Counter the Protestant Reformation?

Do Now: In the future, you have raised two beautiful children. You have done everything in your power to ensure that followed the best

path possible in life. However, you just discovered that they are making decisions in their lives that go completely against your beliefs and

values- decisions that you truly believe are morally corrupt and will only lead them to a bad place. What would you do?

Religions in Europe 1600 CE

I How did the Catholic Church Respond to the Protestant Reformation?

A) Recall that in 1517 Martin Luther posted his 95 Theses on the door of Tetzel’s Church. This led to a division in Christianity between the Catholic Church and Protestants.B) The Catholic Church believed that Protestants were heretics, and that they needed to be brought back into the Catholic Church. C) Pope Paul III formed the Council of Trent (1545 – 1563), to decide how to reform the Catholic Church and to encourage Protestants to come back.

Results of the Council of Trent:1. Catholic traditions and rituals are of equal

importance to the Bible.2. The only correct interpretation of the Bible

is that of the Catholic Church.3. Clergy must be celibate.

Excerpts from the Council of TrentDECREE CONCERNING INDULGENCES: Whereas the power of conferring Indulgences was granted by Christ to the Church; and she has, even in the most ancient times, used the said power, delivered unto her of God… In granting them, however, It desires that… moderation be observed... And being desirous that the abuses which have crept therein, and by occasion of which this honorable name of Indulgences is blasphemed by heretics, be amended and corrected, It ordains generally by this decree, that all evil gains for the obtaining thereof,--whence a most prolific cause of abuses amongst the Christian people has been derived,--be wholly abolished…DECREE CONCERNING PURGATORY: …the holy Synod enjoins on bishops that they diligently endeavor that the sound doctrine concerning Purgatory… be believed, maintained, taught, and every where proclaimed by the faithful of Christ. But let the more difficult and subtle questions… be excluded from popular discourses before the uneducated multitude. In like manner, such things as are uncertain, or which labor under an appearance of error, let them not allow to be made public and treated of. While those things which tend to a certain kind of curiosity or superstition, or which savour of filthy lucre, let them prohibit as scandals and stumbling-blocks of the faithful…

How did the Catholic Church Respond to the Protestant Reformation? Continued…D) The inquisition’s power was increased, to find and reconvert heretics.E) The Church created the Index of Forbidden Books, a list of works considered blasphemous (writings that goes against the Church) or immoral. Banned books included most translations of the Bible, and the works of Erasmus, Calvin and Luther. Later even the Talmud was banned!

Recall that during the Inquisition, inquisitors (investigators) would question

people suspected of heresy. If they did not confess and convert to Catholicism, they

would then be tortured.

How did the Catholic Church Respond to the Protestant Reformation? Continued…

F) 1540 the Pope officially recognized a new religious order, the Society of Jesus (Jesuits). It was founded by

Ignatius of Loyola, a wounded crusader knight. The Jesuits mission was to spread Catholicism worldwide. Many Jesuits even traveled to the Americas to convert

Native Americans.

II The 30 Years War (1618 – 1648)A Conflict Between Hapsburg Monarchs (Catholics) and German Princes (Protestants)

The 30 Years War Continued…A) The Thirty Years' War was a series of wars fought among numerous European powers between 1618 and 1648. While these wars had multiple causes, religious issues were a leading factor. Following the Protestant Reformation, which Martin Luther sparked in 1517, Protestants and Catholics were often at each other's throats. Religious tension between Calvinists, Lutherans, Catholics, and other factions ran rampant throughout 16th and 17th century Europe. In the diverse Holy Roman Empire, Protestants and Catholics were sharply divided, and each group looked to other foreign states for support. B) When the Catholic Ferdinand II ascended to the position of Crown Prince of the Kingdom of Bohemia (which was one of the many independent kingdoms within the Holy Roman Empire) many Protestants feared their religious rights would be jeopardized. They rebelled and sought support from other leading Protestant states, including England, the Dutch Republic, Demark, Sweden, and others. In 1619, Ferdinand II became the Holy Roman Emperor. He formed alliances with other Catholic states, including Spain and Hungary.

The 30 Years War Continued…C) In the early stages of the conflict, the Holy Roman Empire's imperial army was successful in overrunning Protestant Germany. However, in 1631, Swedish intervention and French assistance allowed the Protestants to achieve victory at the Battle of Breitenfeld. This battle was the first major Protestant victory in the conflict. French involvement in the war stemmed from the fact that it was surrounded on both sides by Habsburg dynasties: Spain (in the West) and the Holy Roman Empire (in the East) were both ruled by Habsburg families. This explains why the Holy Roman Empire was allied with Spain and why France intervened. D) Throughout the 1640s, France and Sweden won a number of important victories, causing the tide of the war to turn in their direction. Exhausted from years of warfare, and neither side able to gain a decisive advantage, negotiations among the European powers finally resulted in the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. The Peace of Westphalia was not a single peace treaty, but rather refers to a series of separate treaties ending the Thirty Years' War.

The 30 Years War Continued…E) In addition to ending the war, the Peace also granted certain liberties. It stipulated that each state or kingdom was free to decide its own religion; it guaranteed religious minorities the right to practice their religion freely; and it made Calvinism a valid religious option. *This helped to establish the idea of political sovereignty.F) The Thirty Years' Wars caused some Europeans to become disillusioned with established religion. This bred the individuality and even skepticism that was characteristic of the Enlightenment. Also, it led to skepticism of the divine right of kings.

"On both sides, all should be forever forgotten and forgiven… so that neither because of that, nor for any other reason or pretext, should anyone commit, or allow to happen, any hostility, unfriendliness, difficulty, or obstacle in respect to persons, their status, goods, or security itself, or through others, secretly or openly, directly or indirectly, under the pretense of the authority of the law, or by way of violence within the Kingdom, or anywhere outside of it, and any earlier contradictory treaties should not stand against this. Instead, [the fact that] each and every one, from one side and the other, both before and during the war, committed insults, violent acts, hostilities, damages, and injuries, without regard of persons or outcomes, should be completely put aside, so that everything, whatever one could demand from another under his name, will be forgotten to eternity."

III Witch HuntsChristians had believed in witches (those who worked with the devil through use of magic) for centuries. The first and most important systematic book on witchcraft was the Malleus maleficarum [Hammer of witches]. It was written by Jacob Sprenger and Heinrich Kramer, two Dominican friars, in 1486. However, mass fear (and ultimately trials and executions) dramatically increased following the Protestant and Counter Reformations. These fears even spread to the Americas, as seen by the infamous Salem Witch trials in Massachusetts, 1692.

“– "All wickedness is but little to the wickedness of a woman. ... What else is woman but a foe to friendship, an inescapable punishment, a necessary evil, a natural temptation, a desirable calamity, domestic danger, a delectable detriment, an evil nature, painted with fair colors. ... Women are by nature instruments of Satan -- they are by nature carnal, a structural defect rooted in the original creation." Malleus Maleficarum “The Hammer of the Witches” 1485

IV Consequences of the Counter- Reformation

Positive Negative The threat of Protestantism

forced the Catholic Church to end corrupt practices such as selling indulgences.

The Inquisition led to the torture and deaths of thousands. It inspired witch hunts and anti-Semitism (hatred of Jews)

Jesuits built schools around the world and even built astronomical observatories.

The Index of Forbidden Books suppressed any viewpoints that did not agree with the Catholic Church.

The Treaty of Westphalia

allowed for limited

religious freedom, and the

right for European nations

to be sovereign (the right

to rule themselves).

Conflict between Protestants and the Catholic Church increased. This led to the 30 Years War (1618 – 1648) fought between the Hapsburgs (Catholic monarchs) and German princes (Protestants). It ended with the Treaty of Westphalia.

Consequences of the Counter- Reformation Continued…

B) Many Protestants fled persecution in Europe, and ended up in… America!

HW Questions1. Fill in your period 4 chart for Lutheranism and Calvinism (from the

last lesson on the Protestant Reformation). Also, fill the chart in for the 30 Years War.

2. What was the goals of the Counter-Reformation? How was it carried out? Was it successful? How do you know? *Use evidence from the Council of Trent excerpts.*

3. Do you agree with the tactics used by the Catholic Church during the Counter-Reformation? Explain and use evidence to support your answer.

4. Do you think the increase in witch hunts in the 16th century was a coincidence or do you think it was tied to the Protestant and Counter-Reformations? Explain.

Key Vocabulary30 Years WarBlasphemousCouncil of Trent Counter-ReformationHapsburgsIgnatius of Loyola Index of Forbidden Books InquisitionJesuitsMalleus Maleficarum

Treaty of WestphaliaWitch Hunts