The Catholic Counter Reformation

I. The Council of Trent (1545-1563)

A. Reform of clergy

1. Rules for education and training of clergy

2. Rules for avoiding corruption and abuse of clergy

a. rules against absent bishops, appointments of relatives, luxurious living

b. Establishment of seminaries

3. Missionary endeavors: the Society of Jesus (Jesuits)

a. Conversion (New World) and reconversion (Old World)

b. Old world reconversion: Austria, Bohemia, Poland

c. Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith (1623): Americas North and South

4. New emphasis on teaching correct doctrine

a. Catechism

b. the Jesuits (see below)

c. By 1615 Jesuits had founded 372 colleges; by 1755, 728

d. Unified curriculum, new educational techniques

5. New religious orders

a. Daughters of Charity (St. Vincent de Paul): 1633

b. Trappists (17th c.)

c. Society of Jesus (Jesuits) (St. Ignatius of Loyola): 1534

B. Reform and clarification of doctrine

1. Mass defined as a sacrifice

2. Justification by faith alone condemned

3. Sacraments fixed at seven: reaffirmation of ordination, marriage, penance, last rites as sacraments

4. Veneration of saints and relics reaffirmed

5. Tradition reaffirmed as part of faith (scripture + tradition)

6. Eucharist defined as transubstantiation ("really and truly present")

7. Affirmation of purgatory

8. Indulgences are valid expressions of faith

C. Elaboration of New Doctrines in succeeding centuries

1. Papal Infallibility (1870)

2. Immaculate Conception

D. Reform of practice

1. Vulgate (Latin Bible) declared authentic text

2. Canon of books fixed as in the Vulgate

3. Tridentine Mass

E. Reaction against Modernism

1. Pantheism, Socialism, Marxism (Syllabus of Errors)

2. Modernism (1907)

II.