Counter Reformation

Counter Reformation was an attempt by Roman Catholic Church to counter the reformative activities of the protestant Reformers. The era of the Counter Reformation commenced officially from the period of Council of Trent (1545 – 1563) and ended at the closing period of the Thirty Year's War (1648).

Origin Of The Reformation

From 14th century, the Roman Catholic Church witnessed a series of spiritual revivals in Europe. Those revivals centered on issues relating to proper definition of salvation.  The revival became known as the Catholic Reformation.

From that period also witnessed an emergent of some radical theologians and secular critics who began to argue about some of the doctrinal practices of Roman Catholic Church. This group began to seek for restoration of the thesis of the primitive Yahosheanism that were corrupted into Christianity.

As the agitations from the radical clergies continued to 16th century, they formed into the bulk of protestant reformers.

The Roman Catholic Church attempted to address some of their raised issues at Council of Lateran V (1512-1517). The reforms decreed at the council had little effect that couldn't check the activities of the protestant reformers who formed churches and separated from the Roman Catholic Church in the 1520's.

At this point, several distinct dogmatic reformers within the Catholic Church solidified together in 1560's and became known as the Counter Reformation.

Commission Of The Reform

Pope Paul III initiated the Council of Trent (1545 – 1563) with commission to the cardinals on institutional reforms that addressed issues as the corrupt Bishops and Priests, indulgences and other financial abuses.

The council affirmed the basic structure of the medieval church and rejected compromise to the Protestantism. Basic tenets as salvation appropriated by grace through faith and “works of that faith” which was contrary to the tenet of protestants view of “salvation by faith alone” was affirmed.

Other doctrines that the council upheld were – transubstantiation, seven sacraments, pilgrimages, veneration of saints and relics, use of venerable images and statues, veneration of Virgin Mary, vulgate listing of the Old Testament Scriptures that included the deuteroncanonical works that were termed as Apocrypha by the protestants.  The Apocrypha texts were added to the Mesoretic text as was passed at the Council of Rome and Synods of Carthage in the 4th century Ad.

The Council of Trent equally commissioned the Roman Catholic Catechism and made few changes to reflect to the complains of the protestant reformers of which one of them that was the upgrading of education of the clergy.

Major Areas Of Reformation

The parish priests were directed to be properly educated on Latin language and other theological trainings.  Other areas of education included the nature and value of art and liturgy in monastic schools.

The council tackled the issue of indiscipline and corruption that beclouded the church via the secular renaissance that were encouraged in the eras of Pope Alexander VI (1492 – 1503) and Pope Leo X (1513 – 1522) that put up campaign for fund raising for the construction of the St. Peter's Basilica.  The fund raising encouraged the sales of indulgences that served as a keynote for Martin Luthers protest.

To contain this negative trend, the Roman Church indulged into a vigorous campaign of reform that focused on devotionalism, humanism, legalism and observentine tradition.  To improve discipline, the pluralism of the secular Renaissance was condemned, religious institutions tightened, stopped appointment of Bishops for political purposes, also bishops who do not mind their dioceses or known by the term “absent bishops” were tackled.

The Council of Trent delegated greater power to the bishops to carter for all parts of religious life of the church in their dioceses.

Activities of orders

During the counter reformation era, many new religious orders were established to support the reform. Some of the orders were the Ursulines, Capuchins, Discalced Carmelites, Cisterian Fevillants, Barnabites, Theatines, Jesuits etc.

These religious orders played various roles in the Catholic reforms. For example, the Capuchin took care of intense preaching and catering for the poor and sick persons. The Theatines were known for checking of the spread of heresy.  The Ursulines took care of education of girls.  The Jesuits took care of devotionalism and legalist tradition as it operated in a military line.

These orders cultivated various catholic tradition to both cities and local parishes and stood effectively in the defence of Pope, Catholic Institution and its tradition.

Military Forces

The Catholic Church used military forces to fight for control of some of the cities that were taken by the protestant forces.  For example, the Calvinists took control of some parts of Netherland in the Dutch Revolt. The Catholic Church fought back through King Philip II of Spain who sent Alexander Farnese as Governor-General of the Spanish Netherland from 1578 – 1592 who fought gallantly and returned the territory back to Roman Catholic's control.

Some Catholic refugees in the North regrouped and formed a militant body that mobilized forces for the Counter Reformation in the South. These military efforts gave rise to the emergence of the state of Belgium.

Mystic Persons And Groups

There were some spiritual or mystic figures who contributed immensely towards the success of Catholic reformation. Such figures included The Theresa of Avila, Francis de Sales, Ignatius of Loyola, John of the Cross etc.

These figures added to the spirituality of the Catholic Church. For example, John of the Cross and Teresa of Avila were Spanish Mystic persons who formed the Carmelite order that focused on interior conversion of devotees to the saviour and culture of deep prayers and commitment to the will of Yahweh.

Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross established a number of convents and monastries where they served as confessors and spiritual directors. Another great mystical figure was Ignatius of Loyolla who was popular for his concept of “to see Yahweh in all things” which was the main theme of his “spiritual Exercise”.

These mystic figures supported to stabilize the doctrine of Mariology (devotion to Virgin Mary) in Catholic tradition. The victory at the “Battle of Lepanto” in 1571 was accredited to the Virgin Mary by Catholic faithful and such inflamed the Marian devotion and consciousness.

Other aspects of reform focused on church arts and songs. The Counter Reformation focused on restoration of Catholicism's predominance and centrality.  As the protestant reformers argued seriously against images and sculptors in Catholic tradition, the Council of Trent made historic pronouncement that such relics have role in conveying Catholic theology.

As the protestant reformers were destroying images of saints, the Catholic Church reaffirmed their importance with special reference to the images of Christ, Mary and Joseph as held in the tradition.

The Council held that “images only represented the person depicted, and that veneration of them was paid to the person, not the image”. It concluded that “no one be allowed to place, or cause to be placed, any unusual image, in any place, or church howsoever exempted, except that image have been approved of by the bishop”.

The decree warned that “every superstition shall be removed, all lasciviousness be avoided, in such wise that figures shall not be painted or ordained with a beauty exciting to lust”.

The Catholic Church through the Council affirmed all religiously approved images and gave them adequate backing in contrast to the wish of the protestant reformers.  The Catholic only banned images that had no relationship with scriptures and those that portray nudity.

The council equally streamlined the church songs and prohibited all elements of carnality or secularity.

Another aspect of the reform was about the calendarical studies. During 16th century, it was discovered that the Julian Calendar was almost ten days out of step with the seasons and heavenly bodies.  The church employed the services of astronomers led by Nicolaus Copernicus for the Calendar reform. Copernicus affirmed the Calendar proposed by the fifth council of Lateran (1512 – 15 17).

His works replaced the Ptolemaic system with a Heliocentric model.  The new calendar was finally confimed as the Gregorian Calendar in 1582. Galileo Galilei challenged some aspects of the Copernicus's theory regarding to the Earth motion and was arrested for publishing writings said to be vehemently suspected of being heretical.  His opponents abolished the heliocentric theory and its teaching in 1633.

Conclusion

The Counter Reformation was focused on countering of the protestant views on Roman Catholic doctrines and Creeds. The reform was never targeted at returning the church to its original Yahoshean form.

The reform affirmed all of the changes that were affected by post apostolic fathers and their ecumenical councils that were entirely opposites to the prescriptions of the Yahosheanism.

The effects of the counter-reformation was beneficial to Catholicism but not to Yahosheanism that it claim to represent.  The reform promoted idolatry through image worship and Marian Theology.  It equally reverted the chemistry of Calendric system of the Hebrews that was upheld by Yahosheanity.

Based on this points, the counter reformation did not realign its faithful to the holy path laid by Yahoshea Meshiyach but misled them into the wilderness of idolatry that was known with Roman Catholicism.