"The hottest fires in hell are reserved for those who remain neutral in times of moral crisis."
This statement by Edmund Burke, an 18th century politician, could have been the motto of the Catholic Counter-Reformation. After the wildfire of the Protestant Reformation swept across Europe, it's flames fanned by the printing press, the Catholic Church was practically in a heap of ashes. It had been burned religiously and politically. The Holy Roman Empire was fighting the turning loyalties of princes across Europe, especially those of Germany. The Catholic church's scandals and splurges had been exposed. Their priests had been humiliated in lively public show-downs with the up-and-coming Protestants of German states. Based on these debates, political leaders chose their states' religion-- and Protestantism was winning. The spiritual ignorance of Catholic priests appointed by nepotism only further agitated the public. Moreover, Luther's 95 Theses (and the complaints of his contemporaries) forthrightly attacked the greedy motives behind indulgences and exorbitant church spending. In short, the Catholic church appeared corrupted and irreligious.
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| The Council of Trent, 1545-63. |
In their hurt, the Catholic Church fought back in what is known as the Catholic Counter-Reformation. This movement was characterized by a stringent clean-up of the clergy, church councils to solidify core doctrines, the establishment of church orders, and a militaristic missionary effort. Notably, some of the greatest Catholic writings hark from this era. Ignatius of Loyola, John of the Cross, Saint Teresa of Avila and others produced inspired works to capture the hearts of a turning public. My personal experiences in science, interestingly enough, have given me a glimpse into the counter-reformer mindset. After creating a hypothetical model, we researchers show it to our peers. The model then breaks down under loop-holes and "what-if"s, so it's back to the drawing board! We assess our core-data, address the critics' arguments, and present the model again. This process repeats until we have a crystallized mechanism worthy of publication. Similarly, the Catholic Church leaders convened (e.g. at the Council of Trent, shown above) to assess their core beliefs, address the arguments of both Catholic and Protestant critics, and then disseminate their theological conclusions to the rest of the Church. This practice helped the Catholic Church win-back the hearts of a swaying Europe.
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| Our biochemical models and the 16th century Catholic beliefs undergo a similar revision process. |
Despite these efforts, the Church's power never fully returned. Even after the counter-reformation, Lutheranism, Ana-Baptism, Calvinism, Zwinglianism and other Protestant sects dominated many areas of Europe. However, the Counter-Reformation's impact is still clearly evident in Catholicism today. Of this one thing I am sure: in the spirit of Edmund Burke, those Counter-Reformers have ended up anyplace but the hellfires of apathy.
Image credit:
"Apertura Concilio Trento", Niccolo Dorigatti. commons.wikimedia.org
Model image created by Tsz Yin Chan, Brigham Young University.
It's very refreshing to see the other side of the reformation, and while of course there were bad practices among the Catholic Church at the time, that doesn't preclude them from having some of the great minds and preachers of the time. It is important that they responded to and addressed the different issues that reformers brought up, and your comparison to the scientific community makes great sense of that. In any area of life, it is good to have those people who will ask the hard questions and those who will try to answer.
ReplyDeleteThis is an interesting view on the counter-reformation. It reminds me of the other councils held centuries before the original reformation to establish church doctrines. These councils include the creation of the Nicene creed that were meant to make church doctrines more universal. That connects to your blog because after centuries and several councils, the church still had to change their beliefs and practices to accommodate the time and people. Ultimately, the church allowed the reformation by diverging too far from biblical teachings.
ReplyDeleteWow, this truly informative and eye-opening. Having some friends back home who are Catholic, this does give me a better understanding of why and how the Catholic Church was able to survive and thrive after the Reformation. It's incredible to see that rather than try to fight back with slander to win back it's once faithful members, they decided to change from the inside and become better.
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