Scholars have made a distinction between the political issue of a state's
established religion remaining Catholic and the advance of religious reforms within Catholicism: Anglican historian G.E. Duffield noted, "RC reform ... does not easily fit into geographical patterns as Protestant reform does."
Areas affected The Counter-Reformation succeeded in drastically diminishing
Protestantism in
Lithuania,
Poland,
France,
Italy, and the vast lands controlled by the
Habsburgs including
Austria, southern
Germany,
Bohemia (now in the
Czech Republic), the
Spanish Netherlands (now
Belgium and surrounds),
Croatia, and
Slovenia. It did not succeed as completely in
Hungary, where a sizeable Protestant minority remains to this day, although Catholics still are the largest Christian denomination.
Religious orders New religious orders were a fundamental part of the reforms. Orders such as the
Capuchins,
Discalced Carmelites,
Discalced Augustinians and
Augustinian Recollects, Cistercian
Feuillants,
Angelines and
Ursulines,
Theatines,
Barnabites, and the
Congregation of the Oratory of Saint Philip Neri attempted either to be less decadent or to engage in charitable service, and set examples of Catholic renewal particularly in Southern Europe. The
Jesuits especially worked in rural parishes. Most of these had been founded earlier in the 15th Century, as part of Catholic reforms before the Council of Trent. The Theatines undertook checking the spread of heresy and contributed to a regeneration of the clergy. The Capuchins, an offshoot of the
Franciscan order notable for their preaching and for their care for the poor and the sick, grew rapidly. Capuchin-founded confraternities took special interest in the poor and lived austerely. Members of orders active in overseas missionary expansion expressed the view that the rural parishes often needed Christianizing as much as the heathens of Asia and the Americas. The Ursulines focused on the special task of
educating girls, the first order of women to be dedicated to that goal. Devotion to the traditional works of mercy exemplified the Catholic Reformation's reaffirmation of the importance of both faith and works and salvation through God's grace and repudiation of the maxim
sola fide emphasized by Protestants sects. Not only did they make the Church more effective, but they also reaffirmed fundamental premises of the medieval Church. The Jesuits were the most effective of the new Catholic orders. An heir to the
devotional,
observantine, and
legalist traditions, the Jesuits organized along military lines. The worldliness of the Renaissance Church had no part in their new order. Loyola's masterwork
Spiritual Exercises showed the emphasis of handbooks characteristic of Catholic reformers before the
Reformations, reminiscent of
devotionalism. Jesuits participated in the expansion of the Church in the Americas and Asia, by their missionary activity. Loyola's biography contributed to an emphasis on popular piety that had waned under political popes such as
Alexander VI and
Leo X. After recovering from a serious wound, he took a vow to "serve only God and the Roman pontiff, His vicar on Earth." The emphasis on the Pope is a reaffirmation of the medieval papalism, while the Council of Trent defeated
conciliarism, the belief that general councils of the Church collectively were God's representative on Earth rather than the Pope. Taking the Pope as an absolute leader, the Jesuits contributed to the Counter-Reformation Church along a line harmonized with Rome.
Devotion and mysticism The Catholic Reformation was not only a political and Church policy oriented movement, but it also included major figures such as
Catherine of Genoa,
Ignatius of Loyola,
Teresa of Ávila,
John of the Cross,
Francis de Sales, and
Philip Neri, who added to the
spirituality of the Catholic Church. Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross were Spanish mystics and reformers of the
Carmelite Order, whose ministry focused on
interior conversion to Christ, the deepening of prayer, and commitment to God's will. Teresa was given the task of developing and writing about the way to perfection in her love and unity with Christ.
Thomas Merton called John of the Cross the greatest of all mystical theologians. The Virgin Mary played an increasingly central role in Catholic devotions. The victory at the
Battle of Lepanto in 1571 was accredited to the Virgin Mary and signified the beginning of a strong resurgence of Marian devotions. During and after the Catholic Reformation, Marian piety experienced unforeseen growth with over 500 pages of mariological writings during the 17th century alone. The Jesuit
Francisco Suárez was the first theologian to use the
Thomist method on Marian theology. Other well-known contributors to Marian spirituality are Saints
Lawrence of Brindisi,
Robert Bellarmine, and
Francis de Sales. The
sacrament of penance was transformed from a social to a personal experience; that is, from a public community act to a private confession. It now took place in private in a confessional. It was a change in its emphasis from reconciliation with the Church to reconciliation directly with God and from emphasis on social sins of hostility to private sins (called "the secret sins of the heart").
Baroque art The Catholic Church was a leading arts patron across much of Europe. The goal of much art in the Counter-Reformation, especially in the Rome of
Bernini and the Flanders of
Peter Paul Rubens, was to restore Catholicism's predominance and centrality. This was one of the drivers of the
Baroque style that emerged across Europe in the late sixteenth century. In areas where Catholicism predominated, architecture and painting, and to a lesser extent music, reflected Counter-Reformation goals. The Council of Trent proclaimed that architecture, painting and sculpture had a role in conveying Catholic
theology. Any work that might arouse "carnal desire" was inadmissible in churches, while any depiction of Christ's suffering and explicit agony was desirable and proper. In an era when some Protestant reformers were destroying images of saints and whitewashing walls, Catholic reformers reaffirmed the importance of art, with special encouragement given to images of the Virgin Mary.
Decrees on art The Last Judgment, a fresco in the
Sistine Chapel by
Michelangelo (1534–1541), came under persistent attack in the Counter-Reformation for, among other things, nudity (later painted over for several centuries), not showing Christ seated or bearded, and including the pagan figure of
Charon. Italian painting after 1520, with the notable exception of the art of
Venice, developed into
Mannerism, a highly sophisticated style striving for effect, that concerned many Churchmen as lacking appeal for the mass of the population. Church pressure to restrain religious imagery affected art from the 1530s and resulted in the decrees of the final session of the Council of Trent in 1563 including short and rather inexplicit passages concerning religious images, which were to have great impact on the development of Catholic art. Previous Catholic councils had rarely felt the need to pronounce on these matters, unlike
Orthodox ones which have often ruled on specific types of images. The decree confirmed the traditional doctrine that images only represented the person depicted, and that veneration to them was paid to the person, not the image, and further instructed that: Ten years after the decree
Paolo Veronese was summoned by the
Holy Office to explain why his
Last Supper, a huge canvas for the refectory of a monastery, contained, in the words of the Holy Office: "buffoons, drunken Germans, dwarfs and other such scurrilities" as well as extravagant costumes and settings, in what is indeed a fantasy version of a Venetian patrician feast. Veronese was told that he must change his painting within a three-month period. He just changed the title to
The Feast in the House of Levi, still an episode from the Gospels, but a less doctrinally central one, and no more was said. The number of such decorative treatments of religious subjects declined sharply, as did "unbecomingly or confusedly arranged" Mannerist pieces, as a number of books, notably by the Flemish theologian
Molanus,
Charles Borromeo and Cardinal
Gabriele Paleotti, and instructions by local bishops, amplified the decrees, often going into minute detail on what was acceptable. Much traditional
iconography considered without adequate scriptural foundation was in effect prohibited, as was any inclusion of classical pagan elements in religious art, and almost all nudity, including that of the infant Jesus. According to the great medievalist
Émile Mâle, this was "the death of medieval art", but it paled in contrast to the Iconclasm present in some Protestant circles and did not apply to secular paintings. Some Counter Reformation painters and sculptors include
Titian,
Tintoretto,
Federico Barocci,
Scipione Pulzone,
El Greco,
Peter Paul Rubens,
Guido Reni,
Anthony van Dyck,
Bernini,
Zurbarán,
Rembrandt and
Bartolomé Esteban Murillo.
Church music The Council of Trent is believed to be the apex of the Counter-Reformation's influence on Church music in the 16th century. However, the council's pronouncements on music were not the first attempt at reform. The Catholic Church had spoken out against a perceived abuse of music used in the Mass before the Council of Trent ever convened to discuss music in 1562. The manipulation of the
Creed and using non-liturgical songs was addressed in 1503, and secular singing and the intelligibility of the text in the delivery of psalmody in 1492. The delegates at the council were just a link in the long chain of Church clergy who had pushed for a reform of the musical liturgy reaching back as far as 1322. Fueling the cry for reform from many ecclesial figures was the compositional technique popular in the 15th and 16th centuries of using musical material and even the accompanying texts from other compositions such as
motets,
madrigals, and
chansons. Several voices singing different texts in different languages made any of the text difficult to distinguish from the mixture of words and notes. The
parody mass would then contain melodies (usually the tenor line) and words from songs that could have been, and often were, on sensual subjects. Paleotti's reforms for convents of nuns allowed only the use of an organ, prohibited professional musicians, and banished
polyphonic singing; this was much more strict than the Trent council's eventual edicts or even those devised for the
Palestrina legend.
Reforms during the 22nd session The Council of Trent met sporadically from December 13, 1545, to December 4, 1563, to reform many parts of the Catholic Church. The 22nd session required that secular elements be kept out of Mass music, keeping
polyphony implicitly allowed.
Proposed removal of polyphony The issue of textual intelligibility did not make its way into the final edicts of the 22nd session but were only featured in preliminary debates. However Archbishop Paleotti, in his Acts (the minutes of the Council), attempted to bring to equal importance the issues of intelligibility. The idea that the council called to remove all polyphony from the Church is widespread, but there is no documentary evidence to support that claim. It is possible, however, that some of the Fathers had proposed such a measure. The Council of Trent did not focus on the style of music but on attitudes of worship and reverence during the Mass. The emperor
Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor has been attributed to be the "saviour of Church music" because he said polyphony ought not to be driven out of the Church. But Ferdinand was most likely an alarmist and read into the council the possibility of a total ban on polyphony. The Canon 8 text is often quoted as the Council of Trent's decree on Church music, but that is a glaring misunderstanding of the canon; it was only a proposed decree. In fact, the delegates at the council never officially accepted canon 8 in its popular form but bishops of Granada, Coimbra, and Segovia pushed for the long statement about music to be attenuated and many other prelates of the council joined enthusiastically.
Saviour-Legend The crises regarding
polyphony and intelligibility of the text and the threat that polyphony was to be removed completely, which was assumed to be coming from the council, has a very dramatic legend of resolution. The legend goes that
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (c. 1525/26–1594), a Church musician and choirmaster in Rome, wrote a Mass for the council delegates in order to demonstrate that a polyphonic composition could set the text in such a way that the words could be clearly understood and that was still pleasing to the ear. Palestrina's
Missa Papae Marcelli (Mass for Pope Marcellus) was performed before the council and received such a welcoming reception among the delegates that they completely changed their minds and allowed polyphony to stay in use in the musical liturgy. Therefore, Palestrina came to be named the "saviour of Church polyphony". This legend, though unfounded, has long been a mainstay of histories of music. The saviour-myth was first spread by an account by Aggazzari and Banchieri in 1609 who said that
Pope Marcellus was trying to replace all polyphony with plainsong. Palestrina's "Missa Papae Marcelli" was indeed performed for the Pope in 1564, after the 22nd session, while reforms were being considered for the
Sistine Choir. The Pope Marcellus Mass, in short, was not important in its own day and did not help save Church polyphony. What is undeniable is that despite any solid evidence of his influence during or after the Council of Trent, no figure is more qualified to represent the cause of polyphony in the Mass than Palestrina.
Pope Pius IV upon hearing Palestrina's music would make Palestrina, by Papal Brief, the model for future generations of Catholic composers of sacred music. Kerle was the only ranking composer of the Netherlands to have acted in conformity with the council. Another musical giant on equal standing with Palestrina,
Orlando di Lasso (1530/32–1594) was an important figure in music history though less of a purist than Palestrina. He expressed sympathy for the council's concerns but still showed favor for the "Parady chanson Masses." It was left then up to the local Church leaders and Church musicians to find proper application for the council's decrees. Though originally theological and directed towards the attitudes of the musicians, the Council's decrees came to be thought of by Church musicians as a pronouncement on proper musical styles. Composers who reference the council's reforms in prefaces to their compositions do not adequately claim a musical basis from the council but a spiritual and religious basis of their art. Borromeo was likely involved or heard of the questions regarding textual clarity because of his request to Ruffo. Ruffo took Borromeo's commission seriously and set out to compose in a style that presented the text so that all words would be intelligible and the textual meaning be the most important part of the composition. His approach was to move all the voices in a
homorhythmic manner with no complicated rhythms, and to use dissonance very conservatively. Ruffo's approach was certainly a success for textual clarity and simplicity, but if his music was very theoretically pure it was not an artistic success despite Ruffo's attempts to bring interest to the monotonous four-part texture. Ruffo's compositional style which favored the text was well in line with the council's perceived concern with intelligibility. Thus the belief in the council's strong edicts regarding textual intelligibility became to characterize the development of sacred Church music. The Council of Trent brought about other changes in music: most notably developing the
Missa brevis,
Lauda and "Spiritual
Madrigal" (Madrigali Spirituali). Additionally, the numerous
sequences were mostly prohibited in the 1570
Missal of Pius V. The remaining sequences were
Victimae paschali laudes for
Easter,
Veni Sancte Spiritus for
Pentecost,
Lauda Sion Salvatorem for
Corpus Christi, and
Dies Irae for
All Souls and for
Masses for the Dead. Another reform following the Council of Trent was the publication of the 1568
Roman Breviary.
Calendrical studies More celebrations of holidays and similar events raised a need to have these events followed closely throughout the dioceses. But there was a problem with the accuracy of the
calendar: by the sixteenth century the
Julian calendar was almost ten days out of step with the seasons and the heavenly bodies. Among the astronomers who were asked to work on the problem of how the calendar could be reformed was
Nicolaus Copernicus, a canon at
Frombork (Frauenburg). In the dedication to
De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (1543), Copernicus mentioned the reform of the calendar proposed by the
Fifth Council of the Lateran (1512–1517). As he explains, a proper measurement of the length of the year was a necessary foundation to calendar reform. By implication, his work replacing the
Ptolemaic system with a
heliocentric model was prompted in part by the need for calendar reform. An actual new calendar had to wait until the
Gregorian calendar in 1582. At the time of its publication,
De revolutionibus passed with relatively little comment: little more than a mathematical convenience that simplified astronomical references for a more accurate calendar. Physical evidence suggesting Copernicus's theory regarding the earth's motion was literally true promoted the apparent heresy against the religious thought of the time. As a result, during the
Galileo affair,
Galileo Galilei was placed under house arrest, served in Rome,
Siena,
Arcetri, and
Florence, for publishing writings said to be "vehemently suspected of being heretical." His opponents condemned heliocentric theory and temporarily banned its teaching in 1633. Similarly, the
Academia Secretorum Naturae in Naples had been shut down in 1578. As a result of clerical opposition, heliocentricists emigrated from Catholic to Protestant areas, some forming the
Melanchthon Circle. ==Major figures==