Dividing of Christendom by Christopher Dawson

Author:Christopher Dawson [Dawson, Christopher]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Spiritual & Religion
ISBN: 9781586172381
Published: 2016-01-05T16:00:00+00:00

VIII

THE COUNCIL OF TRENT AND

THE RISE OF THE JESUITS

AT LAST we come to the Catholic side of the story. It is a highly controversial subject. For centuries scholars and theologians have debated the causes and effects of the Reformation, and even among Catholics there have been wide differences of opinion. In the past it was the generally accepted view that the Reformation was followed by a reaction, known as the “Counter-Reformation”, when the Catholic Church put its house in order again and launched a counteroffensive, led by the Jesuits, which reconquered much of the ground that had been lost. Recent Catholic historians, however, such as Professor Janelle and L. Christiani, have opposed this view on the ground that the Catholic Revival had already begun before the Protestant revolt and was not a reaction against it but an independent movement that had its roots in the past and followed its own path of development.

It is true that the spiritual state of Catholicism was by no means so degenerate as has been generally maintained by the Protestant historians of the period. There were a number of movements of spiritual revival in Italy and Spain, especially at the end of the 15th century and the beginning of the 16th, and saints like St. Catherine of Genoa (1477-1501) had a deep influence on the religious life of the time, and in the North too the Benedictine reformer and mystic Louis de Blois (1506-1566), a compatriot and contemporary of Calvin, continued the highest traditions of medieval spirituality.

But this does not alter the fact that the hierarchy and the government of the Church were in a state of grave disorder and had failed again and again to find a remedy for the worst abuses or to make provision for the most urgent needs of the time. The Papacy had become involved in the complicated game of Italian power politics and was primarily concerned with the creation of an independent principality. The bishops throughout Northern Europe were equally involved in national politics, whether as ministers of the crown in France and England and Burgundy, or as independent secular princes, as in Germany. Everywhere the Church was bowed down by the weight of her possessions, which no longer served spiritual ends but were used by kings and popes to endow their relatives or reward their servants. In consequence, the Church became more and more secularized, both as being involved in secular business and being governed by men with secular aims and ambitions. Everyone recognized the existence of these evils and everyone demanded their reform. But so many vested interests were involved and so many legal precedents, privileges and exemptions existed that every attempt at reform was frustrated again and again.

During the 15th century the idea of reform by General Council had become odious to the Papacy owing to the antipapal attitude of the great councils at Constance and Basel, and consequently Rome had preferred to deal directly with the secular power over the heads of the episcopate by the system of concordats.

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