Long before the Protestant revolt,[1] serious-minded Catholic men and women were convinced that the Catholic Church needed to be thoroughly reformed. Not the Catholic religion, as the Protestants maintained, but the people who professed that religion, required reformation. “Men must be changed by Religion,” as one of the champions of true reform remarked, “not Religion by men.”
Reformation of the Church in her visible head and in her members, this was the first part of the Catholic program of reform. The spread of error by the religious innovators, who attacked the Divine Constitution of the Church and many of her fundamental doctrines, imposed upon the Catholic leaders the duty of setting forth in unmistakable and authoritative terms the true doctrines of Christianity contained in Scripture and Tradition. It is yet another great proof for the divine origin and guidance of the Church than the fact that she not only survived the great apostasy of the 16th century but emerged from the conflict rejuvenated and prepared to meet new ones.[2]
European Nations in Union with the Church Respond
In Rome, priests and laymen founded the “Oratory of Divine Love.” Their purpose was to labor for their own sanctification and that of their friends and acquaintances. They held meetings in a little church and gave themselves up to works of charity. The guiding spirit of this pious company was St. Cajetan of Tiene (1480-1547). Filled with the spirit of St. Francis of Assisi, he wrote: “I see Christ poor and myself rich; I see Him despised and myself honored; I want to draw a step nearer to Him and have therefore resolved to rid myself of all that I still possess.” In 1523 Cajetan founded the Congregation of Regular Clerks, known as Theatines. John Peter Carafa, Bishop of Theate and later Pope Paul IV, was its first Superior-General. The new Order set itself the task of recalling the clergy to an edifying life and the laity to the practice of virtue. Despite its severe rule, it developed rapidly and was a powerful agency for true reform in Italy and in every country of Europe.[3]
Spain’s rise to world-power was of paramount importance for the history of the Church at this crucial time. If the Protestant revolt in Germany was brought to a halt, this was due in the first place to the King of Spain, who as Charles V succeeded his grandfather Maximilian I to the Imperial Crown. Spain was the cradle of the Religious Order which was to become the chief instrument of reform – the Society of Jesus. Spain was also home to the discalced Carmelites of St. Teresa of Avila and St. John of the Cross. Both of these orders were instrumental in effectively repelling the inroads of Protestant “spirituality” and theological heresies. The colonial policy of Spain (and of her sister-kingdom, Portugal) brought the Church face to face with an entirely new problem – the evangelization of the pagans in every quarter of the globe.[4]
The reign of Clement VII marks the passing of the Renaissance. With Pope Paul III (1534-1549) a new era in the history of the Papacy begins. Although his early life had not been beyond reproach, and his pontificate was not free from the blemish of nepotism, Pope Paul III saw the necessity of a prompt and efficacious reform of the Church. He began by reforming the Papal Court. He opened the portals of the Sacred College of Cardinals to men of solid learning and unblemished morals, to John Fisher of Rochester, who by his martyr-blood was to give back to the red hat and cassock of the cardinal their deeper meaning. Though Paul III’s attempt to call a General Council was unsuccessful, he did reform the Roman Court by blessing and favoring with his protection the newly-established Orders of Theatines, Capuchins, Barnabites, Ursulines, and Jesuits; he helped to prepare the men and women who were to form the shock-troops of the Church’s spiritual army.[5]
By Their Fruits, You Will Know Them
Of the many new religious congregations founded in the time of the Church’s direst need, the most illustrious was the Society of Jesus. By the “Spiritual Exercises” of its founder, St. Ignatius of Loyola, the Church was enriched with a new and most excellent method for the guidance of souls. In the field of modern education, the sons of Ignatius were pioneers par excellence; and in the propagation of the faith, they blazed a trail which missionaries have followed ever since.[6]
During the closing years of the 15th century, daring European sailors had discovered and explored vast countries in the South, the East, and the West. The Portuguese, who had sailed south along the western coast of Africa, rounded the Cape of Good Hope in 1487 and, ten years later, under Vasco da Gama, reached India. The Spaniards, under Christopher Columbus, sailing west, had already touched the portals of the New World.
A new task thus confronted the Church: the evangelization of the heathen inhabitants of the newly discovered continents. In America and Africa, it was mainly primitive peoples that had to be Christianized and civilized; in East Asia the Gospel had to be brought to nations that had already reached a high level of culture.[7]
Jesus’ parting words to His disciples were: “Going therefore, teach ye all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you” (Mt 28:19-20). This is exactly what the Franciscans, Dominicans, and Jesuits did; they went to the newly discovered, but not yet conquered, territories of the East and the New World.
The East had already developed sophisticated societies and cultures with their own established religions of Confucianism, Buddhism and Shinto, which made the work of the missionaries more complicated. They were successful in their efforts as Japan had nearly 200,000 Christians when a 1587 prescription was declared by a Buddhist monk to eradicate them. The shoguns carried this out for decades, beginning in 1597 at Nagasaki. The missionaries had done their work well, for in 1865 the Christians of Japan let themselves be known to a priest in Nagasaki. The Faith was kept alive via verbal instruction, baptism, and matrimony.[8]
Tertullian’s declaration that the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church (Apologeticus, L. 13) was proven true again as the Faith grew in the East and the Americas. Missionaries were very aware of the dangers they would face, and that torture and martyrdom could well be awaiting them. And yet they persisted for the True Faith and never wavered in dogma but persisted in confronting the sinister errors of Protestantism while saving pagan souls.
ENDNOTES:
[1] Luther’s chief errors are contained in the following propositions: (1) There is no supreme teaching power in the Church. (2) The temporal sovereign has supreme power in matters ecclesiastical. (3) There are no priests. (4) All that is to be believed is in the Bible. (5) Each one may interpret Holy Scripture as he likes. (6) Faith alone saves, good works are superfluous. (7) Man lost his free will by original sin. (8) There are no saints, no Christian sacrifice, no sacrament of Confession, and no purgatory.
Following are some significant excerpts from Luther’s writings and lectures, as compared with the teachings of Our Lord Jesus Christ: https://acatholiclife.blogspot.com/2006/07/whats-wrong-with-martin-luther.html
[2] Laux, Rev. Fr. John. Church History: A History of the Catholic Church to 1940 (TAN Books. Kindle Edition), Section III, Chapter IV, The Catholic Reaction and Revival: Nature and Scope of the Catholic Reformation.
[3] Ibid., The Catholic Reaction and Revival: The End of the Roman Renaissance.
[4] Ibid., The Catholic Reaction and Revival: Spain Rises to World Power and Promotes the Catholic Reform Movement.
[5] Ibid., The Catholic Reaction and Revival: Paul III Reforms the Papal Court.
[6] Ibid., The Catholic Reaction and Revival: St. Ignatius of Loyola Founds the Society of Jesus.
[7] Ibid., The Catholic Reaction and Revival: Missionaries in the Wake of the Discoverers in the Far East.
[8] A Timeline of Christianity in Japan: Nippon.com