Heresy in the Catholic Reformation

7/29/2019 Heresy in the Catholic Reformation

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Janet Tran

Proffer- 2nd

period

AP European History

September 23, 2013

Heresy and the Catholic Reformation

While the Catholic Reformation attempted to reform the Church, the notion of whether

the Reformation suppressed heresy or not depends on the peoples views on the Churchs

actions, the intended and unintended effects of some actions, and attitudes of the prominent

Catholic leaders and rulers adopted during their time.

The actions of the Church can be interpreted in numerous ways. In one point of view, the

Catholic Church may only simply be fixing the abuses and strengthening their religious values to

keep their practices alive. The Council of Trent, for example, only made major reforms

concerning only internal church discipline, therefore only affecting those already in the Catholic

Church and perfecting their doctrine. These reforms, such as the requirement of Bishops to live

and their diocese and preach visibly, do not seem to be of any concern to anyone but the Catholic

Church. The establishing of seminaries and other reforms should only serve to promote the

religious Catholic life for Catholic people. On the other hand, the Catholic Church also resented

the Protestant Reformation for not only taking power from them, but also teaching against their

very own doctrine. For teaching against the Catholic doctrine, Protestants are pretty much

viewed as heretics to the Catholic Church. Even though there was no concrete action to disperse

Protestants, the reforms just mentioned in the Council of Trent, to opposing Protestants and

heretics, may seem like a blunt attack against their own reforms and ideas during the Protestant

reformation such as the reaffirmation of the role of good works in salvation, clerical celibacy,


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and veneration of saints. The Index of Forbidden Books is an obviously apparent act of defense

against non-Catholic ideas, namely any heretical ideas. Interestingly enough, some books and

writings listed in theIndex of Forbidden Books contain Protestant ideas, such as Martin Luthers

95 Theses. According their own views on the Catholic Churchs reforms, many might just

assume the Catholic Church is simply trying to revive its doctrine, while others see it as the

Catholic Churchs attack against the nonbelievers of their doctrine.

The intentions of the Catholic Church may have been pure, while the effects of the

churchs actions may say differently. Some of the actions of the Church started out with

supposedly good and religiously posed intentions, transformed into a larger venture altogether.

The requiring of bishops to preach and discipline religious practices, for example, was probably

just enforced to enliven the religious practices in villages. Consequently, the renewed vigor and

spread of the preaching may have also semi-forced the Catholic religion upon people in many

towns, chasing out any heretical ideas against the church. The Inquisition also served to inflict

unintentional consequences against heretics in the Catholic Reformation. As a religious venture,

the Catholic Church simply wanted to save the souls of numerous people who might have

strayed a bit from church doctrine and enlighten them. What started out to be a harmless

questioning and reaffirming of faith turned into an almost cruel hunt for heretics. Obviously, this

discouraged any heretic ideas throughout the nation and effectively suppressed heresy because of

the fear for the methods of saving their souls the Church would use. If one looks at the

intentions of the Catholic Church, there seems to be little suppression of heresy, but if one looks

at the repercussions and consequences, the Catholic Church seems to oppress and pressure many

heretic ideas and heretics. Of course, some may suspect that the effects were what the Catholic

Church wanted from the very beginning, veiled under pure intentions.


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Obviously, different rulers and major leaders would have different ways of ruling and

guiding. This would definitely cause the attitudes of the Catholic Church to change with time as

the different rulers and popes come and go. The Council of Trent went through four different

popes who had different ideas about what the Catholic should do as a strengthening of doctrine

or a defense against the Protestant Reformation. One of the prominent rulers who sponsored

Catholicism against Protestantism was Emperor Charles the V. He actually urged and forced

Pope Paul III to call the Council of Trent. Even before, Charles V had a vendetta against the

Protestants in the Protestant Reformation and tried almost everything to get them see his Catholic

way such as the Diet of Augsburg. If someone based the Catholic Reformation on what they

thought were Charles Vs ideals in the Catholic Church, they would probably see the Catholic

Reformation as a retaliation against anything or any idea that opposes the Catholic Church,

namely, any heretical ideas. On the other hand, another prominent figure in the Catholic

Reformation would be Ignatius of Loyola, who purely preached the practices of the Catholic

Church. Though his teachings with the Jesuits won back many followers, it does not seem too

many people thought that the Jesuits or Ignatius were particularly out to drive away Protestants

or nonbelievers of the Catholic Church. If someone based the Catholic Reformation on their

views and attitudes, though initially rejecting Protestant ideas, they seem to most likely be

preaching in good faith of the Catholic Church. This pure preaching could have been the reason

why they won back so many followers. So, while some rulers and leaders guided the Catholic

Reformation vigorously against nonbelievers, others simply wanted to preach the good faith.

Documents

Heresy in the Catholic Reformation