Key Turning Points – Catholic Reformation 1500 -
1600
Fifth
Lateran Council (1512 -1517)
This
was a serious attempt to address the problem of clerical education and
discipline. Often considered as the first sign of commitment towards reform.
Despite the Roman Catholic Church being corrupt at the time, they were still
committed to the reform process.
Sack
of Rome (1517)
The
affect of this was to localise the crisis within the church. It served to bring
the problems facing the church to the forefront of the papacy’s concerns.
Making reform urgent.
Paul
III’s commissioning of the Consilium de Emendenda Ecclesia (1535)
This
was part of the papacy’s programme of seizing the spiritual, political and
ideological initiative from the growing Protestant threat. This served as a
moment of self-realisation for the Papacy. As the Vatican for the first time
realised its inadequacies as an institution and for the first time were
attempting to rectify the situation. As a result they sought to resolve these
issues through reform. (Read more after Break)
The
Council of Trent (1545 - 1565)
First
and foremost the Council of Trent was driven towards consolidating and
developing upon existing reform, regarding the church’s doctrine and dogma. The
Council also gave the Catholic Church a strict agenda to work towards in order
to seize back the spiritual, political and ideological initiative back from the
conservatives.
Peace
of Augsburg (1555)
For
the first time in the history of the Holy Roman Empire, the Peace of Augsburg
gave European prince’s the right to choose what their state’s religion would
be- either to continue with Catholicism or convert to Protestantism. The
significance of Augsburg was that it gave rulers within the Holy Roman Empire
great power, allowing them to focus on their state’s interests – Land, Money
and Taxes. The calling of the Peace of Augsburg was justified by the Catholic
Church because they believed that once countries that were leaning towards
Protestantism had converted, they could start to focus their resources towards
reform on the remaining Catholic states. However, this decision also served to
make Protestantism a permanent fixture/feature on the European map, as they now
had an established power base in the form of those who chose to convert their
nation to Protestantism.
The Peace of Augsburg
was highly significant turning point for the papacy, because once lands had
converted to Protestantism, they were more or less permanently lost to any form
of redemption. Furthermore the Peace of Augsburg gave Protestantism political
legitimacy, in the form of the ruling classes who chose to convert to it. Most
significantly the Peace of Augsburg served to consolidate areas of both
Protestantism and Catholicism, so that the Catholic Church, as previously
outline, could focus on the remaining states.