This is the assignment page for the topic "Catholic Revival" for J. B. Owens's sections of the lower-division undergraduate course, History 101, Foundation of Western Civilization. The sole purpose of this page and all of the pages linked to it is to provide an orientation for those students enrolled in History 101.

Catholic Revival

ID: Desiderius Erasmus (1466-1536), Francisco Jiménez [Ximénez] de Cisneros [Castile] (d. 1517) [Franciscan Order, Archbishop of Toledo, Inquisition (1478), University of Alcalá de Henares ("Polyglot Bible")], Pope Paul III (r. 1534-1549) [Farnese], Consilium ... de Emendanda Ecclesia (March, 1537; 1538), canon law, Ignatius Loyola (1491-1556) [Society of Jesus, Jesuits], Papal Inquisition (July 1542) [Gian Pietro Caraffa (Pope Paul IV, r. 1555-1559)], Council of Trent (1545-1563), Index of Prohibited Books, Charles Borromeo (1538-1584) [Archbishop of Milan], seminaries, Tridentine Church

  1. Why did Erasmus break with Martin Luther's assault on the abuses of authority by ecclesiastical leaders?
  2. Why was the Roman Catholic Church able to meet the Protestant challenge (1500-1650) and deny the new churches control over most of Europe?
  3. Why was the monastic order founded by Ignatius of Loyola such an important part of the Catholic Reformation?
  4. How did Loyola's conception of the spiritual value of obedience to superiors related to the monastic tradition of asceticism and mysticism?
  5. In what ways was the Roman Catholic Church able to reform itself in the 16th century?
  6. Why did Catholic reform leaders believe that the key to improving the Church was the improvement of the performance of bishops?
  7. Why were the religious divisions of the Reformation period so important for the development of a distinctive European identity?


Owens, chapter 15; Kishlansky, pp. 273-278.

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Revised: 29 May 2006