Counter-Reformation
This is the movement posed by the Roman Catholic Church to counteract the Reformation. The Counter-Reformation has only been discussed since 1870. The concept has penetrated into the English, German, French, and Italian languages. Roman Catholic historians employed the word initially, not in connection with shying away from the violent action of the Inquisition. At any rate, Counter-Reformation is a generally accepted concept.
On the Roman Catholic side, the Counter-Reformation is considered as a consequence of the Catholic reform. In the latter case, one should consider that the church requires constant focus upon inner renewal to realize the Catholic ideal of life. As far as the Counter-Reformation is concerned, the Church had to maintain these in the struggle against Protestantism. The Council of Trent (1546-1563) occupies an important place in the history of the Counter-Reformation. It was, on one hand, preoccupied with the renewal of the church, but on the other hand, the various decisions reached that take the doctrine and eccclesiastical practice concern setting themselves against the Reformation again.
The Counter-Reformation can be considered narrowly as a historical movement that originated around 1555. The Roman Catholic authorities, orders (see also Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the order of the Jesuits), and bishops united themselves with the goal of as much as possible to maintain what they had and to regain what they had lost, even with violence ifnecessary. In that context, the Inquisition did play a role.
The Counter-Reformation was especially successful in Italy, Spain, and France, but results were hardly achieved in Germany and the Netherlands because the Thirty Years War and Eighty Years War ended with the Peace of Westphalia (1648).
The Counter-Reformation had an influence upon the fields of literature (mysticism), education (Canisius), architecture and the visual arts (baroque).
Dr. W. de Greef in Christelijke Encyclopedie, (Kampen, 2005).
