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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 the Index 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.

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