Counter-Reformation (religious history. Alternate titles: Catholic Reformation; Catholic Revival Counter-Reformation, also called Catholic Reformation, or Catholic Revival, in the history of Christianity, the Roman Catholic efforts directed in the 16th and early 17th centuries both against the Protestant Reformation and toward internal renewal; the Counter-Reformation took place during roughly the same period as the Protestant Reformation, actually (according to some sources) beginning shortly before Martin Luther’s act of nailing the Ninety-Five Theses to the church door (1517).
Early calls for reform grew out of criticism of the worldly attitudes and policies of the Renaissance popes and many of the clergy. New religious orders and other groups ... (100 of 552 words) Define counterreformation - Bing DICTIONARY. Counter-Reformation. The Counter-Reformation was a movement within the Catholic Church to reform itself in the wake of the Protestant Reformation.
The term, "Counter-Reformation," was still unknown in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and was coined later by non-Catholic historians to denote a Catholic reaction to the Reformation. Thus, it carries a defensive and even negative tone. In the twentieth century, therefore, an alternative term, "Catholic Reformation," was used by scholars such as John C. Olin to assert the independent origins of spiritual and ecclesiastical reform in the pre-Tridentine era as a movement from which emerged two active, much more visible, yet separate, movements: Protestant and Catholic Reformations.[1] Counter-Reformation. A copy of the Vulgate (the Latin edition of the Catholic Bible) printed in 1590, after many of the Council's reforms had begun to take place in Catholic worship.
The Counter-Reformation (also the Catholic Revival[1] or Catholic Reformation) was the period of Catholic revival beginning with the Council of Trent (1545–1563) and ending at the close of the Thirty Years' War (1648), and was initiated in response to the Protestant Reformation. The Counter-Reformation was a comprehensive effort composed of four major elements: Ecclesiastical or structural reconfigurationReligious ordersSpiritual movementsPolitical dimensions Council of Trent[edit]