Update Twenty

II: Rome Fights Back

i: Introduction

With a violent push, Protestantism had thrust itself upon Europe and the Roman Church. In a series of bloody battles, the Protestants had captured vast areas once under Roman rule, threatening to overrun the Church in Rome. Though outnumbered, the Protestants had fought well and secured themselves in places of power. There seemed to be no turning back from this world order, but Rome would try. Interestingly, none of the Reformers held beliefs that were explicitly against Roman doctrine. Many points of the Reformation, which included indulgences, justification, the clergy, authority, sacraments, and particularly corruption, only interfered with tradition that as of yet was not written down as a decree or a dogma by councils. Some high placed Catholics did indeed agree with much Protestant teaching. Yet the freedom the Protestants took to express this was seen as deadly to the Church. And so set in motion was a way to turn back Protestant gains and to make them heretics. The Church had the resources to fight this war. Implementation was what was needed. And this was not slow in coming.

ii: Spanish Reforms

The Church in Rome had a great object lesson for their move to eradicate the Reformers. This lesson was that of Spain. Spain had gone through the steps that the Church of Rome saw as necessary to reassert itself in Europe. Early in the seventh and eighth century Spain was overrun by the advancing Muslim Armies. If not for Charles Martel this force would have continued its march throughout all of Europe, conquering the last stronghold of Christianity left in the world. Failing in conquest to the North, the Islamic forces set up kingdoms throughout Spain. For hundreds of years they ruled over the Iberian Peninsula excepting only the small Christian kingdom of Aragon in the North. Then in the twelfth century the forces of the Christian kingdoms closest to Spain joined forces to begin the Reconquesta, the retaking of Spain. Beginning slowly, the war really began in the fifteenth century, ending when the kingdoms of Castille and Aragon joined together in the persons Isabella and Ferdinand, who would finish driving the last Muslims out of the Kingdom of Grenada in 1492, coinciding with Columbus’ famous voyage. With this alliance the new unified Spanish kingdom was born, under the banner of the Hapsburg family, which would long be the most powerful nation of Europe as well as being the strongest supporter of Rome even to this day. In the wake of the Reconquesta came one of the most brutal of inquisitions, the Spanish Inquisition. Receiving authority for an inquisition the Spanish authorities set about the killing of hundreds of thousands of Muslims, Jews, and heretics who had not responded to the order to leave the land of Spain. This reign of terror lasted centuries and successfully pacified all of Spain, a country that had been ruled for centuries by Muslims. It became the success story of the Crusades and the Church’s felt mission at that time. Spain was the example for the Church to follow to vanquish all heretics and to spread across the world. But the power the Church wielded in Spain soon turned to corruption, as power so often does. It fell to the same depths as all its brother nations and may have suffered the reformations of the rest Europe if not for its leaders’ foresight. Isabella and Ferdinand started to enforce the morality of the Church on itself using Cardinal Ximenes as their instrument. To go along with this crushing of corruption the Spanish Inquisition destroyed any ideas not strictly orthodox as the Roman Church saw it, never letting any stray ideas the chance to live. With these precautions no reformation shook Spain and it was able to provide vast armies for the Papacy in the coming religious wars. Rome saw these attempts and in 1552 the short reigned Pope Adrian VI attempted to mimic the Spanish reforms, but he was unable to budge the many interests of the Church which lay within the secular realm. Still, Spain would last as the successful story the Church of Rome must follow to defeat the Protestants. The Spanish had done it and Rome would follow suit to regain order.

iii: The Society of Jesus

Coinciding with the increasing push for reform and the progress of the Protestants was the founding of the greatest and most powerful order within the Roman Church, the Society of Jesus known more commonly as the Jesuits. The Jesuits were a group formed by Ignatius Loyola. Loyola was born in the late fifteenth century to noble parents. His desire was always to be great. Initially this led him to the Spanish Army were he quickly became a distinguished warrior. At the height of his career he was wounded in the leg and forced to end his soldiering career. Leaving this his desire was to become a saint. To this end he began an incredibly ascetic monk lifestyle. In this desire he underwent a similar experience as Luther, eventually throwing himself wholly on the mercy of God. He followed this up by taking a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. On returning he set about learning theology, now being thirty years of age. In this effort he came to realize the need of the Church to have a learned, disciplined group of military-like teachers and evangelists. To this end he gathered around him some close friends and took a vow to work out their lives in Palestine, or barring that to seek the guidance of the Pope. Since wars in the East prevented them from going to Palestine. Heading to Rome, by 1540, the Society of Jesus was officially recognized by the Pope. They took upon themselves the three ordinary vows of an order, the vow of poverty, the vow of chastity, and the vow of obedience. Upon this Loyola added one more, one out of his military background. All Jesuits must take a vow of absolute and unhesitating obedience to the Pope. This blind obedience to the Pope, and for the members to those higher than themselves in the order, made the order very powerful. A network of spies made sure that the order was kept as set up, seeing as the head of the order had absolute authority over those below him. They were released from normal obligations such as special dress and routines. They quickly became the most educated order, setting up many free schools that are known to this day. Their power lay in that all members were to follow all Church tradition and doctrine as divine law. One example of Loyola is his saying (if true), ‘If the Church pronounces a thing which seems to us white to be black, we must immediately say it is black.” The absolute power in the order led quickly to corruption, but not before they showed the Roman Church a way to launch a counter-reformation and paved the way for the Council of Trent which would agree with many of their ideas.

iv: The Roman Inquisition

Following the success of the Spanish Inquisition and with the influence of the Jesuits, Rome set up the new Roman Inquisition in 1542. The Pope set out an official Papal Bull establishing the Holy Office of the Inquisition the first and only permanent Inquisition (renamed the Congregation for the Doctrines on the Faith in 1965 which was presided over by the Cardinal Josef Ratzinger before he became Pope Benedict XVI). With the new tools of the Roman Inquisition and the Society of Jesus the Roman Church went on attempt to regain its position in Protestant lands. The formation of the Inquisition marked the beginning of the Church fully taking a violent stance against the Protestants not using the veil of secular leaders. Peace had finally come to the secular nations but now the Church was beginning to turn on its own engines of war. And a war it started would not be a light thing. It would devastate Europe worse than any previous war.