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Line 1: − Much attention was given the role of the parish priest who became much more important as he ministered to the social and cultural needs of the parish. A modernized administrative system was designed to help the priest to get to know all his parishioners individually and support them. He became responsible for registering baptisms and marriages, house visits, annual Easter confession and communion, and intensive confirmation classes.+ + + − The Counter Reformation began in 1560 and end in 1648 with the conclusion of the [[Thirty Years' War]] between Catholic and Protestants. Some defining moments were the creation of the [[Jesuits]] and the convening of the [[Council of Trent]]. In the end the Protestant break was permanent and positions adopted or reaffirmed by the Catholic Church had a tendency to define the differences, but did little to mend them.+ Line 16:
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The '''Counter Reformation''' (about 1560 to around 1610 or as late as 1648 for some historians) was a partially successful effort by the [[Roman Catholic Church]] to roll back the [[Protestant Reformation]]. Using new agencies like the [[Jesuits]], and removing much of the corruption and complaints that had weakened the Church and given the Reformers many arguments, the Church managed to hold or reclaim most of Southern and Eastern Europe, including Spain, Italy, Austria and France, and large parts of Poland, Hungary and Germany. By strengthening Catholic theology and reducing objectionable practices, it hoped to either reabsorb or neutralize the Protestant movement while renewing the faith of the Catholic Church.
The '''Counter Reformation''' (about 1560 to around 1610 or as late as 1648 for some historians) was a partially successful effort by the [[Roman Catholic Church]] to roll back the [[Protestant Reformation]]. Using new agencies like the [[Jesuits]], and removing much of the corruption and complaints that had weakened the Church and given the Reformers many arguments, the Church managed to hold or reclaim most of Southern and Eastern Europe, including Spain, Italy, Austria and France, and large parts of Poland, Hungary and Germany. By strengthening Catholic theology and reducing objectionable practices, it hoped to either reabsorb or neutralize the Protestant movement while renewing the faith of the Catholic Church.
The Counter Reformation began in 1560 and end in 1648 with the conclusion of the [[Thirty Years' War]] between Catholic and Protestants. Some defining moments were the creation of the [[Jesuits]] and the convening of the [[Council of Trent]]. In the end the Protestant break was permanent and positions adopted or reaffirmed by the Catholic Church had a tendency to define the differences, but did little to mend them.
===Local impact==
The Church paid great attention to the role of the parish priest who became much more important as he ministered to the social and cultural needs of the parish. A modernized administrative system was designed to help the priest to get to know all his parishioners individually and support them. He became responsible for registering baptisms and marriages, house visits, annual Easter confession and communion, and intensive confirmation classes.
Reacting against the eroticism of the Renaissance, the Counter Reformation preached chastity and defined strictly what types of sexual behavior were acceptable, even within marriage. Some medical doctors linked sexual immorality to physical illness. Several, for example, held that illicit sexuality caused tuberculosis.
===Jesuits===
===Jesuits===
The Jesuits fostered traditional beliefs and practices associated with saints, relics, and sacramentals and used exorcisms and visions for didactic and proselytizing purposes. They tried to purge popular piety of its "superstitious" elements.
The Jesuits fostered traditional beliefs and practices associated with saints, relics, and sacramentals and used exorcisms and visions for didactic and proselytizing purposes. They tried to purge popular piety of its "superstitious" elements.
The cult of Our Lady of Guadalupe in colonial Mexico supported and aided the Counter-Reformation by preaching and the deployment of an associated iconography. By focusing on the importance of the miraculous apparition, Church elites, intellectuals, theologians, preachers, and artists succeeded in communicating certain ideals responding to specific religious and cultural projects of the crown and the Church in New Spain.
The cult of Our Lady of Guadalupe in colonial Mexico supported and aided the Counter-Reformation by preaching and the deployment of an associated iconography. By focusing on the importance of the miraculous apparition, Church elites, intellectuals, theologians, preachers, and artists succeeded in communicating certain ideals responding to specific religious and cultural projects of the crown and the Church in New Spain.
===German states===
===German states===
From 1621 the Upper Palatinate underwent recatholization. The Church used recently discovered relics of the Catacomb saints in Rome; the relics were sent to germany in large quantities to replenish the depleted stock of local relics. Such relics were used to help reconsecrate altars and provided objects of veneration. They also quickly became the focus of miracles, particularly the curing of illness or injury, thus filling the local voids left by the loss of pre-Reformation saints during the period of Protestant rule.
====Witchcraft====
====Witchcraft====
Friedrich Förner, a principal architect of the Counter-Reformation in Germany, is famous for his 1626 treatise on witchcraft, ''Panoplia Armaturae Dei.'' Taking a historical perspective, he argued the simultaneous rise of witchcraft and Calvinism represented the final stage in the devil's assault on Christianity. With the defeat of the Calvinist heresy in the first stages of the Thirty Years War, in desperation the devil had employed witches in a last-ditch effort to destroy the Catholic faith. Förner's reconstruction of ecclesiastical history provided the ideological justification for the final assault on witchcraft, culminating in the many trials of the 1620s and 1630s.<ref>Wm. Bradford Smith, "Friedrich Förner, The Catholic Reformation, and Witch-Hunting in Bamberg," ''Sixteenth Century Journal'' 2005 36(1): 115-128 </ref>
Friedrich Förner, a principal architect of the Counter-Reformation in Germany, is famous for his 1626 treatise on witchcraft, ''Panoplia Armaturae Dei.'' Taking a historical perspective, he argued the simultaneous rise of witchcraft and Calvinism represented the final stage in the devil's assault on Christianity. With the defeat of the Calvinist heresy in the first stages of the Thirty Years War, in desperation the devil had employed witches in a last-ditch effort to destroy the Catholic faith. Förner's reconstruction of ecclesiastical history provided the ideological justification for the final assault on witchcraft, culminating in the many trials of the 1620s and 1630s.<ref>Wm. Bradford Smith, "Friedrich Förner, The Catholic Reformation, and Witch-Hunting in Bamberg," ''Sixteenth Century Journal'' 2005 36(1): 115-128 </ref>