The Religious Reformations of the Sixteenth Century 267earned her the historical nickname “Bloody Mary.”
When her sister, Elizabeth, succeeded her in 1558 she
was able to restore a moderate Protestantism leavened
by virtual tolerance for all who would acknowledge the
royal supremacy. The Elizabethan Settlement, as it is
called, was the foundation on which modern Anglican-
ism would be built after years of effort and struggle.
The Catholic Reformation
Not all reformations of the sixteenth century were anti-
Catholic. The church transformed itself as well in a
movement that is sometimes called the Counter Refor-
mation, but not all reforms undertaken by Catholics in
the sixteenth century were a response to the challenge
of the reformers. Cardinal Francisco Jiménez de Cis-
neros had begun to reform the church in Spain long be-
fore Luther nailed his Ninety-Five Theses to the church
door, and similar changes were introduced in France by
Cardinal Georges d’Amboise between 1501 and his
death in 1510. Even Wolsey had attempted to reform
the English monasteries during the 1520s. The impetus
behind these reforms arguably came from the secular
authorities and were largely directed toward the revival
of monastic life. However, each of these cardinals re-
ceived broad legatine authority from several popes, and
monastic reform was a central issue in the late medieval
church.
Moreover, the reform of existing orders and the
creation of new ones was often undertaken without sec-
ular involvement. The Theatines, confirmed by the
pope in 1524, were an outgrowth of the Oratory of Di-
vine Love whose origins date to 1494. The Barnabites
(1533–35), Somaschi (1540), and the Capuchins, an or-
der of reformed Franciscans, were all voluntary associa-
tions of churchmen pledged to the ideal of monastic
reform. The female counterpart of the Capuchins was
founded by Maria Laurentia Longo (d. 1542), and in
1535 Angela Merici (c. 1473–1540) founded the Ursu-
lines, an order that would play a decisive role in the ed-
ucation of Catholic women for centuries. None of these
foundations was related in any way to the Protestant
threat. Most popes regarded the proliferation of reli-
gious orders with suspicion. Their rivalries had long
been a fruitful source of trouble, and most reform-
minded clerics believed in consolidation rather than in
new confirmations.
Of all the religious orders founded or reformed
during the sixteenth century, the Society of Jesus, or Je-
suits, played the largest part in the struggle against
Protestantism, but they had been created for other pur-
poses. Their founder, Ignatius of Loyola (1491–1556),
was originally inspired by the idea of converting the
Muslims. After a long period of educational and reli-
gious development that produced The Spiritual Exercises,a
manual of meditation that remains the foundation of Je-
suit discipline, he and nine companions formed their
order in 1534. Their asceticism, vigor, and vow of
unconditional obedience to the pope led to their con-
firmation in 1540.
Though the order did little to convert the Muslims,
it achieved moderate success in Asia under the leader-
ship of St. Francis Xavier (1506–52). In Europe, the
Jesuits became the intellectual shock troops of the
Counter Reformation. Their high standards in recruit-
ment and education made them natural leaders to re-
convert areas of Europe that had deserted to
Protestantism. Jesuit missions helped to restore a
Catholic majority in regions as diverse as Bavaria and
Poland. An important means of achieving this was
through education. Jesuit academies combining human-
ist educational principles with religious instruction
spread through the subcontinent after 1555 and served
much the same purpose for men that the Ursuline acad-
emies served for women.
Efforts of this sort were essentially spontaneous,
arising from reform-minded elements within the
church, but the papacy itself was not idle. Reform was
difficult if not impossible until the ghost of conciliarism
was laid to rest, and for this reason the popes pro-
ceeded with great caution. Clement VII, besieged by
the mutinous troops of Charles V and the demands of
Henry VIII, accomplished little. Paul III (reigned
1534–49) at first sought reconciliation by appointing a
commission to investigate abuses within the church. Its
report, a detailed analysis with recommendations for
change, caused great embarrassment when the contents
leaked to the public. Then an attempt to negotiate a
settlement with the Lutherans broke down at the Re-
gensburg Colloquy in 1541. These failures encouraged
a policy of repression, and in 1542 the Roman Inquisi-
tion was revived under the direction of Gian Pietro
Caraffa, an implacable conservative and one of the
founders of the Theatine order. Later, as Pope Paul IV
(served 1555–59), Caraffa would conduct a veritable
reign of terror against those whom he regarded as cor-
rupt or heretical. To protect the faithful from intellec-
tual contamination, he also established the celebrated
Index Librorum Prohibitorum,an ever-expanding list of
books that Catholics were forbidden to read.
Repression alone could not solve the problems of
the church. In spite of the obvious danger to papal