What benefits if any did the revolt against the Catholic Church lead to for Catholicism?

Answer 1

Catholic Answer

The Catholic reform, known to protestants and seculars as the "counter-reformation" was a movement that actually started before the protestant revolt. One of its major findings was that the clergy were receiving a *really* poor education, Martin Luther being a prime example of such, and he was a professor of theology! So one of the big results was the establishment of the seminary system, which is still used today, which has required all priests to be educated in philosophy and theology primarily from St. Thomas Aquinas. Most of the impetus for it was found in the documents of the Council of Trent.

The canons and decrees of the sacred and oecumenical Council of Trent,
Ed. and trans. J. Waterworth (London: Dolman, 1848): https://history.hanover.edu/texts/trent.html

from A Catholic Dictionary, edited by Donald Attwater, Second edition, revised 1957

The Counter-Reformation is the name given to the Catholic movement of reform and activity which lasted for about one hundred years from the beginning of the Council of Trent (q.v., 1545), and was the belated answer to the threatening confusion and increasing attacks of the previous years. It was the work principally of the Popes St. Pius V and Gregory XIII and the Council itself in the sphere of authority, of SS. Philip Neri and Charles Borromeo in the reform of the clergy and of life, of St. Ignatius and the Jesuits in apostolic activity of St. Francis Xavier in foreign missions, and of St. Teresa in the purely contemplative life which lies behind them all. But these were not the only names nor was it a movement of a few only; the whole Church emerged from the 15th century purified and revivified. On the other hand, it was a reformation rather than a restoration; the unity of western Christendom was destroyed; the Church militant (those still on earth) led by the Company of Jesus adopted offence as the best means of defence and, though she gained as much as she lost in some sense, the Church did not recover the exercise of her former spiritual supremacy in actuality.

from Modern Catholic Dictionary by John A. Hardon, S.J. Doubleday & Co., Inc. Garden City, NY 1980

A period of Catholic revival from 1522 to about 1648, better know as the Catholic Reform. It was an effort to stem the tide of Protestantism by genuine reform within the Catholic Church. There were political movements pressured by civil rules, and ecclesiastical movements carried out by churchmen in an attempt to restore genuine Catholic life by establishing new religious orders such as the Society of Jesus and restoring old orders to their original observances, such as the Carmelites under St. Teresa of Avila (1515-98). The main factors responsible for the Counter Reformation, however, were the papacy and the council of Trent (1545-63). Among church leaders St. Charles Borromeo (1538-84), Archbishop of Milan, enforced the reforms decreed by the council, and St. Francis de Sales of Geneva (1567-1622) spent his best energies in restoring genuine Catholic doctrine and piety. Among civil rulers sponsoring the needed reform were Philip II of Spain (1527-98) and Mary Tudor (1516-58), his wife, in England. Unfortunately this aspect of the reformation led to embitterment between England and Scotland, England and Spain, Poland and Sweden, and to almost two centuries of religious wars. As a result of the Counter Reformation, the Catholic Church became stronger in her institutional structure, more dedicated to the work of evangelization, and more influential in world affairs.

Answer 2

Pope Paul III set up a special committee, to prepare a report which it presented to the Pope in February 1537. Vivian Green (A New History of Christianity) says it was a strongly worded document which did not mince words in accounting for the sickness of the Church, and it made radical proposals to 'restore the Church of Christ, which was crumbling down, nay had almost fallen in headlong ruin'.
On 6 June 1542 Pope Paul III convoked a council to meet at Trent where after long delays the first session opened in December 1545. Although the council did not formulate any new doctrine, it redefined traditional teaching and improved the training of the clergy. In more practical terms, the council was determined to rid the Church of the abuses which had crippled its efficiency and even stunted its faith. Priests were to be strictly celibate and if they were living in concubinage, they were to put away their concubines immediately on pain of being deprived of a living. However, neither nepotism nor pluralism could be fully eliminated, even at the papal curia.