Catholicism

Of course, King Henry VIII and Martin Luther were instrumental in the formation of the Protestant churches. This would not necessarily change the parent, Catholic Church but it did, in a way they could not have anticipated.

Prior to the Reformation, the Catholic Church had a spiritual monopoly in western Europe and could demand absolute allegiance. The creation of new and sustainable Churches protected by powerful kings and princes changed all this. There was no longer a universal monopoly, and the Catholic Church had to adapt to the new reality, which it did at an astonishingly slow pace.

The Catholic Church still held a spiritual monopoly in countries where Catholicism was the major faith, and it continued to exercise that monopoly. As recently as 1864, Pius IX published the Syllabus of Errors, stating that where Catholics are in the minority, they have the right to public worship, but where others faiths are in the minority, they have no right to public worship because only the true faith has the right to public worship.

Finally, in 1965, the Church came to the realisation that it would no longer be possible to force all people to believe and practise the one faith, even where Catholicism was the majority faith. The Second Vatican Council pronounced the right of all to religious liberty, recognising their right to worship in whatever way they wished. Almost five hundred years after the time of Henry VIII and Luther, the change was complete.

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from the Catholic Encyclopedia

The term Counter-Reformation denotes the period of Catholic revival from the pontificate of Pope Pius IV in 1560 to the close of the Thirty Years' War, 1648. The name, though long in use among Protestant historians, has only recently been introduced into Catholic handbooks. The consequence is that it already has a meaning and an application, for which a word with a different nuance should perhaps have been chosen. For in the first place the name suggests that the Catholic movement came after the Protestant; whereas in truth the reform originally began in the Catholic Church, and Luther was a Catholic Reformer before he became a Protestant. By becoming a Protestant Reformer, he did indeed hinder the progress of the Catholic reformation, but he did not stop it.

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 1980A 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.

There were (and are) abuses of power by the Catholic church, such as the selling of indulgences and immorality on the part of the church hierarchy.

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from

Radio Replies, by Fathers Rumble and Carty, 1942

221 The power of Romanism was shattered by Martin Luther, of immortal memory.

Martin Luther is undoubtedly an outstanding figure in history. But the immortal memory of Luther will become less and less pleasant as the facts concerning him become known. Those who idealize Luther can do so only by ignoring an immense amount of inconvenient information. He was a priest of the Catholic Church, but one who was not faithful to his obligations even as a Christian. On his own admissions he was a victim of both immorality and drunkenness; and he was the most intolerant of men. Far from granting liberty of conscience, he refused to allow anyone to think differently from himself, and coolly said, "Whoever teaches otherwise than I teach is a child of hell."

Medieval nuns, like monks, followed the strict Liturgy or sequence of services. These were based on the Bible's assertion that a man ought to pray seven times a day, plus once in the night. This meant getting up for the night service and then returning to bed, getting up again for the first service of the day.

It is important to realise that time was seen very differently before mechanical clocks were invented; there was no accurate way of telling time, so all of the daily services were held at approximately the following times (which could vary in different nunneries and monasteries and at different times of year):

2 am: Matins, often combined with Lauds

6 am: Prime

9 am: Terce

12 noon: Sext

3 pm: Nones

6 pm: Vespers

8 pm: Compline

Nuns and monks went to bed in complete silence straight after Compline was finished. In between these Holy Offices were the daily Chapter meeting (around 7 am), the two daily Masses, meals, time spent reading or studying and time spent working at different tasks.

In theory the day was split equally between study, work and prayer, but in fact prayer took up the largest portion of a nun's time.

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Another answer from our community:

. Martin Luther's primary "gripe" with the Catholic Church was that the Church was holding him accountable for his moral behavior. In addition, M. Luther, supposedly, was a priest in the Augustinian Order. For an Augustinian priest, he was remarkably ignorant of his faith and his theology. Martin Luther objected to his vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, and proceeded to leave his monastery without permission, and to break every one of his vows, without bothering to even ask for a dispensation from his solemnly professed vows. Martin Luther had many, many problems, and he blamed the Church for all of them. For a complete discussion of his "gripes" please get the book The Facts About Luther, by Patrick O'Hare:

During the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, some popes, bishops, and priests were corrupt and some were not. That changed for the most part with the Counter Reformation. Although the Catholic Church did not adopt Calvin's Institutes, the leaders of the council made the reforms he demanded in that book. That ended the overt corruption. Corruption will remain in any organization with human leadership.

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The Catholic church is the Mystical Body of Christ. It is His church, it is His Body, He is the head, we are the members. By its very definition, it can not be corrupt. However, as with the parable of the weeds and the tares, God has decreed that the evil ones are to be left to be judged by Him, and by Him alone, so that there are evil and corrupt people in the church all through the ages. Nevertheless, this does not affect its holiness or purity, as that is guaranteed by Jesus who said, "Behold, I shall be with you until the end of time."

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Some people thought that worshiping idols (such as a statue) was wrong, but others thought that it was ok. So they performed a schism (a split).

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

The Schism of the East the estrangement and severance from the Holy See of what is now called the Orthodox Eastern Church was a gradual process extending over centuries. After a number of minor schisms the first serious, though short, break was that of Photius; from then on tension between East and West increased, and the schism of Cerularius occurred in 1054. From then on the breach gradually widened and has been definitive since 1472. There was a formal union from the 2nd Council of Lyons in 1274 until 1282, and a more promising one after the Council of Florence from 1439 to 1472. After the capture of Constantinople it was in the Turkish interest to reopen and widen the breach with the powerful Roman church; the patriarchates of Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem were dragged into this policy, Russia and the Slav churches stood out the longest of any: none of these churches, except Constantinople itself in 1472, formally and definitely broke away from the unity of the Church. But in the course of centuries the schism has set and crystallized into a definite separation from the Holy See of many million people with a true priesthood and valid sacraments. The origins, causes and development of the schism are matters of much complication, still not fully unraveled.