HIS109Y1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 12: Spiritual Exercises Of Ignatius Of Loyola, Good Works
Ibraheem Aziz Oct 26/2015
HIS109Y – L0101 Lec 12
The Wars of Religion
• All Reforatio leaders elieed that state should otrol all aspets of a itize’s life
• Machiavelli counselled that nothing should stand in the way of the needs of the state
• Needs of the state was seen as the most important
• After the events of the Reformation, idea of criminal behaviour for reasons of state (raisons
d’états) ega to appear
o State has the right to do anything they want
o All constitutional liberties could be suspended by the representatives of sovereignty
• Catholic Church had lost revenues and followers – had to stem the outflow from the Church
• Roman Church used secular principles of a powerful, centralized monarchy determined to stop
the Protestant growth
• Pope Paul III began the Council of Trent (1545-63) to address the problems of the church and
the courses of action that could be taken
o Reaffirm points that Protestant leaders opposed
o Free will was endorsed
o Good works played a role in salvation
o Ritual of religion was reaffirmed
• In 1542, the Roman Inquisition was established
o Belieed that a idiidual’s thoughts ere iportat ut had to e approed
o Index of forbidden books – until 1966, Roman Catholics were told what they could and
could not read. Possessing forbidden books warranted severe penalties
o Printing press helped to spread the Reformation
o Mahiaelli’s ooks ere o the list, as ere Desartes’
o Identified a uniquely Catholic belief
• Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556) founded the Jesuits and grew up in a militaristic environment
o Had an 8-day vision in which he saw the shape of the Jesuit order
o His book The Spiritual Exercises was a training manual for Christian propagation
o Loyola organized the Reformation around: preaching, teaching, and missionary activity
o This was intended to win back Protestants and convert people in New World
o Loyola took a humanist curriculum that helped to reinforce Catholic belief
o Schools were designed that elite believers of Catholicism would be able to continue
teaching individuals
• This period led to the need to enforce a single religion and this led to brutal, vicious warfare
• Seemed that Philip II (1556-98) was destined to control western Europe
• Hostility to England was understandable – had been married to Mary I and was once its king
• Revolt of the Netherlands against Spain represents one of the first successful popular revolts
against a foreign ruler – religion was a significant catalyst in this issue
• Philip II decided that he would stem the flow of Calvinism into Netherlands – brought the Jesuits
in to fight back
• The Dutch were oppressed and suffered at the hands of the Spanish
• Spanish eventually gave up at reforming the Dutch
• 7 Dutch provinces united under William of Orange (d. 1584) against Spanish Hapsburg rule
• Calvinism was adopted by the mercantile and lesser elite in France
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