Reformation Ideas Spread and
The Catholic Counters the Reformation

Directions: Please follow these step by step instructions.

1. Watch the PowerPoint Presentation on the Catholic Counter Reformation and take notes.

2. Then watch the video clip on the Spanish Inquisition.

3. Next listen to or read about widespread persecution in Europe.

4. Finally, complete the mapping activity in the quiz.

The Lesson

The Inquisition

To deal with the "Protestant threat" more assertively, Pope Paul strengthened the Inquisition. As you have read, the Inquisition was a Church court set up during the Middle Ages. The Inquisition used secret testimony, torture, and execution to root out heresy (belief or opinion contrary to orthodox religious doctrine). Below is a funny look at the Spanish Inquisition from Monty Python. The point is to show how unfair the Inquisition was to accused heretics.

Widespread Persecution

During this period of heightened religious passion, persecution was widespread. Both Catholic s and Protestants fostered intolerance. Catholic mobs attacked and killed Protestants. Protestants killed Catholic priests and vandalized Catholic churches. Both Catholics and Protestant persecuted radical sects like the Anabaptist. The Anabaptist were attacked for the following reasons:

They sought to abolish private property.
Some used violent means to expedite the coming of God's day of judgement.
Others were peaceful and called for religious tolerance.
Some advocated for the separation of Church and State.

Many Anabaptist beliefs influenced Protestant ideology in various countries. Today, the Baptists, Quakers, Mennonites and the Amish all trace their ancestry to the Anabaptist.

Because this was such a tumultuous time, both Christians and Protestants faced injustices within their own sects. Between 1450 and 1750, many men and women were killed for being witches. No one knows for sure why this occurred but scholars offer the following factors:

At the time, many people believed in magic and spirits.
During times of trouble, people often look for scapegoats.
Many of the victims lived in areas that were experiencing great religious conflict.
Often, social outcasts - beggars, poor widows, midwives, or herbalists were targeted the most.

Left: This is a contemporary sketch of 3 women examined in the Belvoir trial.

Jews and the Reformation

The Reformation yielded hard times for European Jews. For many Italian Jews, the early Renaissance had generated relative prosperity. Unlike Spain, which had expelled its Jews in 1492, Italy allowed Jews to remain. Some Jews followed the traditional trades they had been restricted to in medieval times. They were goldsmiths, artists, traders, and moneylenders. Others expanded into medicine, law, government, and business. Still, pressure remained strong for Jews to convert. By 1516, Venice ordered Jews to live in a separate quarter of the city, which became known as a ghetto. Other Italian cities also forced Jews into walled ghettos.

During the Reformation, restrictions on Jews increased. At first, Luther hoped that Jews would be converted to his teachings. However, when they did not convert, he called for them to be expelled from Christian lands and for their synagogues and books to be burned. In time, some German princes began to expel Jews. Others confined Jews to ghettos, requiring them to wear a yellow badge if they traveled outside.

In the 1550s, Pope Paul IV placed added restrictions on Jews. Even Emperor Charles V, who supported toleration of Jews in the Holy Roman Empire, banned them from Spanish colonies in the Americas. After 1550, many Jews migrated to Poland-Lithuania and to parts of the Ottoman empire, where they were permitted to prosper. Dutch Calvinists allowed Jewish families who were driven out of Portugal and Spain to settle in the Netherlands.