In 1521 Martin Luther stood before the Emperor Charles V at the Diet of Worms. In that same year Ignatius Loyala entered convalescence from an injury and soon had a spiritual conversion of sorts. Loyola subsequently formed the Society of Jesus, the greatest single force in Catholicism's campaign to recapture the spiritual domains seized by Protestantism.

While the Catholic Church did not immediately respond to the Protestant challenge, when it finally did it called upon its spiritual warriors, the Jesuits. It convened a new, militant council; and it reformed the machinery of the papal office. Faced by the rebellion of almost half of Europe, Catholicism rolled back the tide of Protestantism until by the end of the sixteenth century Protestantism was limited roughly to the northern third of Europe, as it is today.

Some historians have interpreted the Catholic Reformation as a counterattack against Protestantism; others have described

Bishop of Antioch in the early second century, is apparently the first to use the word "Catholic". Around the turn of the century, he wrote a series of letters speaking habitually of a single bishop (or pastor) in each church, a body of presbyters, and company of deacons.

[tags]BlogRodent, church-history, ChurchRodent, history, Ignatius[/tags]

The Society of Jesus, founded by Ignatius of Loyola, a young Spanish nobleman, the first Superior General of the Jesuits. Was approved by Pope Paul III in A.D. 1540 as a new religious order. Jesuits attempted to live energetically in the world without being of it. The Society of Jesus became the greatest single force in Catholicism's militant campaign to recapture the spiritual domains seized by Protestantism. Became the instrument of the Catholic Church in her "Reformation", or "Counter-Reformation" in the early 1500's. They were to be chivalrous soldiers of Jesus, their mission to convert the heathen and reconvert Protestant Europe. Eventually they became lenient in their priestly roles and made many allowances for sinful human nature, so called "cheap grace."

[tags]BlogRodent, church-history, ChurchRodent, history, Ignatius, Jesuits, Jesus, Pope-Paul-III, Protestantism, Reformation[/tags]

(See Jesuits, see also Ignatius Loyola)

[tags]BlogRodent, church-history, ChurchRodent, history, Ignatius, Jesuits, Society-of-Jesus[/tags]