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• Counter Reformation
  Counter Reformation

  noun

  the movement within the Roman Catholic Church that followed the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century.
• Counter-Reformation
  Counter-Reformation

  noun

  the reform movement of the Roman Catholic Church in the 16th and early 17th centuries considered as a reaction to the Protestant Reformation

Counter Reformation

American  

noun

1. the movement within the Roman Catholic Church that followed the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century.

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Counter-Reformation British  

/ ˌkaʊntəˌrɛfəˈmeɪʃən /

noun

1. the reform movement of the Roman Catholic Church in the 16th and early 17th centuries considered as a reaction to the Protestant Reformation

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Counter Reformation ¹ Cultural  

1. The reaction of the Roman Catholic Church to the Reformation. The chief aims of the Counter Reformation were to increase faith among church members, get rid of some of the abuses to which the leaders of the Reformation objected, and affirm some of the principles rejected by the Protestant churches, such as veneration of the saints and acceptance of the authority of the pope. Many Jesuits were leaders of the Counter Reformation.

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Counter Reformation ² Cultural  

1. The reaction of the Roman Catholic Church to the Reformation. The chief aims of the Counter Reformation were to increase faith among church members, end many of the abuses to which the leaders of the Reformation objected, and affirm some of the principles rejected by the Protestant churches, such as veneration of the saints and acceptance of the authority of the pope. Many Jesuits were leaders of the Counter Reformation.

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

Counter Reformation Counter-Reformation

Historians once referred to it as the Counter Reformation.

From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2012

A jewel-box city over the Tagus river, Toledo was also a center of the Counter Reformation, which sought to mobilize the faithful and harden the lines of Roman Catholic dogma.

From Time Magazine Archive

The 1648 Peace of Westphalia, he points out, by strengthening the Protestant North, checked the Counter Reformation and "ended the reign of theology over the European mind," leaving faith "naked to rationalist winds."

From Time Magazine Archive

Said Canadian Father Gregory Baum, a council theologian: "This day will go down in history as the end of the Counter Reformation."

From Time Magazine Archive

Still another agency of the Counter Reformation consisted of the Inquisition.

From Early European History by Webster, Hutton

However, Chávez-Bárcenas said the technique has always been controversial, with the best known policies against it coming during the Counter-Reformation.

From Seattle Times ● Apr. 26, 2024

“Sudden Death” proposes the devastations of the Counter-Reformation and the conquest of Mexico as both cause and image of our violent present, similarly devastated by globalization and the ruthlessness of financiers rather than popes.

From Washington Post ● Apr. 1, 2016

Another European, an archbishop who led many of the intolerant persecutions of the Counter-Reformation, is blamed for having destroyed "in a single generation the medical knowledge accumulated over thousands of years in central Mexico."

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 5, 2016

Along with this — as in the work of many Counter-Reformation painters, like Caravaggio — came a zest for mystical subject matter: visions, conversions, martyrdoms and miracles.

From New York Times ● Dec. 27, 2013

What Protestant and Counter-Reformation reforms meant, more or less whoever you were, was a simplifying of church music so that the words could be heard more clearly.

From "The Story of Music" by Howard Goodall