The term Counter-Reformation suggests that the Catholic movement began after the Protestant Reformation, whereas in truth the reform originally began in the Roman Catholic Church, and Luther was a Catholic reformer before he became a Protestant. Although there are certain dates assigned for the beginning and end of the Catholic Reformation, there has never been a break in the striving of the Church against the heresies that arose in the sixteenth century. But there was a time when there was heroism on a large scale, when whole classes, including new religious orders and episcopates, were filled with enthusiasm; when martyrs were numerous; when great writers, preachers, and leaders abounded; when education was attended from the highest motives and with the greatest interest; when the old duties of life were discharged with an alertness, a faith, a meaning which were new; when for a time Catholic rulers and whole states rose superior to consideration of self-interest. Roman Catholics reformed through stately popes and the Council of Trent, the beginnings of new religious orders, and the renewed Inquisition and the index of prohibited books.
The popes are as a rule, and from the nature of their position, extremely conservati
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