ABSTRACT
Throughout its long existence the Catholic Church has always shown a considerable capacity to purge itself. Long before the Reformation frequent demands for reform had been heard. Church reform was always aimed at the restoration of old values and relationships which, in the eyes of those in favour of reform, had been lost or were in danger of being lost. But the attempts at reformation that became apparent in the tenth and eleventh centuries differed in one essential respect from earlier offensives, such as those made under Charlemagne and Louis the Pious. They had always been aimed at improving the morals of individuals: of the monks and lay clergy, to begin with, and then of ordinary laypeople too. The reformers of the tenth and eleventh centuries still considered this an important aim, but in addition they proposed drastic alterations to 'the mystical body of Christ', the Church as an institute.
