ABSTRACT
Most historians would probably agree that a Counter-Reformation occurred in most Catholic countries, but few would now think the words an adequate description of the many changes of direction and emphasis in the beliefs and practices of the Catholic Church in the Early Modern centuries. For the term inevitably suggests a reactive movement responding to the different versions of Protestantism and designed to halt their advance-to reverse the triumphs of heresy, to reconquer contested regions of France, Germany and Central Europe, to compensate for the loss of souls in Europe by sweeping missionary campaigns to convert pagans and infidels in overseas countries, to reaffirm Catholic values by insisting on the truth of those dogmas that had been most bitterly attacked. Critics of the concept argue in favour of a much lengthier and less defensive process, best called Catholic reform or restoration, which arose spontaneously in the later Middle Ages and continued throughout the sixteenth century and beyond. It stood, among much else, for a more introspective Christianity founded on meditative prayer and the systematic examination of conscience, for a moral discipline which extended to clergy and laity alike, for a systematic lay piety shaped by participation in confraternities-in societies devoted to ceremony and good works, and designed to encourage people who could not withdraw from everyday life to follow a modified religious rule based on the practice of charity in all senses of the word.
