ABSTRACT
In this chapter we shall consider the implementation of Catholic reform in Italy, France and the Netherlands in the early modern period. We shall be particularly concerned with the integration of reformed Catholicism with cultures, and especially with popular culture, and also with the question of the adaptation of the reinvigorated Catholicism that had been devised in the course of the sixteenth century (in the forms we have considered in Chapters 2, 3 and 4) to national and regional traditions and identities and to vernacular cultures. A running theme is the relationship between Roman centralisation and standardisation in Catholic practice and a pull in the opposite direction towards adaptation to the requirements, conditions and traditions of particular areas and cultures. We shall also consider reconciliation between popular demands for the continuance of therapeutic and magic-centred religion and the spiritualising, anti-magical trends and opposition to local religion found in Tridentine Catholicity, especially amongst the upper and seminary-trained clergy. The first ‘nation’ we shall investigate, Italy, was not a nation at all, and for that reason will provide us with information on the way in which the application of Catholic reform took close account of regional varieties in culture and politics.
