Catholic Reformation and the Council of Trent

History or Historiographical Myth?

Massimo Firpo
Translated by Richard Bates
Collana: Viella History, Art and Humanities Collection, 14
Pubblicazione: Luglio 2023
Wishlist Wishlist Wishlist
Edizione cartacea
pp. 188, 15,5x23 cm, hardback
ISBN: 9791254693841
€ 32,00 -5% € 30,40
Aggiungi al carrello Aggiungi al carrello € 30,40

What were the salient features of the reaction launched by the Catholic Church in the 16th century in response to the dramatic crisis of the Protestant Reformation? And which historical terms best define it? Scholars have spoken of Catholic Restoration, Catholic Reformation and Counter-Reformation with varying success, often interpreting these concepts as alternatives and at times looking to draw a difficult synthesis between them.

This book examines the historiography of the so-called Catholic Reformation and its aporias, focusing on the stunted and sometimes non-existent application of the decrees issued by the Council of Trent even a century after its end. This, however, did not prevent the creation of a myth of the Tridentine council as the genesis of a profound and widespread religious renewal, even though it encountered more obstacles than support in Rome. It also explains the ongoing validity of the concept of Counter-Reformation, which should be understood as the constant opposition of the Roman curia to any authentic Catholic Reformation.

  • Introduction
  • I. The Historiographical Problem
    • 1. History and Apologetics
      • 1. Hubert Jedin: Catholic Reformation or Counter-Reformation?
      • 2. The reform of the Church and the Council of Trent
      • 3. The crisis of Jedin’s model
    • 2. Anglo-American Historiography and Catholic Reformation
      • 1. Towards a new apologetics
      • 2. An unresolved crux: heresy at the summit of the Church
      • 3. John O’Malley and “early modern Catholicism”
  • II. The “Tridentine Paradigm” Between the 16th and 17th Centuries
    • 3. Church Reform and Council Decrees
      • 1. “Streams”: Catholic Reformation before Trent
      • 2. Old and new religious orders
      • 3. Tridentine reform
      • 4. Papal approval and the Council’s “goblin spirit”
    • 4. Myth and Reality of the Reforms
      • 1. North-eastern Italy
      • 2. From Piedmont to Central Italy
      • 3. Naples and the South
      • 4. Calabria
    • 5. Conclusion
      • 1. Resistance and failure
      • 2. Post-Tridentine disciplining?
  • Index of Names

Cover illustration: Taddeo Zuccari, Paul III opens the Council of Trent (1561-1563). Caprarola, Palazzo Farnese, Hall of the Council of Trent.

Massimo Firpo

Massimo Firpo, membro dell’Accademia dei Lincei, ha insegnato Storia moderna presso le Università di Cagliari e Torino e infine presso la Scuola Normale di Pisa. Le sue ricerche si sono concentrate soprattutto sulla vita religiosa del XVI secolo, con particolare attenzione ai movimenti eterodossi e radicali. Tra le sue ultime pubblicazioni ricordiamo; L’eretico che salvò la Chiesa: il cardinale Giovanni Morone e le origini della Controriforma (Einaudi, 2019) e, con Guillaume Alonge, Il “Beneficio di Cristo” e l’eresia italiana del ’500 (Laterza, 2022). Nel 2020 ha pubblicato in inglese per i nostri tipi Pontormo’s Frescos in San Lorenzo. Heresy, Politics and Culture in the Florence of Cosimo I (ed. orig. Einaudi, 1997).

Massimo Firpo, a member of the Accademia dei Lincei, taught Modern History at the Universities of Cagliari and Turin and then at the Scuola Normale in Pisa. His research has focused above all on religious life in the 16th century, and particularly on heterodox and radical movements. His recent publications include the following: L’eretico che salvò la Chiesa: il cardinale Giovanni Morone e le origini della Controriforma (Einaudi, 2019) and, together with Guillaume Alonge, Il “Beneficio di Cristo” e l’eresia italiana del ’500 (Laterza, 2022). In 2020 he published Pontormo's Frescos in San Lorenzo: Heresy, Politics and Culture in the Florence of Cosimo I (orig. ed. Einaudi, 1997) in English with Viella.

Forse ti interessa anche