Connecticut College Digital Commons @ Connecticut College History Faculty Publications History Department Winter 1991 (Review) Catholic Reform: From Cardinal Ximenes to the Council of Trent, 1495-1563 Marc R. Forster Connecticut College, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.conncoll.edu/histfacpub Part of the European History Commons, and the History of Religion Commons Recommended Citation Forster, Marc R. "Catholic Reform: From Cardinal Ximenes To The ouncC il Of Trent, 1495-1563." Sixteenth Century Journal 22.4 (1991): 854-856. Web. This Book Review is brought to you for free and open access by the History Department at Digital Commons @ Connecticut College. It has been accepted for inclusion in History Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ Connecticut College. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The views expressed in this paper are solely those of the author. (Review) Catholic Reform: From Cardinal Ximenes to the Council of Trent, 1495-1563 Keywords Catholic, reformation Comments Initially published in Sixteenth Century Journal, 22 no 4 Wint 1991, p 854-856. © 1991 by Sixteenth Century Journal Publishers http://www.jstor.org/stable/2542444 This book review is available at Digital Commons @ Connecticut College: http://digitalcommons.conncoll.edu/histfacpub/14 Catholic Reform. From Cardinal Ximenes to the Council of Trent, 1494-1563. by John C. Olin Review by: Marc R. Forster The Sixteenth Century Journal, Vol. 22, No. 4 (Winter, 1991), pp. 854-856 Published by: The Sixteenth Century Journal Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2542444 . Accessed: 04/02/2013 11:58 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. The Sixteenth Century Journal is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Sixteenth Century Journal. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded on Mon, 4 Feb 2013 11:58:13 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 854 The SixteenthCentury Journal XXII no. 4 / 1991 on female monarchsappearing in the drama of Giraldi Cinzio are two cases in point. Others are short and thinlysupported, with the resultthat the reader is eitherleft unconvinced or aching for greaterdevelopment because of inadequate summaryof some complex topic. This is evident in Helge Gamrath'sstudy of Ferrara'scontribution to the historyof urbanplanning, in JornMoestrup's review of recentstudies of Ariosto,and in Neils MartinJensen's article on musicin Ferrara duringthe reignsof two of its laterdukes, Ercole II and AlfonsoII. Still, the book will be interestingand usefulto many,based upon the theses and contentof severalof thestudies. Marianne Pade providedan excellentexamination of Guarino's readingand use of Caesar, in a mannerthat challengessome recent work on the humanisteducator, like that of Graftonand Jardine.Two studies, Cesare Vasoli's articleon FrancescoPatrizi and the "end of Italian leadershipin humanistphilosophy and poetics," and Lene Waage Petersen'sstructural analysis of the use of irony in OrlandoFurioso, in all probabilitygenerated some lively discussionat theconference. Adriano Prosperi contributed what is, from my perspective, the most interestingof the articles,on definitionsof heresycirculating at Ferrara in the contextof the marriageof Ercole II and Renata of France in 1528, and the considerablehospitality she offeredduring her life to persons of questionable orthodoxy.The mostinteresting cocktail and dinnerconversations at the conference undoubtedlyfocused around two topics,each of which was the subjectof a separate study.Iain Fenlonand ThomasWalker examined the importance of musicalpatronage and productionat Ferrara,with Walker urginga shiftof attentionto this court, ratherthan to the Medici in Florence,when investigatingthe originsand early developmentof opera. KristenLippincott and HannemarieRagn Jensen reconsidered the interpretationof the Palazzo Schifanoiafrescoes, and specificallywho, motivated by what interest,might have been the moving forcebehind the project. Part of the purpose of the conference,and of this volume, is to encourage additionalresearch. This pointis nicelyand succinctlyput by Werner Gundersheimer in the final contribution.With the city's new Institutefor Renaissance Studies alreadyin place, and scholarlywork like thatpresented here as a precedent,pursuit of the ecclesiasticaland latercinquecento topics Gundersheimer urges, should bear substantialfruit and contributeconsiderably to the understandingof Ferrarain the Renaissance. William V. Hudon ................... Bloomsburg University Catholic Reform. From Cardinal Ximenes to the Council of Trent, 1494-1563. John C. Olin. New York: Fordham UniversityPress, 1990. 152 pp. $35.00. Historiansof theCatholic Church in thesixteenth century have struggled to rescueCatholic reform from the shadowof the ProtestantReformation. This volume,which includes a longessay on Catholicreform, a collection of illustrative documents,and a shortessay on IgnatiusLoyola, is anothercontribution to this endeavor.Olin, however,goes beyond arguing that efforts to reformthe Catholic Churchwere more than a reactionto theProtestant challenge. According to Olin, This content downloaded on Mon, 4 Feb 2013 11:58:13 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Book Reviews 855 Catholic reform,"Despite its diversity. ., had an inner unityand coherence, and despite the difficultiesthat beset it, it may be said to have followed an identifiableand progressivecourse." (35) Olin's opening essay guides the readerthrough this process. He identifiesthe various strandswithin the movementto reformthe Church. These included the effortsof humanistslike Ximenes and Erasmus,who soughtto reformsociety and the Church by a returnto scripture.A more individualisticand activistspirituality, especiallyas promotedby the Oratoriesof Divine Love, the Theatines, and the Capuchins,developed in Italyalready before the Reformation. Olin's focus,however, is on the effortsof reformersat the highestlevels of the Church,like Gian Matteo Giberti(Bishop of Verona), Cardinal Gasparo Contarini,Gian Pietro Carafa (the organizerof the Roman Inquisitionand later Pope Paul IV), and IgnatiusLoyola, the founderof the Jesuits. This diversegroup (Contarinitook a conciliatorytone towardthe Protestants butCarafa was fanaticallyanti-Protestant), which produced the Conciliumde emendanda ecclesiain 1537, a documentthat attackedthe whole range of clerical abuses that plagued the pre-TridentineChurch. Indeed, Olin sees this reportas the beginning of a "constructivemovement" (21) thatled eventuallyto the decreesof the Council of Trent. From the late 1530s, the papacy moved, albeit slowly, to reformthe Church.Unlike somehistorians, who see thepapacy favoring hierarchy and centralism overspontaneous reform, Olin views the papal leadershipas essentialfor the success of Catholic reform. Catholic reformcoalesced at the Council of Trent. In a sense this follows logicallyfrom Olin's emphasison "reformfrom above." While he downplaysthe extentto which the theological decreesof the Council were a defensivereaction to Protestant"innovation," Olin correctlyemphasizes the significanceof theCouncil's reformdecrees. These decreeswent a long way towardreestablishing the centrality of the pastoralwork of the clergyand, in the long-run,transformed the Church. Trent,then, was the culminationof the long processof Catholic reform,a process which Olin characterizesas having "a markedpersonal and pastoralorientation." (35). Olin effectivelyand accuratelyillustrates the vitalityand varietyof Catholic reformin the sixteenthcentury. Furthermore, he dispels, if that is any longer necessary,the mythof the rigid, defensive,and unresponsiveCatholic Church. Olin is less persuasivein showing that Catholic reformwas unifiedand coherent. A reform"program" of a kind did develop in Rome in the 1540s, but the long and oftenbitter conflicts that marred the Council of Trent,point up the continued divisionswithin the Catholic ranks.National and regionalvarieties of Catholicism, and stubbornresistance to reformby traditionalistpopulations and entrenched Church institutions,all remainedimportant both beforeand afterTrent. As Olin himselfrecognizes, the coherenceof Tridentinereform came not so much froma consensuswithin the Church as fromthe victoryof a groupof reformersbased in Italy and receivingpapal support. Despite these reservations,this volume is both stimulatingand useful. The collection of documentsallows the nonspecialistand the studentto examine the sourcesof Olin's argument.The readermay findthat the documents,which range This content downloaded on Mon, 4 Feb 2013 11:58:13 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 856 The SixteenthCentury Journal XXII no. 4 / 1991 fromCardinal Ximenes' Dedicatory Prologue to theComplutensian Polygot Bible (1517) to the ReformDecrees of Trent(1563), convincehim of theimportance andvariety of Catholicreform, rather than of itscoherence and unity. Marc R. Forster ........................ ConnecticutCollege Roman Canon Law in Reformation