Zhong Wen: The opponents of the Reformation eventually formed the Jesuit order under the leadership of the Roman Catholic Church.

The spread and expansion of the Protestant Reformation throughout Europe severely weakened the power of the Catholic Church. Yet within just one generation, by the mid-16th century, Lutheranism had become dominant in central and northern Germany, as well as parts of Northern and Eastern Europe; Calvinism became widespread in Switzerland, the Netherlands, England, France, and parts of southwestern Germany.

Bo Ya: To reverse this decline, the Catholic Church launched a series of “Counter-Reformation” efforts—tightening internal reform and opposing Protestantism. Similar to the Kuomintang’s “party purge” or the Communist Party’s “rectification campaigns,” the Catholic hierarchy, whose authority had declined since the time of Alexander VI, had become infamous for luxury, corruption, and moral decay. Yet popes such as Julius II (1503–1513) and Leo X (1513–1521) embodied a dual and contradictory nature: on the one hand privileged, indulgent, and determined to suppress the Reformation; on the other hand also attempting reform within the Church. Pope Leo X, seeking to ease tensions, reduced Church taxes, encouraged agriculture by draining marshlands, banned monopolies and price-gouging in Rome, sought to control food prices, and improved urban management and transportation.

Zhong Wen: Pope Paul III (1534–1549), in order to save the Church from crisis, intensified reform efforts and strengthened the suppression of Protestantism. He vigorously attacked corruption within the clergy, punished those who were negligent or violated Church law, stopped the sale of indulgences, and strengthened oversight without further raising clerical salaries.

He promoted reform-minded figures such as Contarini, Caraffa, and Sadoleto to the College of Cardinals, forming with others the “Committee of Nine” to review Church abuses and propose reform measures in an effort to restore credibility. The members agreed on the need for administrative and moral reform, though their methods differed: Contarini favored conciliatory policies toward Protestants, while Caraffa insisted on strict repression.

In 1536 Paul III issued a bull attempting reconciliation and convened a council in Mantua in 1537, authorizing the selection of cardinals to form a special commission to investigate abuses. That autumn the commission submitted a report documenting widespread incompetence, laziness, excessive stipends, and corruption among bishops and priests, stressing the urgent need for thorough reform.

In 1537, upon arriving in Rome, Ignatius of Loyola and his companions—unable to travel to Jerusalem because of war—devoted themselves to helping souls in a war-torn Italy. Their growing reputation led the pope to remark that “their Holy Land is not David’s Jerusalem but Peter’s Rome,” and Loyola accepted the proposal to formalize the group as a religious order: the Society of Jesus. The name “Jesuits” did not appear until 1544.

After its founding, the Jesuit order devoted itself to elevating Christian life and faith among believers. Through public preaching, spiritual exercises, charitable works, and especially the education of children and the illiterate, they aimed to “help souls,” embodying Loyola’s ideal of finding and following the Lord in all things. Loyola not only sought a new balance between contemplation and action but also greatly expanded the order’s social and geographic reach. Although originally limited to sixty members by papal decree, the order grew rapidly—to nearly one thousand members at Loyola’s death, and far beyond thereafter.

Bo Ya: Although not founded expressly to counter the Reformation, the Jesuits possessed both talent and dedication—and they always appeared at the right moment in the right place. Their organizational efficiency and close relationship with the papacy made them the sharpest weapon in the Catholic revival and Counter-Reformation.

Zhong Wen: Invited by civil and ecclesiastical authorities, and guided by the educational philosophy of the Jesuit educator Jerónimo Nadal—expressed in the Messina Plan and later the Ratio Studiorum—Jesuit educational activities expanded energetically throughout the Catholic world.

Across Europe, the Jesuits operated 39 schools before 1556, nearly 300 by 1607, and 669 by the mid-18th century. These institutions played an immeasurable role in nurturing piety and loyalty within the Catholic world.

Guided by Loyola’s ideals of “for the greater glory of God” and “helping souls,” one of the order’s founders, Francis Xavier (1506–1552), soon sailed to Portuguese Goa, initiating the Jesuit missionary movement overseas. Later Jesuit missionaries to China—such as Matteo Ricci, Ferdinand Verbiest, and Johann Adam Schall von Bell—followed in this tradition. Through them, Western knowledge spread across the world.

Bo Ya: As the Catholic Church adapted itself to a changing world, its overseas missions helped shape the emerging global order. Through evangelization in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, Catholicism became a worldwide religion with profound historical impact.

Zhong Wen: Indeed, the Protestant Reformation spurred the Catholic Church to renew itself. Today most major Christian denominations have restored a “brother church” relationship with the Catholic Church, no longer condemning each other as heretical or demonic. The Reformation not only broke the papacy’s monopoly but also drove the Catholic Church to self-reflection and renewal.

For example, Charles V (1500–1558), Holy Roman Emperor, fiercely opposed the Reformation. In 1521 he summoned Martin Luther to the Diet of Worms to present his views. Luther declared publicly that he would retract nothing unless proven wrong by Scripture. The Church branded him a heretic and criminal, ordering him to leave within three days and return home within three weeks—thus beginning a permanent break with Rome.

Bo Ya: Imagine if Charles V had executed Luther—just as if Chiang Kai-shek had decisively executed Mao Zedong—history would have been fundamentally different.

Zhong Wen: But history cannot be rewritten. In 1527 Charles V sacked Rome because Pope Clement VII had joined an anti-Habsburg alliance with Francis I of France.

Many saw this as divine punishment for the Church’s moral collapse. Even as Charles V fought Protestantism, he urged reform within the Catholic Church.

In 1552, after military setbacks, he signed the Peace of Augsburg with the Protestant princes, recognizing the legal status of Lutheranism.

Bo Ya: The rise of Protestantism forced the Catholic Church to confront its own corruption. Internally, it demanded stricter discipline and higher moral standards for the clergy; externally, it strengthened measures to resist Protestant expansion. This Catholic self-reform is known as the Counter-Reformation—aimed at restoring doctrinal authority and eliminating internal abuses.

Zhong Wen: The Council of Trent (1545–1563), held in Trento under Habsburg jurisdiction, became the landmark event of this era.

Meeting in three sessions over eighteen years, the council sought both to resist Protestantism by clarifying doctrine and to reform abuses, restoring discipline and reorganizing clerical education. It affirmed the theology of Thomas Aquinas, strengthened moral standards, condemned Protestantism as heresy, confirmed papal supremacy, mandated strict obedience to Church regulations, created the Index of Forbidden Books, and expanded universities and seminaries to train qualified clergy.

Bo Ya: This was the context in which the Jesuit order emerged.

Zhong Wen: Yes. After the Council of Trent, the Jesuits became the spearhead of Catholic renewal. Formally approved in 1540, the order believed—under Loyola’s leadership—that the Church’s decline resulted from clerical corruption, and renewal must begin with personal transformation. Their two major contributions were education and overseas missions.

In education, the Jesuits founded the Roman College in 1551—one of the world’s greatest educational institutions—training both clergy and laypeople. Modeled on military discipline, Jesuit formation was long and rigorous: two years of novitiate, including thirty days of spiritual exercises; vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience; years of advanced studies in theology, languages, law, history, medicine, and the sciences; mastery of Latin, Greek or Hebrew, and major European vernaculars; missionary or teaching assignments; and strict examinations before full membership.

Bo Ya: Such rigorous training—with harsh screening—ensured that only those fit for the life remained. This helped prevent the large-scale abuse scandals that would plague the modern Catholic Church, which destroyed much of its moral authority.

Zhong Wen: By the late 16th century, the Jesuits operated over a hundred institutions across Europe. In the 17th century they educated many young people free of charge. Their alumni—deeply learned, morally disciplined, and intellectually broad—became influential in religion, politics, and culture: Descartes, Voltaire, Pasteur, and even Michelangelo were associated with Jesuit education. Jesuits also emphasized the arts, charity, and social welfare.

Overseas, the Jesuits sensed an urgent missionary calling during the Age of Discovery. They mastered many languages and learned Eastern languages when evangelizing in Asia. Their missions spread across India, China, Japan, Korea, the Philippines, and beyond.

Bo Ya: Jesuit missions in China began in the late Ming dynasty and lasted more than 400 years—over two centuries earlier than the Protestant missionary Robert Morrison. By 1950, when the last Jesuits were expelled, 913 Jesuits had served in China, about one-fifth of their overseas missionaries. They built over 500 churches and established major educational institutions such as Zhendan University in Shanghai (1903) and Tianjin Industrial and Commercial College (1922). Beijing’s Xishiku Cathedral also belongs to the Jesuit legacy.

Zhong Wen: Before entering China, Jesuits studied Chinese culture in depth. They recognized the cultural chasm between East and West: Catholics regard the pope as God’s representative, while the Chinese see the emperor as the Son of Heaven. Therefore, evangelization required imperial acceptance. Jesuits entered China as scholars and scientists, admired for their knowledge. Many Chinese literati believed that Chinese reverence for Heaven and Western belief in God could converge into a restoration of ancient moral truths—thus the terms “Chinese scholars” and “Western scholars.”

Bo Ya: The Jesuits’ courage, intelligence, and character were remarkable. Yet they did not successfully spread the doctrine of the “one true God” across China. Their accommodation of ancestor worship led to the Chinese Rites Controversy, and in 1773 the papacy dissolved the Jesuit order. By then 472 Jesuit missionaries had served in China for 190 years.

Zhong Wen: Returning to our initial topic: the Catholic Church’s renewal was ultimately recognized by Protestants—but this was nearly five centuries after Martin Luther’s Reformation, spanning the entire rise and fall of colonialism. In 1999 the Catholic Church and the Lutheran World Federation signed the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification, affirming that salvation comes from Christ’s redemption, not human merit. Thus today many Protestant churches and the Catholic Church recognize each other as brothers in Christ.

Bo Ya: Tragically, both Catholic and Protestant churches, after five hundred years of brutal conflict, badly damaged their own credibility—leading to the decline of traditional religion itself.