Catholic Reformation
&
Jesuits

The Catholic Reformation was the effort of the late 1500s and 1600s to reform the Catholic Church from within, also called the Counter-Reformation. During this time, Catholic Reformation leaders worked to strengthen the Catholic Church and to stop the spread of Protestantism in Europe. Many of the Catholic Reformation leaders came from Southern Europe, especially from Spain. The Spain rulers, nobles and clergy defended the Catholic Church and they have been fighting to make Catholicism their only religion in their kingdom for hundreds of years. The Jesuits were a religious order created to serve the pope and the church. In 1534, the first new order was founded by a spanish noble, Ignatius of Loyola. As the Jesuits' leader, Ignatius took the title of being general and referred to the Jesuits as soldiers. One of the Jesuits' goals was to teach people about Catholic ideas.