The political, cultural, and historical background during the time of St.

Charles Borromeo

Reform is associated with the name of Charles Borromeo. He existed through the period of the
Protestant Reformation and, during the final years of the Council of Trent, had a hand in
reforming the entire Church.

Council of Trent
Saint Charles, working behind the scenes, deserves the credit for keeping the Council of
Trent in session when it was on the verge of breaking up at some stages. After it had been
postponed for 10 years, Borromeo persuaded the pope to revive the Council in 1562. During the
final process, he assumed the task of the entire correspondence. Due to his function on the
Council, Borromeo was unable to live in Milan until the end of the Council.

The first pope of the Counter-Reformation is Pope Paul III (1534-49), and he also
founded the Council of Trent (1545-63), which was charged with institutional reform, discussing
controversial problems such as corrupt bishops and priests, the selling of indulgences, and other
financial abuses.
The Council maintained the medieval church's basic structure, its sacramental system,
religious orders, and theology, and refused to reform the Mass ritual because there was a lack of
historical study of the Mass at the time.
It opposed any agreement with Protestants, reaffirming the Catholic Faith's fundamental
doctrines. The Council upheld redemption appropriated through grace by faith and the faith's
works (not just by faith, as the Protestants insisted) because "faith is dead without works."
Although the traditional principles of the Church have been reaffirmed, substantial
adjustments have been made to respond to concerns that the Counter-Reformers were tacitly
willing to accept that they were legitimate. The increasing divide between the clerics and the
laity was among the conditions to be corrected by Catholic reformers; many members of the
clergy in the rural parishes were poorly educated. These rural priests were often ignorant of Latin
and lacked opportunities for proper theological instruction. A principal purpose of humanist
reformers in the past was to resolve the education of priests.
The Council of Trent thus sought to strengthen the Church's discipline and
administration. Epitomized by the era of Alexander VI (1492-1503), the worldly excesses of the
secular Renaissance Church escalated during the Reformation under Pope Leo X (1513-21).
Whose campaign to raise funds for the building of the Basilica of Saint Peter by encouraging the
use of indulgences served as a primary impetus for the 95 Theses of Martin Luther. The Catholic
Church reacted to these problems through a robust reform drive influenced by earlier Catholic
reform movements before the Council of Constance (1414-17): humanism, devotionalism,
legalism, and the practice of observance.
 For its acts, the council rebuked the pluralism of the secular Renaissance that had recently
afflicted the Church: it tightened the structure of religious institutions, increased discipline, and
strengthened the parish. The appointment of bishops is no longer accepted for political purposes.
The vast landholdings in the past caused many bishops to be "absent bishops" who were often
educated in administration as property managers. Thus, "absenteeism," which was the tradition
of bishops living in Rome or on landed estates rather than in their dioceses, was combated by the
Council of Trent. The Council of Trent granted greater authority to bishops to oversee all facets
of religious life. Later canonized as a saint, zealous prelates such as Archbishop Carlo Borromeo
of Milan (1538-84) set a precedent by visiting the most remote parishes and instilling high
expectations.

Reformation or Reforms following the Council of Trent

Borromeo was finally allowed to devote his time to the Archdiocese of Milan, where the
image of faith and morality was far from bright. At a provincial council of all the bishops under
him, the reform needed in every step of Catholic life by both clergy and laity was initiated.
Specific regulations were created for bishops and other clergies: Borromeo had to be the first to
offer a good example and renew their apostolic spirit if the people were to be converted to a
better life.
In offering a good example, Charles took the initiative. He donated much of his profits to
charity, prohibited all luxury from himself, and enforced extreme penance on himself. To become
poor, he sacrificed money, high honors, respect, and power.

After the Council of Trent, Charles Borromeo was a very significant figure in the
reformation of church music. While Borromeo was an assistant to the pope in Rome and was
unable to be in Milan, he actively pushed for the council's decrees to be introduced in Milan
quickly. Through letters, Borromeo kept in touch with his church in Milian and actively urged the
leaders there to introduce the reforms coming from the Council of Trent. Borromeo
commissioned the master of the chapel, Vincenzo Ruffo (1508–1587), in one of his letters to his
vicar in the diocese of Milan, Nicolo Ormaneto of Verona, to compose a Mass that would make
the words as easy to understand as possible. t Borromeo also indicated that if Don Nicola, a more
chromatic type composer, was in Milan, he might also write a Mass and compare the two for
textural clarity. Borromeo was likely to be interested or learned of the questions about textual
clarity because of his request.

Counter-Reformation
The Latin Archbishop of Milan from 1564 to 1584 and Cardinal of the Catholic Church
was Charles Borromeo (Italian: Carlo Borromeo, Latin: Carolus Borromeo, 2 October 1538 to 3
November 1584). Together with St. Ignatius of Loyola and St. Philip Neri, he was a leading
figure in the Counter-Reformation movement against the Protestant Reformation. He was
responsible for major changes in the Catholic Church in that function, including the creation of
seminaries for the education of priests. He is honored by the Catholic Church as a saint, with a
November 4 feast day.
In response to the Protestant Reformation, the Counter-Reformation (Latin:
Contrareformatio), also known as the Catholic Reformation (Latin: Reformatio Catholica) or the
Catholic Revival, was the time of Catholic resurgence. It started with the Council of Trent
(1545-63) and ended largely with the end of the 1648 European Wars of Religion.
Initiated to resolve the impact of the Protestant Reformation, the Counter-Reformation
was a systematic initiative, as decreed by the Council of Trent, consisting of apologetic and
polemical documents and ecclesiastical arrangement. The last of these included the attempts of
the Holy Roman Empire's Imperial Diets to exile / forcibly convert Protestant communities,
heresy trials and the Inquisition, anti-corruption attempts, theological movements, and the
formation of new religious orders. In European history, such policies had long-lasting
consequences, with Protestant exiles continuing until the Patent of Toleration of 1781, while
smaller expulsions took place in the 19th century.
Such changes included the establishment of seminaries for the proper training of priests
in the Church's spiritual life and theological practices. Also, the reform of religious life by taking
orders back to their spiritual roots, and new spiritual movements centered on devotional life and a
personal relationship with Christ, including the Spanish mystics and the French spiritual school.
Political movements including the Spanish Inquisition and the deportation or forcible
conversion of hundreds of thousands of Protestants were also involved. The
Counter-Reformation's primary goal was a quest to enter areas of the world that had been
colonized as primarily Catholic and also to seek to reconvert regions like Sweden and England
that were once Catholic but lost to the Reformation.

Bubonic Plague
The plague that hit Milan and other nearby towns in Lombardy during 1575-1576 is now
referred to as the "Saint Charles Plague." It was so-called in The Betrothed by Alessandro
Manzoni to differentiate it from the plague of 1630, mentioned in the novel. The plague probably
came from the Turks living in Hungary and from there it spread along the Danube, Switzerland,
Trento, and down to Verona and Venice through trade with Germany. The epidemic spread to
Melegnano 27 July 1576, on August 4 hit Monza and then Milan.

Borromeo sought to feed 60,000 to 70,000 people daily during the plague and famine of
1576. He borrowed huge amounts of cash to do this, which took years to repay. While the civil
authorities were fleeing at the height of the plague, he remained in the city, ministering to the
sick and the dying, helping those in need.
 St. Charles saw those people's spiritual needs and thought about those deprived of the
sacraments as they were facing death. While there was an abundance of priests in Milan, there
were problems taking care of the dying. If parish priests attended those with the plague, if they
have already ministered to the sick, certain pastors were "turned away by their parishioners
before the passing of time may prove that they themselves are well"
The archbishop sent priests to the people there because the quarantine sections were far
from certain parishes. The danger involved in the work of exposing oneself to the deadly disease
was acknowledged by St. Charles. If the priest could not escape the deadly illness, St. Charles
said, "It will be a quicker attainment of blessed glory." Besides, he pointed out, it had
nevertheless been contracted by those who sought to stop the disease at all costs.
The holy archbishop informed the religious superiors that Pope Gregory XIII had
requested care for the sick of the plague (to whom the earth owes the Gregorian calendar).
In the Archdiocese of Milan, St. Pope Paul VI once referred to his predecessor as a
practical genius. The appeal of St. Charles to religious superiors indicates a patient production of
an appeal that would be very difficult to reject.

The health of Archbishop Borromeo started to be affected by work and the heavy burden
of his high office, leading to his death at the age of 46.

Reference
Franciscan Media. (2020, January 20). Saint Charles Borromeo. Retrieved September 28,
2020, from https://www.franciscanmedia.org/saint-charles-borromeo/

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. (2020, May 18). Counter-Reformation.

Retrieved September 28, 2020, from https://www.britannica.com/event/Counter-Reformation