1. Bireley, Refashioning of Catholicism, 1-69.
2. Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent:
a) Session 13, Decree on the Eucharist, Chapters 1-8; On the Most Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist, Canons 1-11.
b) Session 25, Purgatory; Invocation of Saints; On Regulars and Nuns: Chapter 5; Decree on Reformation: Chapters 1-3, 12, 14-15, 19-21; On Receiving and Observing the Decrees of the Council; Bull of Pius IV confirming the Council. These texts are available in *Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent, trans. H. J. Schroeder (Rockford, IL: Tan Books and Publishers, 1978), 72-80, 214-17, 232-36, 245-46, 246-48, 251-53, 255-56, 268-72; *Decrees of the Ecumenical Councils, 2 vols., ed. Norman P. Tanner (London: Sheed and Ward, 1990), vol. 2; and at http://history.hanover.edu/texts/trent.htm
3. Tridentine Profession of Faith (1564) at
http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~sshoemak/323/texts/trent.htm

General

1. As you do the reading, list the key words, concepts, persons, institutions, and events, that you encounter. Jot them down, type them up, bring them to class, and be prepared to explain why they are significant.

2. What are the key things you have learned about early modern Catholicism from this week's reading? Jot them down, type them up, bring them to class, and be prepared to share them with the seminar.

Bierley, Refashioning of Catholicism

3. What does Bierley mean by the "refashioning" of Catholicism? This is tied to his argument for the book. How would you formulate that argument?

4. What approach to Catholicism in the early modern era have scholars taken? Think of the names or concepts that they have used to describe Catholicism. What is Brierley's point of departure?

5. What were the "five principal changes which marked the transition from medieval to early modern times" (8)? Do not think that Bireley lists these only to provide some historical background. Take a quick peek on p. 201, and read the first paragraph. Do you see what the five changes have to do with Bireley's argument?

6. Make a list of all the religious orders, congregations, confraternities, and societies that you enounter. Why do the religious orders deserve our attention? Why are the religious orders important in the context of Brierley's approach to Catholicism? What is new about the new religious orders?

7. Why and when did the Council of Trent take place? Why did it take place in Trent? Find Trent on a modern map. Here are some maps: Northern Italy, Central Europe, 1555.

8. How did the Council go about its business? What obstacles did the Council encounter? How did it overcome them? What did the Council accomplish?

9. List all the various ways in which the Council of Trent was significant. Here is a question to mull over for the rest of the course: Was the Council of Trent the defining event of early modern Catholicism?

10. Bireley writes: "The popes of the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were determined to assert Rome's dignity as the centre of Christendom..." (65). How did they do this? What was new about the papacy in the early modern era? What were its main accomplishments?

Trent: Canons and Decrees, Profession of Fatih

11. How do the primary sources illustrate what you learned about Trent in Bireley's book? Do they reveal things that Bireley did not mention? Do they contradict Bireley?

12. What is the rhetoric of the Council of Trent? How did it address the topics it considered? How did it communicate? Who was the audience of its canons and decrees?

13. How did Cardinal Farnese and Pius IV understand the Council? Does it coincide with the way that historians could interpret the Council?

14. Why was the Tridentine Profession of Faith significant?