Note 702 — Chapter V

Loofs in his Leitfaden zum studium der Dogmengeschichte (Halle a. S. 1893) declares that the following tendencies within the Roman Catholic Church of the sixteenth century have all to be taken into account as influencing the decisions come to at the Council of Trent: The reorganisation of the Spanish Church in strict mediæval spirit by the Crown under Isabella and Ferdinand; the revival of Thomist theology, especially in the Dominican Order; the fostering of mystical piety, especially in new and in reconstructed Orders; the ennobling of theology by Humanism, and its influence, direct and indirect, in leading theologians back to Augustine; the strengthening of the Papacy in the rise of Curialism; and, lastly, the ecclesiastical interests of temporal sovereigns generally opposed to this Curialism. He declares that the newly-founded Order of the Jesuits served as a meeting-place for the first, third, fourth, and fifth of these tendencies (pp. 333-34).