Summary Of Religious Wars: Xavier Vs. Ignatius Of Loyola

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The wars of religion between the Catholics and Protestants dominated Early modern Europe during the 16th and 17th century. It began with the Reformation started by Martin Luther, who exposed the churches' flaws and wanted to restore the old religion. This created a new religion known as Protestantism and by 1550, half of Europe became Protestants and supported Luther. This remained stagnant due to the Catholic Reformation and the Holy Roman Empire fought to keep their religion alive. This resulted from the formation of the Council of Trent to imposing imprimaturs in charge of making sure that books are approved by the Church. One change included the partnership between the Holy Roman Empire and Sir Ignatius of Loyola. Ignatius of Loyola was …show more content…

When Xavier first arrived in India, he had trouble communicating with the people of India as he "spoke Castilian and they Malabar" (Xavier, 86). While the citizens replied that they were Christians, this language barrier created problems for Xavier as he could not convert people who did not understand him. This also created tension between Xavier and the people of India as Xavier found them to be "ignorant of Portuguese [as] they know nothing of the precepts and mysteries of [their] holy religion" (Xavier, 86). Xavier worked hard during his time in India to translate "the Catechism into the Malabar tongue" (Xavier, 86), and with the help of "the greatest diligence men who knew both languages" (Xavier, 86), they made the Catechism understandable to the rest of the citizens. The Holy Roman Empire did not face such a problem as most of Europe they tried to win back spoke the same national language. Xavier spent time learning and understanding the new Catechism (as it was in a whole new language), and once he mastered the Catechism in Malabar tongue, he began teaching it to the people and “collected them all [...] in the church" (Xavier, 86) every Sunday. This shows the struggle of Xavier adapting to the new culture and translated religion while this work is not needed during the Holy Roman Empire’s fight against the Protestants in

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