Within the Church, decisive action had to be undertaken to meet the challenge of the Reformation and other difficulties that had arisen. The rise of Protestant power in northern Europe set off a defensive and totalitarian response in Catholic Italy. The Counter-Reformation put Italian culture on a war footing with the Catholic Church claiming, in effect, total control of Italians' minds and bodies. The Council of Trent, which met intermittently from 1545 to 1563, was called by the pope to deliberate these matters and to undertake reform of the Church from within. …
