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The long Reformation - Catholic - Catholicism goes global

5 important questions on The long Reformation - Catholic - Catholicism goes global

What questions did Catholic overseas encounters confront the Church with?

Catholic encounters overseas confronted the Church with serious questions.

Were the peoples they encountered to be considered 'full human beings' or 'natural slaves' (as Aristotle had maintained)?
What should be done about pagan religions: were they to be rooted out or seen as the building blocks for the construction of new forms of indigenous Catholicism?

Which country succeeded in spreading Catholicism overseas?

The spread of Catholicism to Africa occurred mostly under the auspices of the Portuguese, who were highly ambitious from the late fifteenth century onwards: the lands they aimed to control also included Brazil, Southern Asia, the East Indies and the Far East.
The Portuguese considered the Muslim presence in northern Africa the principal obstacle to easy access to the riches of Asia, and alliances with African rulers were formed as part of an anti-Islamic crusade.

Who is Francis Xavier?

The Jesuit Francis Xavier is one of the original companions of Loyola. He is considered one of the greatest Christian missionaries, his frequent letters home stirred interest in Asia throughout Catholic Europe.

What did Matteo Ricci do?

He wrote learned texts in classical Chinese, and drew attention to Jesuit learning by means of a large map of the world, which featured the Chinese empire near the centre of the map instead of Jerusalem.
Ricci set out to convert the Chinese emperor, but only had moderate impact, leaving behind approximately 2000 Christians at the time of his death in 1610.

What did the huge increase of Catholic Christians across the globe compensate for?

For many Europeans, the huge increase in numbers of Catholic Christians across the globe, with as many as ten million baptized in the Americas alone by 1550, came as a kind of compensation for the losses to the Protestants in Europe and the Turks in the east.

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Early Modern History

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