Mariology in the Counter Reformation

Abstract

This chapter discusses the Marian doctrine and devotion of the Counter-Reformation (c. 1550–1700), which is also called the Post-Tridentine era, the Baroque age, or the early modern period. It begins with a brief summary of Catholic Marian teaching of the 1500s and 1600s and then provides an overview of the Marian teachings of the Council of Trent (1545–63). It covers the development of systematic Mariology by Suárez and others as well as the Mariology of the French School of Bérulle, Olier, St John Eudes, and St Louis de Montfort. Subsequently, attention is given to sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Marian mystics; Jansenism; and the critics of excessive Marian piety.