Question

What were the main purposes of the Counter-Reformation?

Answer 1

Catholic church started the counter-reformation as a response to the Protestant Reformation. The purpose was to reform the Catholic Church and enhance it and to address the concerns of those who wanted reforms. 

Answer 2

The main purposes of the Counter-Reformation were to strengthen the Catholic Church against the threat of Protestantism (thus keeping Catholics from converting to Protestantism), and also to enact reforms that would eliminate corruption and correct some problems in the Catholic Church.

Explanation:

The Catholic Reformation or Counter-Reformation in the 1500s was an effort by the Roman Catholic Church to strengthen itself in response to the Protestant Reformation.  The Counter-Reformation included a number of features, such as:

• The formation of religious orders that aimed to build allegiance to Rome and the papacy, and to educate people in Catholic teaching.  The Society of Jesus, known as the Jesuits for short, was a key order of this sort.  The order was founded by Ignatius of Loyola in 1534, along with Francis Xavier and several others.
• The Roman Inquisition was founded in 1542 to act as an investigative body in regard to threats to Rome's teachings.  About a century later, Galileo would be one of the most famous persons tried by the Roman Inquisition.
• The Council of Trent served to reform some abuses that were acknowledged by the Catholic Church, but mostly to assert the full authority of Roman power and doctrine over the Protestant threat. The Council of Trent held meetings over a span of years from 1545 to 1563.  Some of the abuses addressed by the Council of Trent were simony and selling of indulgences.  Simony was the practice of buying and selling church offices.  The Council of Trent condemned such practices, which had been widely abused in the church and criticized by reformers.  As for indulgences, the underlying principle of indulgences was upheld -- that the church had authority to grant reprieve to penance or time in purgatory. But the sale of indulgences was stopped.  The church recognized that the selling of indulgences had been an abuse and determined to end that practice.
• Clergy education was recognized as a problem that needed attention in the Catholic Church.  Seminaries were established and the Roman Catechism, also known as the Catechism of the Council of Trent, was commissioned by the Council and was published in 1566.  The intention of these actions was thoroughly to improve the education of the church's clergy.