Did Philip II successfully honour his obligations to the Church as 'The Most Catholic King'?

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Did Philip successfully honour his obligations to the Church as ‘The Most Catholic King’?

Since Philip’s reign in the 16th Century, he has acquired many titles, complementing and insulting alike. As Woodward states, these have included ‘El Prudente’, ‘The Spider King’ and many others, but the one that has caused the most debate was a title more recently bestowed upon him – ‘The Most Catholic King’. Historians have argued this case giving support from Philip’s successes with the Spanish Inquisition, Moriscos Revolt and the Reform of the Catholic Church to name a few. The evidence against the monumental title is equally strong if we look back to Philip’s relationships with the Papacy, his domestic policies as well as foreign policies. So how accurate is the claim that Philip was ‘The Most Catholic King’?

As it seems to me, Philip’s greatest religious successes were those involved with the reformation, most notably Philip’s key involvement with the Council of Trent. The greatest reformation the Catholic Church had gone under was that of the one during Ferdinand and Isabella’s reigns in the later half of the 15th century. Despite this, it was still in need of drastic change by the time Philip came to the throne. Philip had instigated the Council of Trent, consisting of Spain’s finest theologians, and by it’s conclusion in 1563, a series of decrees dealing with Catholic reform, as well as introducing the Tridentine liturgy, which was the religious beliefs of Catholicism as agreed on at the Council of Trent, and which Henry Kamen feels revolutionised Spanish Catholicism. As the years went on, the Church continued to make improvements within the clergy by raising the standards of discipline and education, as many were poorly educated, and were not following the religious life of a clergyman. Philip’s work at Trent helped introduce a new energetic and educated generation of bishops throughout Spain. J. Lewis argues that it was Charles V who laid the foundations for his son to build upon for the reformation of the church, as Lewis argues several times that Philip owed much of his work to his father. Though I partly agree with Lewis here, I feel that Philip deserves the title more so than his father as though Charles did the initial hard work, it was Philip who carried it all through make the reformations which took place within the Catholic Church. There is evident to suggest that many of the intended reformations that were to take place did not succeed, for example the banning of bull fighting on Holy Days, as well as failures in expelling non-Christian practises from everyday life. However, this is not to say that Philip did not care. Philip put personal backing behind many of the reformations, showing that he genuinely wanted them to succeed and benefit the Catholic Church, and these gestures I feel compliment the title Philip has come to be associated with.

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Another aspect of Philip’s reign, which I feel strongly supports the view of him being the ‘Most Catholic King,’ was his success in the Moriscos Revolt from 1568-70. There were numerous causes for the revolt taking place, all of which can be linked back to the government of Spain. Firstly, the government deliberately attacked the silk industry, which was the principal source of the Morisco’s livelihood. Secondly, the Moriscos were never really accepted into Spanish society, and were looked down upon by the Orthodox Catholics. The final factor was the Spanish Governments interference with the Moriscos involvement with the ...

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