Through ambition and patronage he made his way into Rome's thriving Counter-Reformation art scene.

WSJ: The Calling of St. Matthew | A Dramatic Enlightenment | Masterpiece by Willard Spiegelman

His ability to make the supernatural natural in his art emanated from counter-Reformation doctrines about making religious mystery tangible.

ECONOMIST: Caravaggio

That changed in the wake of the Reformation and the counter-Reformation.

BBC: The myth of the eight-hour sleep

Church authorities whitewashed most of the interior in the mid-16th century, as part of the Counter-Reformation's effort to promote a more austere and theologically rigorous faith.

WSJ: A Heavenly View From On High | Basilica of Santa Croce | Agnolo Gaddi | By Francis X. Rocca

As they move among the remnants of Valladolid's former royal splendor, tourists can consider how Spain might have developed had the Counter-Reformation not been so successful in suppressing the nascent Protestant heresy--or what might have happened had there been more men like Salcedo.

FORBES: Magazine Article

The counter-reformation is led by those smaller states, such as Austria, Ireland and the Netherlands, whose budgets are in order and who may feel that the leniency they are expected to show to the big states would not be shown to them, were they in the dock.

ECONOMIST: Deficits and defiance