[COUNTER- 4.] A reformation following on, and running counter to, another; applied in Hist. to the movement in the Church of Rome which followed on the Protestant Reformation.
1840. Mrs. Austin, Ranke’s Hist. Popes, V. iv. (heading) (1866), II. 25. Beginning of the Counter-reformation in Germany. Ibid., II. 92. From this time the Counter-reformation began throughout all the Archducal territory.
1889. A. W. Ward, Counter-Reform., Pref. It is not always easy to define the correct use of even so well-worn a phrase as ‘the Counter-Reformation.’
1890. Margaret Warre, trans. Döllinger’s Stud. Europ. Hist., 38. In Bavaria the counter-reformation was accomplished under William V.
