<P> In the more independent northwest the rulers and priests, protected by the Habsburg Monarchy which had taken the field to fight the Turks, defended the old Catholic faith . They dragged the Protestants to prison and the stake wherever they could . </P> <P> Protestants likely formed a majority of Hungary's population at the close of the 16th century, but Counter-Reformation efforts in the 17th century reconverted a majority of the kingdom to Catholicism . A significant Protestant minority remained, most of it adhering to the Calvinist faith . </P> <P> The Counter-Reformation, or Catholic Reformation, was the response of the Catholic Church to the Protestant Reformation . The essence of the Counter-Reformation was a renewed conviction in traditional practices and the upholding of Catholic doctrine as the source of ecclesiastic and moral reform, and the answer to halting the spread of Protestantism . Thus it experienced the founding of new religious orders, such as the Jesuits, the establishment of seminaries for the proper training of priests, renewed worldwide missionary activity, and the development of new yet orthodox forms of spirituality, such as that of the Spanish mystics and the French school of spirituality . The entire process was spearheaded by the Council of Trent, which clarified and reasserted doctrine, issued dogmatic definitions, and produced the Roman Catechism . </P> <P> The counter-reformation and developed a Second scholasticism, which was pitted against Lutheran scholasticism . The overall result of the Reformation was therefore to highlight distinctions of belief that had previously co-existed uneasily . </P>

How did the roman catholic church respond to the spread of protestantism in the sixteenth century
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