<P> Though humanists continued to use their scholarship in the service of the church into the middle of the sixteenth century and beyond, the sharply confrontational religious atmosphere following the Protestant reformation resulted in the Counter-Reformation that sought to silence challenges to Catholic theology, with similar efforts among the Protestant denominations . However, a number of humanists joined the Reformation movement and took over leadership functions, for example, Philipp Melanchthon, Ulrich Zwingli, John Calvin, and William Tyndale . </P> <P> With the Counter Reformation initiated by the Council of Trent (1545 - 1563), positions hardened and a strict Catholic orthodoxy based on Scholastic philosophy was imposed . Some humanists, even moderate Catholics such as Erasmus, risked being declared heretics for their perceived criticism of the church . </P> <P> The historian of the Renaissance Sir John Hale cautions against too direct a linkage between Renaissance humanism and modern uses of the term humanism: "Renaissance humanism must be kept free from any hint of either "humanitarianism" or "humanism" in its modern sense of rational, non-religious approach to life...the word "humanism" will mislead...if it is seen in opposition to a Christianity its students in the main wished to supplement, not contradict, through their patient excavation of the sources of ancient God - inspired wisdom" </P>

Classical humanism in the age of the renaissance