"what measures did the roman catholic church take to reform itself and to combat protestantism in the sixteenth century?

Catholic Reformation: a recovered papacy; the reclamation of old religious form and the authorizing of new ones, most greatly the Jesuits; and the reaffirmation of traditional Catholic doctrine at the assembly of Trent. The reclamation of religious orders also tested expensive to the amend of Catholicism. Old rules were recovered and reformed by eradicating corrupt practices. New rules were constructed as well. Jesuits were among the new orders. They settled schools that have a lot of humanist educational methods, converted many non-believers to the faith and fought Protestantism.