The death of Cardinal Sauli in 1518 precluded any possible sympathy on his part for Lutheran tendencies; discussion of his interest, if any, in reform must thus centre on a school of thought which had developed earlier and is now known as Catholic Reform. It aimed to reform the Church from within whilst maintaining the Church's teachings and authority. This reforming trend, if such it can be called, was spurred on by the advent of Protestantism and culminated in the Council of Trent (1543–63).

There can be little doubt that there were many aspects of ecclesiastical life which required renewal: corruption, pluralism, absenteeism, nepotism and simony were rife; priests were often barely literate and rarely models of proper ecclesiastical behaviour, and monastic houses had fallen into spiritual and physical decay. The reform of some monastic orders such as the Benedictines and Dominicans had enjoyed limited success, but other measures, whether attempts at local reform by individual prelates, calls for change from popular preachers, the writings of scholars such as Erasmus or even the reform bulls of the Fifth Lateran Council as a whole achieved little. But that is not to denigrate their aims: to encourage internal reform, for the most part by promoting greater religious vigour and an increased sense of morality and charity. This was supported seemingly not only by Sauli, but also by his brother Stefano and his cousin Filippo through their support for the Compagnia del divino amore and their later relations with a network of key reformers.