PEOPLE OF IDEAS

THE RENAISSANCE AND REFORMATION
(1400 to Mid-1600s)

By Historical Subject Area: Italian Humanists Nicholas of Cusa Lorenzo Valla Pope Nicholas V Leonardo da Vinci Niccolo Machiavelli Michelangelo Buonarroti Baldassare Castiglione Northern European Humanism Johannes Reuchlin Desiderius Erasmus Thomas More Jacques Lefevre The Rise of Modern Science Prince Henry the Navigator Andrea Vesalius William Gilbert Francis Bacon William Harvey Renaissance Mysticism Thomas à Kempis Catherine of Genoa Hieronymous Bosch Astronomy Dethrones the Earth – and the          Heavens Nicolas Copernicus Tycho Brahe Galileo Galilei Johannes Kepler Early Efforts at Reform of the Church (1350 to          1500) John Wycliff Council of Pisa (1409) John Huss Council of Basel (1431-1449) Girolamo Savonarola The First Generation of Protestant Reformers Martin Luther Andreas Rudolf Bodenstein von Karlstadt Thomas Müntzer Ulrich Zwingli Oecolampadius Martin Bucer (Butzer) The Next Generation of Reformers Philip Melanchthon Heinrich Bullinger John Calvin Other Early Reformers Thomas Cranmer John Knox Menno Simmons Theodore Beza The Catholic Counter-Reformation (1540 to          1600) Ximines de Cineros Pope Paul III Gasparo Contarini Ignatius de Loyola Robert Bellarmine Puritan Reform in England (Mid 1500s          Onward) John Foxe An Admonition to the Parliament Thomas Cartwright Richard Hooker William Perkins Edward Coke Oliver Cromwell The Westminster Confession of Faith Richard Mather James Usher John Wilkins Richard Baxter John Bunyan John Flavel Increase Mather The Development of Continental          Protestantism (Mid-1500s Onward) Jakob Arminius Synod of Dort (1625) Johannes Cocceius Francis Turretin Continuing Catholic Pietism and Mysticism          (Mid-1500s Onward) Teresa of Avila John of the Cross Jacob Böhme Cornelius Jansen Blaise Pascal The Abiding Secular Mood Michel de Montaigne Pedro Fernandez Navarrete Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra The Renaissance and Reformation: A Full          History

Nicholas of Cusa (1401-1464) Cusa's major works or writings: Where is he that is born king of the Jews? (1456) (Miller) Lorenzo Valla (1407-1457) Valla's major works or writings: Linguistic critique of the 'Donation of Constantine' (1440) On the True Good (1440) Pope Nicholas V (p: 1447-1455) Nicholas developed the Vatican library, collecting thousand of key manuscripts – with hardly a thought of the costs involved. Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) da Vinci's major works or writings: The Painter Niccolo Machiavelli (1467-1527) Machiavelli's major works or writings:  Prince (1513) Discourses on the First Ten Books of Titus Livius (1513) Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564) Baldassare Castiglione (1478-1529) He developed an ethical system or code of "noble" behavior which did not rest on divine imperatives or require the existence of God to give his ideals force. Castglione's major works or writings: Book of the Courtier (1528)

Johannes Reuchlin (1455-1522) Desiderius Erasmus (1466-1536) Erasmus' major works or writings: The Praise of Folly (1509)  Thomas More (1478-1535) England More's major works or writings: Utopia (1518) Jacques Lefevre (1460-1536)

Thomas à Kempis (1380-1471) A later "Modern Devotionalist" who lived a fully monastic life near Zwolle, immersed in conservative piety. Kempis' major works or writings: The Imitation of Christ   the most widely circulated devotional book of the times. Catherine of Genoa (1447-1510) Catherine of Genoa's major works or writings: Oratory of Divine Love Hieronymous Bosch (1450-1516) A graphic artist who was moved deeply by an "apocalyptic" mood--and by what today we would call the "occult."

Prince Henry ("the Navigator") of Portugal (1394-1460) In 1419 Prince Henry of Portugal established at Sagres a school with a library and observatory to study the earth in support of his love of overseas exploration.  He gathered at Sagres scholars from all around Europe to improve his maps--and general knowledge of the earth's geography (such as was available to early 15th century Europe). Andrea Vesalius (1514-1564) Vesalius' major works or writings: Concerning the Fabric of the Human Body (1543) William Gilbert (1540-1603) Gilbert's major works or writings: Concerning the Magnet (1600) Francis Bacon (1561-1626) Bacon is often considered the first expounder of the "scientific" method of arriving at Truth -- giving the method a legitimacy as an alternative to religious truth. His approach was empirical -- collecting bodies of actual observations or data and then bringing them under the careful study of a community of scholars.  He led scholarship away from both the Aristotelian and Platonist schools that had long been prevalent in Europe.  He was opposed to the quickness by which the human mind likes to jump to generalities (both Aristotelians and Platonists).  Instead he proposed to work from the hard facts and let them suggest their own theoretical order -- at the same time barraging such theories with doubts and constant testing to see at what point they might not hold.  In this he was laying the foundations of empiricism -- which would take a strong hold over the English scholarly mind. Bacon was a bridge between the traditional religious worldview and the newly arising secularist worldview.   He acknowledged the importance of both, proposing that science and theology were two separate enterprises because of two different systems of proof required by each: direct observation and divine revelation. (Yet--to Bacon, theology still remained the primary enterprise of the two!) Bacon's major works or writings: The Essays The New Atlantis The Advancement of Learning 1605) Novum Organum (1620) William Harvey (1578-1657) Harvey's major works or writings: On the Motion of the Heart and Blood in Animals (1628)

Nicolas Copernicus (1473-1543) In the mid 1500s Nicholas Copernicus (Nikolai Kopernik) proposed a startling theory, one that supposed the sun--not the earth--was the center of the universe (he apparently was not aware that almost 2000 before him, Aristarchus had also come up with such a theory). His purpose (so his publisher claimed in the preface to Copernicus' On the Revolution of the Celestial Spheres, published in 1543 just after Copernicus' death) was not to challenge the obvious truth of the earth's centrality to the universe--but rather to make astrological calculations (for the purpose of fortune-telling) less complicated.  His heliocentric (sun-centered) theory was simply to be viewed as a hypothetical system designed to simplify astrology.  Thus he did not intend to posit this theory as a new theory of Truth or Reality. It was simply a device of convenience.  Or so his publisher said. Indeed, though Copernicus' system seemed to "work," it still had many flaws of its own--and needed a lot of further refinement before it might be significantly better than Ptolemy's.  The principle flaw was that Copernicus, though bold in his proposal to make the sun the center of orbiting planets, such as the earth, held to the traditional ancient Aristotelian view that these orbits formed "celestially perfect" circles.  Consequently Copernicus's system still needed theories and formulas and sub-theories and sub-formulas (epicycles) to make his astrological calculations useful--in the same manner as Ptolemy's convoluted system. Thus we often talk about Copernicus' "revolution."  In his own days there was nothing particularly revolutionary about his theories.  But he had put out in front of the European mind the suggestion that the sun, not the earth, might be a better starting point in computing the movements of the heavens.  His ideas were not forgotten. Copernicus' major works or writings: On the Revolution of the Celestial Spheres (1543) Dedication Tycho Brahe (1546-1601) At the turn of that century (late 1500s/early 1600s) Tycho Brahe made an enormous contribution to the growing field of inquiry about the universe and the place of our world in it.  He was astrologer and mathematician for the Holy Roman Emperor.  In pursuit of astrology, he carefully collected very exact observations about the movement of the heavens. Though these were not intended at the time to serve the interest of science, such as we understand the term today, they would prove very useful for later advances in the rising science of astronomy (studying the planets and stars in order to acquire knowledge of their movements in and of themselves--quite apart from their "fortune-telling" qualities).  They were a wonderful source of empirical data which others could draw on to confirm their theories about the movements of the heavens (his data were used extensively by Kepler in the latter's development of the elliptical theory of the solar orbits). Brahe' major works or writings: Astronomiae instauratae mechanica (ca.1598 - 1602) Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) It was when the cause of explaining the movement of the heavens came into the hands of Galileo Galilei that the heliocentric theory of the universe finally became the revolutionary bombshell that rocked the medieval worldview. It was in the early 1600s that the Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei made his dramatic announcement.  He claimed that from his direct observations of the stars,  it was clear to him that Copernicus' theory was not just a matter of intellectual convenience, but was in fact also the Truth.  Indeed, the sun--not the earth--was the center of things. His impact did not stop there.  Galileo had been armed with a new-fangled instrument we know as a telescope (even claiming its invention--though it seems he fudged a bit on this truth).  With this telescope he was able to make many unprecedented observations of the heavens beyond even the all-important fact of the earth's loss of central position in the scheme of things.  He observed the pock-marked surface of the moon and the solar flares of the sun--discounting the ancient Greek religious doctrine that these heavenly bodies were the epitome of perfection (actual Platonic Ideals or Forms). He also observed the moons of Jupiter in their regular orbit as together they all moved about the sun--giving rise to an explanation of how our moon could be similarly held in orbit around the earth as it makes its way around the sun. Also his telescope revealed considerable mass on the part of some of the heavenly bodies (the planets) which had appeared to the naked eye only as points of light in the sky, demonstrating their existence as substantial material entities: neighbors of the earth. But oddly, even under the powerful scrutiny of the telescope, other lights in the heavens (the stars) still remained as only points of light--giving indication that their distance from our earth must be vastly greater than had been previously imagined! At first his announcements were met with much interest from the Italian authorities--who seemed initially to be quite supportive of his studies.  But Galileo was a bit of a publicity hound--who found that his celebrity status could be greatly enhanced by clobbering the church with the metaphysical implications of his discoveries.  In case people had not understood the metaphysical implications of his findings he was glad to make them clear.  Thus we was loud in his announcement that both tradition and Scripture--hitherto considered the bedrock of all truth--seemed to be very wrong on their placement of the earth at the center of the universal scheme of things.  Indeed, he seemed to be eager to demonstrate every point he could find where his studies challenged traditional authority. Being the early 1600s when he made his announcement (in the midst of the Protestant-Catholic religious wars), the church was very sensitive to criticisms of its traditional authority.  A show-down between Galileo and the church was inevitable--given Galileo's personality and the church's highly defensive position.  The world remembers vividly the scene in which Galileo was forced to choose between his theories and his position in Catholic Italy.  It's famed as an example of the ignorance of the church--and the suffering of those who would raise the Truth against such ignorance.  Actually the matter could have been handled more positively if Galileo had been less set on becoming such a celebrity. But in the end -- he had his way:  as the spokesman for science he became the greater hero.  And of course science found that as a result of Galileo's theatrics it jumped itself ahead of all other authority.  Indeed, science has long been familiar with the art of showmanship! For more information on Galileo Galileo's major works or writings: The Messenger of the Stars (1610) The Assayer (1623) Concerning the Two Chief World Systems (1632) Concerning Two New Sciences (1638) Johannes Kepler (1571-1630) However, because Galileo had built his sun-centered theory on the notion of circular paths of the planets around the sun (the paths are in fact elliptical, not circular) his calculations were flawed--a fact which many were quick to jump on as proof of the basic falseness of his theory. But very soon after Galileo's grand splash upon the European stage, his work was soon (also the early 1600s) backed up by further studies by Johannes Kepler.  Kepler succeeded Brahe as astrologer and mathematician for the Emperor.  As such, he had studied the heavens in search for a more rationally "beautiful" explanation of the movement of the heavens. However, Kepler came at this work from a quite different angle than Galileo.  To Kepler, his work was an almost mystical (Pythagorean) enterprise.  Unlike Galileo, who sought (in the vein of the modern mindset) to exalt himself as the heroic intellectual explorer, Kepler sought to glorify God with his work.  To him science was there to validate God--not man.  That attitude would change in the generations ahead, however. Kepler employed Brahe's data to refine Copernicus' heliocentric theory.  In an amazing departure from long-held conventional thinking, he put the circular theory of the movements of the planets aside.  In its place he substituted the amazing theory that the planets move in eliptical orbits around the sun, in precise and mathematically simple relations to the sun.  In doing so, he cleared away all the unresolved details of Galileo's (or Copernicus's) heliocentric theory. The simplicity and accuracy of Kepler's theory was now too compelling to be put aside by any religious authority:  He was too obviously giving accurate description to a physical reality--and not just a "useful" theory for making astrological calculations.  The Christian world was going to have to come to terms with Kepler's science.  It was no longer going to do simply to point to the authority of Scripture on the subject.  Science was moving into a position of  authority all its own.  It was now going to be up to Christianity to figure out how to handle this newly emerging intellectual authority. Kepler's major works or writings: Mysterium Cosmographica (1597) Astronomia Nova (1609) The Harmonies of the World (1609?) Epitome of Copernican Astronomy

John Wycliff (1320-1384) At Oxford university (where he was master of Baliol College), John Wycliff by 1369-1370 was stirring up major controversy in teaching/publishing concerning the freedom of religious conscience of the individual believer, who in Wycliff's eyes stood through faith directly before God (bypassing the priest as a necessary intermediary between the believer and God).  He also attacked a multitude of practices and features of the church--especially its wealth which he felt should be confiscated and turned over to the nation so that the clerics could live on the same economic scale as the people they ministered to.   He even advised ecclesiastical poverty. Wycliff further spread the controversy by writing his tracts in English rather than Latin--making his pronouncements more widely accessible--and popular.  In these tracts he sharply attacked the practices that had grown up in the church that in no ways were part of the faith that Jesus Christ had established in the first century. It was an easy step from calling for equality of all before God in religious matters to equality of all before God in political and economic matters as well.  Thus his teachings came to be associated by both his supporters and his detractors with the Peasants' Revolt which broke out in 1351 after the Great Death.  This had wiped out half of England's supply of cheap peasant labor and thus led to the passage of a number of English laws which locked the remaining peasants into very fixed working conditions, deepening their enserfment.  They were furious.  It wasn't fair--as God himself was their true judge.  In the end they were accountable in the consciences to God alone.  So their thinking went.  And Wycliff's teachings only seemed to encourage such thinking. On this supposed association with the Peasants' Revolt, heresy charges were brought against Wycliff by the clergy.  His works were burned and the intellectual ferment that existed at Oxford was suppressed. Nonetheless just prior to his death in 1384 he had inspired an English translation of the Bible (an unheard of event)--which put scripture in the hands and hearts of the common Englishmen, especially of his followers.  This translations was widely copied and distributed--despite the efforts of the clergy to suppress this work. What Wycliff had done was to encourage the notion that the Word of God in Scripture was what was truly authoritative for the belief and actions of the true Christian--not the traditions and pronouncements of the church (which was becoming widely viewed as a very venal institution). Wycliff's followers (after his death), contemptuously called "Lollards," from a Dutch word of derision meaning "mumblers" (originally directed at the Beguines), continued to preach reform in England.  Wycliff's Lollard movement was eventually suppressed--but so was the intellectual ferment of Oxford university where his teachings had been widely accepted. Council of Pisa (1409) The institutional church was trying to unify and reform itself--in particular end the political standoff between the Italian and the French partisans in the church's leadership.  At the same time bring independent voices of reform under submission--through the conciliar movement, a series of church councils called to unify the papacy and reform the church.   There were deep fears among ecclesiastics that if reform did not happen soon, the church was going to lose forever the affections of its people. The Council of Pisa, in order to end the embarrassment of having two contending popes claiming to be the sole head of the Catholic church, deposed the two contenders, Gregory XII and Benedict XIII.  This reform was undertaken even by the cardinals of both popes--who elected a new pope, Alexander V.  But when the two popes, backed by their respective national interest groups, refused to step down, there were then three contending popes! John (or Jan) Huss (1374-1415) Wycliff's teachings reached Bohemia after his death and were picked up by John Huss, Dean of the Faculty of Philosophy and then Rector at the University of Prague in the early 1400s.  Huss translated Wycliff's works into Czech and gave life to the reform ideals to the people.  He also inspired the political interests of the Slavic Czechs who chafed under German political and ecclesiastical dominion.  This in turn stirred fear in the hearts of both church and state officialdom in Bohemia.  Thus in 1411 Huss was excommunicated from the church and in 1412 placed under a strict ban. In 1414 the ban on Huss was lifted and he was called (under the Emperor Sigismund's promise of safe conduct) to the Council (now meeting at Constance in Switzerland) to explain himself.  In particular the Council wanted to hear him out on his claim that the only true pontiff of the Church was Jesus Christ.  But the response of the Council to his explanations was to have him arrested. The Emperor demanded his release and sent an army to the Council ostensibly to release Huss.  However he was not released and the Emperor then turned his efforts to having Pope John XXIII condemned on a number of charges.  Pope John fled.  The other two papal contenders were also deposed--and Martin V (Italian) was elected as the sole pope.  Thus was the unity of the Holy See was reestablished. Sigismund, who was more interested in preserving the unity rather than the purity of the church, then agreed to let the Council decide the fate of Huss--despite his earlier guarantee of safe conduct.  The Council found him guilty of some 30 charges and turned him over to the secular authorities to be burned at the stake as a heritic.  In July 1415 he was put to death as ordered and his ashes were scattered over the Rhine River. When news reached Bohemia of what had happened at Constance, revolt broke out.  The ideals proclaimed by the leaders of the revolt (notably John Ziska) were the same as those that had undergirded Wycliff's movment in England:  freedom from religious, economic and political oppression. Several attempts to put down what had become a popular national revolt failed.  Finally a compromise, supported by Emperor Sigismund, was reached between the church Council and the Hussites in 1431:  the Compacts of Prague. Council of Basel (1431-1449) The council initially made progress toward reconciliation with the Hussites. It defied a papal order to move to Bologna, claiming superior authority to that of the pope (Eugenius IV: 1431-1447). But its subsequent efforts at reform of the ecclesiastical hierarchy caused it to overstep its true power--and Eugenius used this to his own advantage. Also, the pressing problems of the Turks and the need for closer relations with the Eastern church, provided the occasion for the pope to split the council's power bringing a portion of the council to Ferrara while the remainder carried on in Basel. Its decision in 1439 to elect a pope in opposition to Eugenius undermined most of the council's residual authority. In the meanwhile, the papacy in Rome emerged as an ever-stricter defender of its ecclesiastical authority. Girolamo Savonarola (1452-1498) Savonarola was an apocalyptic Dominican monk-preacher who was both a very popular figure among the poorer classes of Florence and a thorn in the side of the Florentine aristocracy and the Roman church. He led a grand effort to clean up the morals of Florentine society. But eventually the populace was turned against his influence and he was hanged and burned in Florence in 1498.

Martin Luther (1483-1546) The explosion finally came around the matter of the financing of the lavish building program of Saint Peter's Basilica in Rome.  As a somewhat unintended spokesman for this critical mindset, in 1517 Luther posted his 95 theses on the door of the Wittenburg castle church protesting, for theological reasons, the sale of indulgences to finance the pope's schemes. Behind this defiant action was a long personal pilgrimage of Luther, one based on an deep desire to unburden himself of a profound sense of guilt and personal condemnation before God's judgment.  For Luther, a personal breakthrough occurred as the message sank into the head of this Augustinian professor concerning Paul's teaching (Galatians and Romans) about divine grace and forgiveness received through the simple faith of the believer--and not through the demands of any religious law or requirements of a religious system.  So "liberated" was he that he felt that his discovery had to be brought to the world. The occasion of the sale of indulgences brought this desire to the fore. With this action of challenging papal authority, Luther, unaware of where this would eventually take him, uncorked an explosive force among fiercely faithful Christians.  It also excited the political interests of the German princes who saw in this theological revolution an economic/political opportunity they could not pass up. For Luther the reform movement was related to the matter of a sinner's personal justification before God.  Luther showed little interest in making broader changes within Christianity beyond the throwing off of Roman spiritual authority--with its traditions of works-righteousness.  Substantial changes in worship, for instance, were of lesser interest to Luther.  Also the episcopal form of church government (rule by bishops) was kept by Luther--though with the understanding that the bishops were answerable to the local princes--not to Rome. The pope's ability to reply to Luther's challenge to ecclesiastical authority was greatly limited by the protection that Frederick, imperial elector, placed around Luther.  Meanwhile, in Luther's debates with the papal opponents sent to silence him, he was gradually drawn more deeply into a position defiant of Rome.  By 1520, Luther's defiance of Rome was total.  To Luther, Rome was the anti-Christ.  At the end of that year Luther boldly and publicly burned the papal bull requiring his submission.  Luther, and much of Germany with him, was in full religious rebellion against Rome. The newly elected Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V (ruler of: powerful Spain and its wealthy American colonies, the commercially energetic Netherlands, and Austria and much of Italy), now took up the issue on the side of the Roman church. Luther, now excommunicated but still under the protection of Frederick and widely popular in Germany, was called by the Emperor to an Imperial Council at Worms to give account of his views.  Here Luther stood firm in his views against the Roman church. Under an Imperial guarantee of his freedom, Luther was able to get away from the Council before the guarantee was retracted.  From then on for the rest of his life, Luther remained in seculsion--publishing works against the papacy and bringing forth his German translation of the Bible. In the meanwhile the Emperor found himself preoccupied by an on-going war with France over control of various cities and principalities in Italy. Thus the Emperor was seriously distracted in his effort to quiet Luther.  Then the Turkish military threat to the Emperor's Austrian holdings rose up again. Thus with the Emperor preoccupied elsewhere, Luther was relatively safe. But events took an unexpected turn when in 1524-1525 German peasants, in the name of their new freedom of conscience, rose up in rebellion against their feudal lords.  Luther sided with the lords against the peasant "hordes."  These pitiful peasant rebels were cruelly crushed. The result of the Peasant War was to move real power over to the various German princes.  Thus in Germany, the rule of the church was not a matter either of local congregational power--nor of the power of popes and bishops.  Rather, it was the ruling prince in each of the many principalities that made up Germany who determined each in his own territory its particular Christian character.  Some remained loyal to Rome (the southern German princes), some followed the Lutheran line (the northern German princes).  But in any case it was the local princes who made that determination.  The dependence of church on state was thus set as the characteristic feature of German Christianity--a feature lasting down into the 20th century. Luther's major works or writings: The Ninety-Five Theses The Smalcald Articles On Good Works (1520) To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation (1520) Babylonian Captivity of the Church (1520) The Freedom of a Christian (1520) Order of Public Worship (1523) Against the Robbing and Murdering Hordes of Peasants (1525) The Smaller Catechism The Larger Catechism Andreas Rudolf Bodenstein von Karlstadt (c. 1480-1541) A professor at Wittenburg and originally a supporter of Luther--who himself was put under papal threat along with Luther in the first days of the Reformation.   But he was truly more radical than Luther in his vision of reform--even at one point calling on the renunciation all signs of status, in the church and in society (including university degrees).  His themes were later picked up by the radical Anabaptists in the unsuccessful Peasants' Revolt.  Though Luther and Karlstadt differed strongly on a number of matters including not only the political structuring of the new church but also the significance of Holy Communion – Luther took his old friend in when he was close to being captured by hostile political authorities.  He later moved on to Basel (Switzerland) and backtracked on many of his earlier radical positions.  In fact he now became a determined advocate of extensive university education of all Protestant leaders.  He died in 1541 during an outbreak of the plague. Karlstadt's major works or writings: Von Abtuhung der Bylder (On the Rejection of Images) (1522) Ob man gemach faren soll ("Shall We Go Slowly?") Thomas Müntzer (c. 1490-1525) Müntzer was the active leader of the unsuccessful Peasants' Revolt in Thuringia (1524-1525). He took a mystical view about the humble classes being the true repository of God's Spirit and the proper instrument of God's transformative work on earth.  His theological writings and personal  leadership were critical in the peasants' revolt against the German ruling classes. At the Battle of Frankenhausen in May of 1525 his peasant forces were defeated, he was taken prisoner, and executed. Müntzer's major works or writings:   German Church Office German-Protestant Mass Protestation or Defense . . . Regarding the Beginning of the True Christian Faith and Baptism Of Written Faith Precise Exposure of False Belief Ulrich Zwingli (1484-1531) As a young man he received a humanistic university education in Vienna and Basel. As a parish priest he continued his studies in Greek and Hebrew and of the humanist Erasmus and the classics.  In 1518 he was brought to Zurich as its pastor where he gained reputation as a brilliant preacher and scholar. His inquiring mind also began to draw him toward Luther's reform movement.  In 1522 Zwingli began to make his moves to establish Scripture as the sole religious authority for the Christian.  He opposed the Lenten Fast, citing the lack of Scriptural warrant for the practice--a position which was supported by the Zurich civil government.  The bishop of Constance tried to suppress this innovation, but lost out to the Zurich government which moved to take control of ecclesiastical matters within its jurisdiction.  Zwingli supported this shift in authority, claiming that the civil government, under the Lordship of Christ and guided in its work by the dictates of Scripture, was the legitimate voice or conscience of the believing community. He also moved to reform various features of worship, whenever there was no specific Scriptural warrant for such things, though he did so through a practice of gradualism.  By 1525, however, he had eliminated statues and relics from the Zurich church, eliminated the Latin mass (substituting a memorial celebration of the Lord's Supper in its place) and placed at the heart of worship the sermon (an exposition of Scripture)--the key feature of the Swiss Reformation. But the conservative rural cantons of Switzerland remained firmly opposed to the Zwinglian reforms.  Relations grew bitter and hostilities resulted--with Zwingli himself being wounded and then put to death in a losing battle against the rural cantons in 1531. Zwingli's major works or writings: Commentary of True and False Religion (1528) Oecolampadius Meanwhile the Reformation began to spread to other parts of Switzerland: most notably to the cities of Basel (where Oecolampadius had been leading the reform movement), Constance and Bern. Martin Bucer (Butzer) (1491-1551) The reform movement also made its way down the Rhine River to Strasbourg--where under the leadership of Zell, Capito and Bucer the reform movement took on the more thoroughgoing Swiss character (as distinct from the more conservative Lutheran variety).

Philip Melanchthon (1497-1560) The successor to Luther's church reform movement in Germany. Melanchthon's major works or writings: Augsburg Confession (1530)  The Life and Acts of Martin Luther (1549)  Heinrich Bullinger (1504-1575) A more gentle-natured Heinrich Bullinger took over the church reform movement in Zurich after Zwingli was killed.. Bullinger's major works or writings: The Second Helvetic Formula   John Calvin (1509-1564) A Frenchman, schooled in the new humanist tradition and prepared at the university to be a lawyer. He fell in with a circle of French humanists who read with great interest the writings of Luther. Then, somewhere in the period 1532-1534 Calvin experienced a "sudden conversion" (the details of which unfortunately he never discussed publicly.)  From this point on his well organized mind was given over to theology rather than the law. At the same time his theological associations became very dangerous to an increasingly suspicious French king, Francis I. In 1536, Calvin felt compelled to write, with all respect to his monarch, a reply to Francis' suspicions about the "protestants": The Institutes of the Christian Religion.  It was Calvin's hope that Francis, through this long essay, would come to understand that the protestants posed no threat to his rule--but only sought to revitalize the original Christian ideal on which the whole Christian realm ought to be properly based. Though it was the most compelling theological treatise explaining the protestant position--it did not have its intended effect of swaying the views of Francis. Calvin was compelled to leave France--arriving in the summer of 1536 at Geneva, where the protestant reformer Farel prevailed upon Calvin to stay in the city and help him with the reformed movement which was growing rapidly there.  But for Calvin, this proved to be a stormy proposition.  Geneva was an unruly city, and Calvin's natural bent toward orderliness and discipline made him many enemies in the city.  In the spring of 1538 Calvin and Farel were both banished from Geneva. Calvin made his way to Bucer's Strasbourg where he spent a happy three years, marrying and helping out with the reformed movement there.  He wrote a revised edition of his Institutes and began his very important series of biblical commentaries with his study of Romans. But in 1541, the old group partisan to Calvin urgently requested his return to Geneva.  Calvin somewhat reluctantly decided to make his return--but on his terms. Upon his return, Calvin organized (accepting many compromises with the city Council) the religious life of the city around his new Ordinances--the foundation of "Reformed" polity.  He also founded there a training school for protestant (i.e., "Reformed") theologians, which would in time become the University of Geneva. For more information on Calvin Calvin's major works or writings: Institutes of the Christian Religion On the Christian Life The Necessity of Reforming the Church (1543) Commentaries

Thomas Cranmer (1489-1556) English reformer John Knox (c. 1514-1572) John Knox is the great Protestant reformer of Scotland who not only brought Scotland to Presbyterianism in the mid 1500s, but also left a legacy that was key to shaping not only Presbyterian ("Reformed") Protestantism but also representative democracy in the American middle colonies (from New Jersey to South Carolina) in the 1600s and 1700s. As with many Protestant reformers, Knox began as a Catholic priest, highly discontent with the moral and spiritual corruption that had overtaken the Mother Church.  He was attracted to the Lutheran teachings of the early Scottish reformer, George Wishart; was appalled when in 1546 the Catholic cardinal had Wishart burned at the stake as a heretic; and then joined the group of rebels who moved to overthrow the hand of the Catholic church over Scotland.  This put him in opposition to the pro-French party that ruled Scotland--and when French troops in 1547 crushed this Protestant rebellion in Scotland, Knox was led off  to captivity as a French galley slave.  His release was finally secured by the pro-Protestant English King Edward VI, leading Knox to come to England to be a Protestant pastor and then chaplain to the King. But when Edward died in 1553 and Catholic Mary Tudor ("Bloody Mary") came to the throne, Knox left England and made his way eventually to Geneva Switzerland where he joined a community of English expatriates living and studying under the direction of the great Genevan reformer, John Calvin.  Knox took a great liking to both Calvin and his teachings and subsequently became a major voice in the English/Scottish reform movement not only in Geneva, but through letters, to a growing Protestant movement back in Scotland. He returned briefly to Scotland in 1555, became pastor of the English church in Geneva, and then finally in 1559 he returned definitively to Scotland to take over the spiritual leadership of the Protestant rebellion against the French-Catholic regent of Scotland, Mary of Guise.  Seeing that things were not going well in Scotland for the Protestant party, Queen Elizabeth of England came to their aid against the French in Scotland.  But when Mary of Guise died suddenly in 1560, the French Catholic cause in Scotland was dead.  Scotland was now won for Protestantism. At this point Knox and his supporters began to reshape the Scottish church--not only theologically along the lines of Calvin's Reformed Faith born in Geneva, but also politically in a way that was Knox's special contribution to the Protestant cause.  Knox took the idea of representative government characteristic of Calvin's reformed churches (communities lead by elected elders or "presbyters"), and applied it locally, regionally and nationally in total reversal of the top-down or hierarchical fashion of Catholic or "episcopalian" government.  Thus local councils ("Presbyteries"), regional councils ("Synods") and national councils ("General Assemblies") that presided over the faithful were made up of representatives not of the political rulers over the church but of the people themselves.  Thus was born "Presbyterian" or representative church government--the source of inspiration for the new Democratic or Republican forms of government that led eventually to the Constitution of 1789 underpinning the new American Republic. Despite success in the Protestant takeover of the church Scotland, the continuing existence of a Catholic monarchy in Scotland under Mary of Guise's daughter, Mary Queen of Scots, made life still highly problematic for Protestant Scotland--and for John Knox personally as the two locked wills in on-going battle.  But eventually Mary's poor diplomacy proved to be her undoing and in 1567 she was forced to flee to England, where Elizabeth put her under house arrest, where she remained for the rest of her life. In any case Knox, worn out and sickly, died from his labors in 1572.  But his work in  Scotland was carried forth faithfully by others, notably Andrew Melville. For more information on Knox Knox's major works or writings: “Faithful Admonition” (1554) "First Blast of the Trumpet against the Monstrous Regiment of Women," (1558) Scots Confession (1560) Book of Discipline (1561) Book of Common Order (1564) History of the Reformation in Scotland, (1564--though not published until 1584, after his death) An Answer to a Scottish Jesuit (1572) Menno Simmons (1496-1561) founder of the Mennonites Theodore Beza (1519-1605) Calvin's successor in Geneva Beza's major works or writings: Confession of the Christian Faith (1560)

Ximenes de Cineros Confessor of Queen Isabella and Grand Inquisitor of Spain during the late 1400s.  An early Spanish reformer, tightening up the moral discipline of the church in Spain:  brought the religious orders under royal authority, brought discipline to the monasteries, pushed the clergy to study Scripture more closely, and founded the university of Alcala (1498). Pope Paul III (1468-1549) Pope, 1534-1549 Gasparo Contarini (1483-1542) Ignatius Loyola (Don Ieigo Lopez de Recalde) (1491-1556) Ignatius was the founder of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits), a religious order--organized along military lines--of highly educated priests devoted to service to the Vatican, even personally to the Pope himself. Ignatius' major works or writings: Spiritual Exercises Robert Bellarmine (1542-1621) Bellarmine's major works or writings: Disputationes de controversiis Christianae fidei adversus huius temporis haereticos(1586-1593)     (Lectures on the Controversies of the Christian Faith Against the             Heretics of This Time) De Potestate Summi Pontificis in Rebus Temporalibus (1610)     (Concerning the Power of the Supreme Pontiff in Temporal Matters),

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John Foxe (1516-1587) Foxe's major works or writings: Commentarii rerum in ecclesia gestarum (Commentaries on Affairs Within the Church) (1554) Ad inclytos ac praepotentes Angliae proceres (To the Renowned and Powerful Nobles of England) (1557). Actes and Monuments of these Latter and Perillous Dayes (The Book of Martyrs) (1563) An Admonition to the Parliament (1572) The major manifesto of the Puritans published secretly in 1572.  The official Anglican response to the Admonition was issued by John Whitgift, vice chancellor of the University of Cambridge.  In turn, Thomas Cartwright responded to Whitgift's comments.  This debate was put forth in a number of books published during this period. Thomas Cartwright (1535-1603) English Puritan clergyman.  Professor at Cambridge and a widely acknowledged leader of the Puritans. Richard Hooker (1554-1600) Anglican theologian – who took a middle position between the Catholics and Calvinists.  Master of the Temple Church, 1585-1591.  He attempted to answer the Admonition with his own work, The Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity – a 5-volume work which was still being expanded at the time of his death. Hooker's major works or writings: Of the lawes of ecclesiasticall politie William Perkins (1558-1602) English Puritan Edward Coke (1532-1634) Coke was Chief Justice and Speaker of Parliament and an outspoken defender of the primacy of that institution as the foundation of true British government.  For his troubles he was removed from office by King James in 1616.  But he would later be brought back into the mainstream of British politics as the debate over royal perogatives began to grow. He carefully laid out a theory or defense of government based purely upon the principle of ancient, time-honored constitutional law--in distinction to one of divine rights, or of pure might.  He claimed that true law reached back to Anglo-Saxon times when supposedly all men lived under a regime of Common Law--one which had been deprived Englishmen by the Norman Conquest when English property and human rights were taken over by Norman usurpers.  It was the duty of all Englishmen to restore these ancient laws and place government on its true, legitimate footing--much as Englishmen had done in the days of King John when they forced him to come under the rule of the Magna Carta.  That was Parliament's abiding task--to keep government under the law (as Coke saw things). Coke's major works or writings: Institutes Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658) The Westminster Confession of Faith The Westminster Confession of Faith Richard Mather (1596-1669) Puritan minister in the Massachussetts Bay Colony (Dorchester) in America.  Barred from preaching in England, he came to Massachussetts in the "great migration" of 1635. He was co-author (with John Eliot) of the Bay Psalm Book (1640). He also introduced in 1662 the concept of the Half-Way Covenant, a much less rigorous set of requirements for membership in the church. This permitted children of the Puritan "saints" to join the church, even though they had not yet demonstrated a visible "call" which was the only pathway to full membership.  However members brought into the church on the basis of the Half-Way covenant could neither partake of the sacrament of the Lord's Supper nor could they vote in church matters.  This revived a lagging membership in the Congregational church--yet kept power in the hands of the few venerable "saints." James Usher Prepared the Irish Articles of 1615 Usher's major works or writings: Body of Divinitie John Wilkins (1614-1672) Oxford virtuosi; Puritan theologian and natural scientist; Oliver Cromwell's brother-in-law. Wilkins' major works or writings: A Discourse Concerning a New Planet Richard Baxter (1615-1691) Baxter's major works or writings: The Saints' Everlasting Rest John Bunyan (1628-1688) English Puritan Spiritualist Bunyan's major works or writings: Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners  (1666)  Pilgrim's Progress (1678)  The Holy War (1682) John Flavel (c. 1630-1691) Flavel's major works or writings The Fountain of Life opened up: or, A Display of Christ in his essential and     mediatorial glory The Method of Grace in the Gospel Redemption Christ Altogether Lovely On Keeping the Heart Increase Mather A Puritan pastor and political leader in the new Massachussetts Bay Colony in New England.  He strived to build in the new world the perfect, divine commonwealth on the basis of true believers.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF CONTINENTAL PROTESTANTISM (Mid-1500s Onward)