The Reformers

From what were motivated?

Of course, by faith. Each of these men and women firmly believed that the Bible was the Word of God. They spent their life studying the Bible, to pray and serve the Lord in obedience, even when this led them to martyrdom.

What was their message?

Each of them was for the Scripture alone, that is, the Bible as the only authority and as the only source for explaining Christian doctrines, thereby refusing, every tradition of the Catholic Church. Reasons that led to the Reform were the riches and corruptions that existed at the time in the clergy and in the church, which seemed to Luther to be quite antithetical to Christianity. It was for this reason that he immersed himself in the study of Scripture and also translated it into German, to let his people read it. Many after him followed his example.

In the years between 1500 and the 1650 many incredible changes took place all over Europe, and all of this influenced both the history of the church and society. Officially, the beginning of the Reformation dates back to 31 October 1517, When Martin Luther posted his 95 Thesis on the door of the cathedral of Wittemberg. The Reformation lasted several centuries and involved many people and many nations.

Chronological line of the Reformers

The Pre-Reformers

Peter Valdo (1140 – 1217) he was a rich merchant who lived in Lyon, in France. After listening to a song about God, he asked a priest the best way to be saved. The priest recited a verse of Matteo 19:21: “If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give it to the poor, and you will have a treasure in heaven; then, come and follow me ". And so he did. Valdo got rid of everything by giving it to the poor and began to live a life in poverty and in spiritual communion with God. His followers were known as Waldenses. They believed that the Bible was the sole authority and rejected all the traditions and teachings of the Catholic Church. For this reason they were persecuted for centuries.

John Wycliffe (1329-84) he was an important late medieval English reformer. He was a leading philosopher of the University of Oxford and was therefore invited to serve in the court of John of Gaunt. He fell into conflict with the church and was condemned by the Pope in 1377, because he declared that the government should take property away from the corrupt clergy. In 1382 he moved from Oxford to Lutterworth. One of his greatest successes was the new translation of the Vulgate Bible into English. His followers became known as “Lollardi”.

Jan Hus (1374-1415) he was ordained a priest in 1401 and spent most of his teaching career at Charles University in Prague. Strongly influenced by Wyclif, he emphasized the role of Sola Scriptura as the sole authority. Although he defended the traditional authority of the ordained clergy, he taught that only God was able to forgive sins. In 1415 he participated in the Council of Constance to defend his faith. He was tried and burned at the stake, without the possibility of explaining his beliefs.

Girolamo Savonarola (1452 – 1498), was a Dominican friar who lived in Florence in Italy. Era “fire and sulfur”, preacher and prophet, who preached strongly against the church, with the same message of penance, as did John the Baptist. He was Puritan and during the Florentine Carnival in 1497, organized the “bonfire of the vanities”. Pope Alexander VI excommunicated him, and together with him, his fellow friars, Domenico da Pescia and Silvestro Maruffi. He was hanged and burned in Piazza Signoria in Florence on 23 May 1498.

Martin Luther (1483 – 1546) nato a Eisleben, he studied law and then entered the Erfurt monastery, before becoming a professor of theology in Wittenberg. He preached only grace, faith alone, only Christ, only the scriptures and only to God the glory. His teachings sparked the Reformation.

Filippo Melatone (1497–1560) German scholar and humanist. He was a professor of Greek at the University of Wittenberg, when he met Luther, and they soon became friends. he was able to explain the new gospel to those outside the movement. To the Diet of Augusta (1530) wrote and presented the Augsburg Confession. He was second only to Martin Luther as a figure in the Lutheran Reformation.

Mrtin Bucer (1491-1551) he was a Swiss reformer. He was a Dominican friar and, like Luther, he left the order and married a former nun. He went to Strasbourg in 1523 and became a leading statesman among the reformers. In 1549 he was forced to leave Strasbourg and went to live in England.

John Calvin (1509-1564) born in France, he became a lawyer and then a theology student. He wrote the Introduction to the Christian Religion. E’ was introduced to Luther's teachings, while he was a student in Paris and agreed with Luther on predestination. He created the Reformed tradition in Protestantism.

Ulrich Zwingli (1484 – 1531) born in Switzerland and has always believed in the Bible as a sole and absolute authority. Zwingli's theology and morality are based on a single principle: if the Old or New Testament hadn't said something explicitly and literally, then no Christian should have believed or practiced it. He denounced the use of music, images and sculptures in the church. He did not agree with Luther, as he believed that the bread and wine was just a commemoration and not literally the blood and body of Christ as Luther claimed, like the Catholic Church.

Theodore Beza (1519-1605) he was a lawyer and a poet. Like Calvino, the leader of Reformed Protestantism in Geneva, Switzerland, became one of the main advisors of the Huguenots in France. Like Luther, he was a talented translator and his versions of the New Testament in Latin and Greek served as the source for the Bibles of Geneva and King James. He married Claude Desnoz, but he had no children.

John Knox (1505 – 1572) was the reforming leader and founder of the Presbyterian Church of Scotland. Knox studied at St. Andrews, then he became a Roman Catholic priest. Around 1543, he learned of the Reformation and its teachings through George Wishart, which he had studied following Martin Luther. After Wishart suffered martyrdom, Knox took control. In 1574 he went to England where he worked for ten years. After a few years with Calvino in Geneva, returned to Scotland, in 1559. His famous book is “The history of the Reformation in Scotland” (The History of the Reformation in Scotland).

Katharina Von Bora (1499 – 1552) she was the beautiful and talented wife of Martin Luther. She was placed by her stepmother in a convent of nuns in 6 years, after the death of his mother. In 1522, together with other nuns who had read the Gospel and Luther's writings, he accepted the message of salvation and fled the convent. He then lived with the artist Lucas Cranach and his family. In June 1525 she married Martin Luther and they had 6 sons.

William Tyndale (1496 – 1561) he was a theologian and scholar and spoke eight languages. He was the first man to exploit Gutenberg's invention of printing to publish the New Testament in English. The Tyndale Bible Translation, including comments, was placed on the Index of Forbidden Books and he was condemned as a heretic. Henry VIII ordered it to be burned at the stake in 1536.