(1) Protestantism: Political History and Notable Figures

For this set, I try to exclude political figures or rulers of countries, who had a secular role to play even in their religious affairs; however, I included King Henry VIII because he essentially founded Anglicanism as a denomination

1140 - 1205 - Peter Waldo / Pierre Valdes (All Facts)

• Proto-Protestant French Christian Religious Reformer

• Moneylender from Lyons, France

• He converted to Christianity and began his namesake movement

  • This occurred due to his having been overcome with emotion on hearing a local storyteller talking about the death of St. Alexis

• He decided to take Jesus’s words “Go sell what thou hast and give to the poor” literally

  • He provided for his family and then used the rest of his wealth for bread and soup for the poor

  • His money ran out eventually

  • His example, however, attracted a constant flow of other rich converts, through which he continued his work

  • As a result, the poor were pleased but the Church feared for its authority

1328 - 1384 - John Wycliffe (All Facts)

• Proto-Protestant English Christian Religious Reformer, Priest, and Theology Professor

  • He was a renowned Oxford University scholar who delivered a series of lectures in which he moved from radical criticism of the church establishment to outright heresy

  • He was once the master of Balliol College

  • He left Oxford once the Blackfriars Council of 1382 condemned him and the Lollards / Lollardy Movement’s teachings

• He founded the Lollards / Lollardy Movement, which believed as he did that

  • the bread and wine are not miraculously changed into the body and blood of Jesus Christ literally, only symbolically

  • ordinary people can and should read the Bible for themselves, which rose the risk of a doctrinal free-for-all

• He launched attacks on papal authority which were sympathetically received in many regions

  • His attacks on papal power easily became critiques of state power

• Politically, he had many allies including John of Gaunt

  • Their support helped him to weather papal condemnation of a series of errors

• He died at Lutterworth, the parish to which he retired after leaving Oxford University

1328 - 1384 - John Wycliffe: On Civil Dominion (All Facts)

• Work which proposes a propertyless church and argued for direct access to God for individuals

1369 - 1415 - Jan Hus (All Facts)

• Proto-Protestant Bohemian (Czechian) Christian Religious Reformer

  • He urged a more literal interpretation of the Bible

  • He denied the infallibility of an immoral pope

  • He claimed the supremacy of the state over the Church

• He spoke out strongly against corruption in the Church, such as the selling of indulgences and buying of offices

  • He criticized the papacy for the sale of indulgences (absolutions from sin)

  • This made him a popular figure with the discontented poor, and thus a threat to both church and secular leaders

  • He adopted some of John Wycliffe’s ideas

• He was a popular preacher, teacher, and scholar

  • He preached in the Bethlehem Chapel, founded by two laymen as a center of religious revival

• He was also born of a peasant family in a Bohemian village and had closely identified with Czech nationalism, a clear threat to the German-dominated royal court in Bohemia at the time

• He was condemned by the Fathers of and convicted of heresy and burnt in the Council of Constance

  • He was immediately stripped of his vestments and turned over to the king’s men

  • He was led out of the city of Constance in Germany to a pyre and was offered a last chance to recant his views by King Sigismund of Hungary

1489 - 1525 - Thomas Müntzer (All Facts)

• German Preacher and Theologian

• Leader in the Protestant Reformation in Germany

• He preached in Zwickau

• He had radical political aspirations

• He clashed with Martin Luther

  • He advocated both social and religious reform while Luther advocated that religion was above political and social matters

• He supported (led) the German Peasants’ War / German Peasants’ Revolt

  • He was imprisoned and beheaded as a result

1482 - 1531 - Johannes Oecolampadius (All Facts)

• German Protestant Reformer

• He attended the Marburg Colloquy

1484 - 1531 - Ulrich Zwingli (All Facts)

• Effective Leader of the Protestant Reformation in Switzerland

  • He was a Swiss Theologian

  • He was from Zurich

  • He was initially a Catholic Priest

• He gradually received the support of the Zurich authorities in his attempts to reform the Roman Catholic Church

  • His reforms of the church service in Zurich went side by side with a court, jointly administered by magistrates and church elders

  • He banned the sale of indulgences in Zurich in Switzerland

  • He had the Zurich town council adopt his program of Protestant reforms

  • He made church attendance compulsory

  • He punished adultery

  • He had an alternative form of Holy Communion held in Zurich during the Swiss Reformation, which was of great simplicity with neither music nor singing

    • He presided over a table laid with beakers and wooden vessels

    • He served the congregation first, and then himself afterwards

• He

  • denounced the morals of the monks

  • condemned the

    • luxury of the Roman Catholic Church

    • worship of relics

  • helped ban in Swiss churches in Zurich, Berne, and Basle

    • Catholic iconography

    • the Mass

  • helped foster in Swiss churches in Zurich, Berne, and Basle

    • simple services

    • daily bible readings

• He

  • preached with a weak voice, but had a huge following

  • proved more radical than his influences, that being Martin Luther and Desiderius Erasmus

  • had a tough-minded emphasis on simplicity and independence from Rome, which had a strong appeal for the mountain peoples of Switzerland

• He

  • blended his religious ideas with appeals to Swiss nationalism / patriotism in his sermons

• He clashed with Ulrich Zwingli

  • He attended the Marbury Colloquy

• He launched a war on the Catholic Swiss cantons, but failed to win enough support from other Protestant cities

• He was disliked even amongst Protestants in Switzerland due to his having

  • attacked Swiss mercenaries, despite their being a major export earner for many Swiss cities

  • raised Zurich’s prestige above that of other Swiss cities

• He symbolized the new unity of the reformist preachers with the lay power of the cities

• He died in battle, accompanying the Swiss army as a chaplain but caught up in the fighting where his body was quartered and burnt

1523 - Ulrich Zwingli: 67 Articles (All Facts)

• Work in which the namesake author gave a summary of the gospel and then attacked the

  • authority of the pope

  • cult of the saints

  • doctrine of transubstantiation

• Work which was considered the first manifesto of the Swiss Reformation (Zurich Reformation)

1500 - 1534 - Jan Matthys (All Facts)

• Dutch Preacher and Charismatic

• He was the Anabaptist Leader of Munster during the Anabaptist Munster Rebellion

  • He ordered that no unbaptized adults should remain within the city, forcing all those to be baptized and convert in order that they do not get caught in the gauntlet of the besieging troops

• He was killed during the rebellion when he and 20 men tried to take on forces that besieged the city

1495 - 1535 - Bernard Rothmann (All Facts)

• German Preacher

• He was the Anabaptist Leader of Anabaptist Munster

  • He won the first townspeople of Munster to the Anabaptist cause when he

    • questioned infant baptism

    • promoted a community of goods among Christians

  • He was elected to the city council, the first of many to quickly overtake the Munster city council

• He was killed in the Anabaptist Munster Rebellion

1509 - 1536 - John of Leiden (All Facts)

• Dutch Preacher

• He was the Leader of the Anabaptists in Munster and in the Anabaptist Munster Rebellion

  • He dismissed the prior town council of Munster and proclaimed himself “King of New Zion” in Munster’s marketplace

• He held the record for Anabaptist polygamy, taking 16 wives and using the Old Testament to justify such an action, including the widow of his predecessor Jan Matthys

• He was seized and arrested following the end of the Anabaptist Munster Rebellion

1483 - 1546 - Martin Luther (All Facts)

• Leader of the Protestant Reformation

  • He was the effective leader of the Protestant Reformation in Germany (the Holy Roman Empire)

• He argued that

  • priests should not stand between men and the Bible

  • faith is a gift from God

  • faith, as a gift from God, cannot be gained by scholarship, despite what his contemporaries, the Humanists, believed

  • the pope was fallible

    • When he implied this, he was summoned to Rome to answer a charge of heresy on this point

• He published

  • the first German Mass

  • a book of hymns

  • a book of catechisms

• He

  • was born of peasant stock to a wealthy copper miner in Eisleben in Saxony

  • was totally committed to the needs of the ordinary people

  • studied nominalist philosophy at the University of Erfurt

  • eventually became an Augustinian monk after a dramatic experience in a thunderstorm in which he decided to enter a convent of the Austin Friars

  • studied St. Augustine heavily and fell in love with his work

  • became a doctor and professor at the University of Wittenberg while living at Austrian Friars

  • eventually abandoned his monastic life and vows as an Augustinian

• He

  • was a big, tough man with disturbing eyes

  • was often vulgar, coarse, and crude in his language and renown for his violent temper; but usually when focusing on the cause of ordinary people, who he felt were exploited and oppressed by the church and secular authorities

  • was immensely proud of his peasant blood, having come from peasant stock himself

  • laughed long, loud, and deeply

  • sang tenor

  • played the flute

  • had a happy home life

    • He married Katarina von Bora, a former nun

      • One time she told him he was too rude, to which he responded that “they [his enemies] teach me to be rude”

    • He fathered six children

• His lectures laid great stress on

  • the Epistles of St. Paul

  • his view that “the just shall live by faith” (“Sola Fide”)

• As a scholar, he was unusual in that

  • he had no sophistication or cunning

  • was open about his views and feelings

  • always wrote in plain language (German)

  • he always made sure to be in tune with the language of the common people by listening to phrases they use in the marketplace

• He deepened his rift with Rome after he published three pamphlets on reform

• During the (First) Imperial Diet of Augsburg,

  • He refused to retract his then-widely-circulated 95 Theses

• He was excommunicated after publicly burning Pope Leo X’s Exsurge Domine Papal Bull, which condemned his 95 Theses as “heretical and scandalous”

  • His breach with the Catholic Church became total when this occurred

  • However, the rebellious German princes helped him to establish the new churches and maintain the Protestant Reformation

• During the Imperial Diet of Worms, he

  • challenged the papal claim that the Papacy was to be the sole authority on the scriptures

  • questioned many of the rights of the priests

  • rejected the belief that bread and wine become the body and blood of Christ

  • affirmed Christians’ personal right to faith

  • moved the audience, whose revolutionary spirit Holy Roman Emperor Charles V feared would affect his power

• After the Imperial Diet of Worms, he

  • was “kidnapped” for his own safety by Duke Frederick of Saxony

  • rejected Ulrich von Hutten and Franz von Sickingen’s request to form a military branch of German knights to support him and his revolt against the Church

• He clashed with Thomas Müntzer

  • He considered religion to be above political and social matters; while Müntzer advocated both social and religious reform

• His teachings were one of the main causes of the German Peasants’ War / German Peasants’ Revolt

  • However, while he supported many of their aims, he condemned the revolt as a whole, especially because of the atrocities the protestors were carrying out

• He clashed with Ulrich Zwingli

  • He attended the Marbury Colloquy

• He failed to attend the Diet of Augsburg with Philip Melanchthon because he was still in exile from the Holy Roman Empire at that time

  • He made it clear he would not go along with armed resistance to Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, but his battle with Catholic theologians was as fierce as ever by this time

• He died at Eisleben in Saxony

  • His body was broken after years of overwork and illness

  • However, his mind was as clear as a bell right to the end

  • He died in a mood of total serenity, despite being renowned for his violent temper

1517 - Martin Luther: 95 Theses (All Facts)

• Work in which the namesake author argued against the sale of indulgences granting the forgiveness of sins, published on the eve of All Saints’ Day by him having posted the pamphlet on the front door of his church in Wittenberg

• These theses attacked the use of indulgences by the Roman Catholic Church

• They were written in Latin

• They mixed fine theological points with emotional attacks on Pope Leo X’s men

• He published these in reaction to his shock when he saw a Dominican named Johannes Tetzel travelling around Germany with a papal bull on a scarlet velvet cushion, auctioning indulgences like a common street peddler

• He argued that selling / auctioning indulgences does not justify suggesting to people that they can buy remission from their sins, even if the money if used to build religious structures like St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome

• In one thesis, he asserted that if the Pope knew of his preacher’s exactions, he would rather have St. Peter’s Basilica reduced to ashes than “built with the skin, flesh, and bones of his sheep”

• In another thesis, he asserted that any Christian who is truly repentant is entitled to forgiveness, without any indulgences

• Although these were not especially radical, especially in the context of contemporary and prior critics of the Roman Catholic Church, his students who attended his lectures at the University said that the namesake publisher was an unusual man who was developing a radical theology which could easily bring him into head-on collision with the Roman Catholic Church

• Work which was condemned by Pope Leo X as “heretical and scandalous”

1525 - Martin Luther: Against the Murdering Thieving Hordes of Peasants (All Facts)

• Work in which the namesake author condemned (condemns) the German Peasants’ War / German Peasants’ Revolt

• Work in which the namesake author writes that, “you cannot meet a rebel with reason” and “[that] your best answer is [to] punch him in the face until he has a bloody nose”

• Work which the namesake author wrote because he was deeply shocked by the atrocities committed by the German Peasants (many of whose aims he initially supported), such as when peasants speared the Count of Helfenstein in front of his wife and child at Weinsberg

1534 - Martin Luther: Luther(an) (German) Bible (All Facts)

• Work which consists of the Bible in the (plain) German language, translated by the namesake in his most ambitious work

• Work which allowed Germans who did not understand Latin to be able to read the Bible for themselves

  • Work which allowed the thousands of poor Germans who could not previously read the Holy Scriptures to be able to do so

• Work which allowed the common Germans to purchase it because it could be bought relatively cheaply because of the recent boom in printing presses

• Work which contains thrilling narrative, not dull theology

1513 - 1546 - George Wishart (All Facts)

• Scottish Protestant Reformer

• He preached the Lutheran doctrine of sola fide

• He was burnt to death on the orders of Cardinal Beaton

1509 - 1547 - Henry VIII (All Facts)

• Effective Leader of the Protestant Reformation in England

• During his reign, he instituted the English Reformation in which

  • he initiated the movement by rejecting Pope Clement VII’s denial of his annulment to divorce his first wife Catherine of Aragon and thus formally broke with the Roman Catholic Church, but which had also occurred due to the first printing of the Bible in English under his reign

  • The English Reformation Parliament took place, in which

    • the House of Commons put forth bills against abuses amongst the clergy and in the church courts of England

    • they passed the

      • Submission of the Clergy Act

      • Supremacy Act

      • Succession Act

      • Suppression of Religious Houses Act

    • the Court of Augmentations was established

  • he oversaw, via his Principal Secretary Thomas Cromwell, and as a result of the Suppression of Religious Houses Act, the Dissolution of Monasteries, in which he appointed a commission to report on the state of monasteries in England and had his Principle Secretary Thomas Cromwell monitor it,

    • which he desired in order to

      • acquire the wealth of the monasteries to fund

        • The Crown

        • His military campaigns

      • consolidate his power and authority over the Catholic Church

      • redistribute some of its assets

        • to those who supported him in order to ensure their future support

        • as auctions in order to build new family fortunes at the time that would base their fortune on the Dissolution of the Monasteries including the families of

          • William Cavendish

          • Richard Rich

    • which had the effect of having

      • disbanded all Catholic Church properties in England, Wales, and Ireland

      • seized their wealth

      • redistributed their wealth to the Crown of England and to fund King Henry VIII’s military campaigns

      • disposed of their assets

      • destroyed buildings and relics

      • dispersed or destroyed libraries

      • provided for their former personnel and functions

        • former abbots, monks, and nuns were given pensions; however clerical unemployment rose significantly during this movement

      • turned many of the nearly 800 church properties sold into private homes for the Gentry class

      • ceased the Church’s system of distributing alms, thus causing hardship amongst England’s poor

      • made it so that monks and abbots no longer sat in the House of Lords, having lost political power in addition to religious authority

      • made him the richest king in Europe

  • he and his royalist forces brutally suppressed Robert Aske and the Pilgrimage of Grace Catholic revolt against him and the English Reformation

  • he increasingly sought the support of Parliament to his need to carry public opinion with him as he attacked the Roman Catholic Church

• He maintained a strict orthodox theology despite his matrimonial problems; having written “Defense of the Seven Sacraments” against Martin Luther and was named “Defender of the Faith” by Pope Leo X for doing so

1539 - Great Bible (All Facts)

• First English Bible authorized and used by the Church of England during the reign of King Henry VIII

1552 - King Edward VI: Book of Common Prayer (All Facts)

• Its use was enforced throughout England / the Church of England by the Act of Uniformity, passed in the same year the namesake was published

1511 - 1553 - Michael Servetus (All Facts)

• Spanish Theologian and Humanist and Unitarian

• He was a fugitive from the Spanish Inquisition

  • He preached in Geneva as a refugee

• He was burnt at the stake in Geneva on the orders of John Calvin for heresy as his attack on the trinity was intolerable

1531 - Michael Servetus: On the Errors of the Trinity (All Facts)

• Work which denies the Trinity and the divinity of Christ

1487 - 1555 - Hugh Latimer (All Facts)

• He served as Church of England chaplain to King Edward VI of England

• English Protestant Bishop who was burnt at the stake under the reign of Queen Mary of England

• He was one of the many “Oxford Martyrs”

1500 - 1555 - Nicholas Ridley (All Facts)

• He was considered a greatly respected friend of the poor in England at the time

• English Protestant Bishop who was burnt at the stake under the reign of Queen Mary of England

• He is one of the many “Oxford Martyrs”

1489 - 1556 - Thomas Cranmer (All Facts)

• Archbishop of Canterbury during the reign of King Henry VIII and King Edward VI of England

  • Leader of the English Reformation

  • Martyr of the Church of England

  • He was a favorite of Anne Boleyn’s already

• He declared Henry VIII of England’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon void and he declared Henry VIII of England’s marriage to Anne Boleyn valid

  • Nevertheless, he took the oath of allegiance to the pope protesting that he is doing so “for form’s sake”

• He issued England’s “The Book of Common Prayer,” the moderate Protestant Prayer Book of the Church of England during the English Reformation

  • Its use throughout England was enforced by the Act of Uniformity

• He drew up “The 42 Articles” of the Church of England, the official doctrinal statement of the Church of England under the reign of King Edward VI

  • He had help from a committee of six to draft the articles, which supplemented the new Protestant prayer book

• He was imprisoned for heresy and executed and burnt at the stake on the orders of Queen Mary of England

1549 - Thomas Cramner: Book of Common Prayer (All Facts)

• Its use was enforced throughout England / the Church of England by the Act of Uniformity, passed in the same year the namesake was published

1560 - Geneva Bible (All Facts)

• Bible favored by clergy and laypeople during the reign of Queen Elizabeth

• King James believed there were seditious comments in this version, which was sufficient to produce his own version

1497 - 1560 - Philip Melanchthon (All Facts)

• German Protestant (Lutheran) Reformer

  • He was a loyal disciple of Martin Luther, who did not compromise with the Holy Roman Empire or any other entity on matters of essential doctrine

  • He was a close associate of Martin Luther

  • He was influenced by the humanism of Desiderius Erasmus

• He drafted the Augsburg Confession

  • He attended the (Second) Diet of Augsburg to present it

  • He was a pacifist who wanted to avoid common cause with the more rebellious Swiss

• He became the spiritual leader of the Lutheran Church after Martin Luther’s death

• He made great efforts to reconcile opposing factions amongst the Protestant Reformers

  • He attended the Marburg Colloquy

• He died at Wittenberg

1496 - 1561 - Menno Simons (All Facts)

• Frisian Anabaptist Leader

  • He was formerly a Roman Catholic Priest

• He imposed rigid discipline on the Anabaptist sect, saving it from extinction under persecution in northern Europe

  • It is from his name that the namesake branch of Anabaptists get their name

1509 - 1564 - John Calvin (All Facts)

• Effective Leader of the Protestant Reformation in France

• Father of his namesake Protestant ideology and movement

  • His name lends itself to the founding of his namesake Church movement and founding academy at the University of Geneva in Switzerland

• French Protestant Reformer, Theologian, and Pastor

  • He was a convert to Protestantism, inspired by Martin Luther and his ideas

  • He published his works and spread his ideas in Geneva in Switzerland, given

    • the ardent Catholicism of his native France

    • Geneva’s being a citadel of the Reformed Church at the time

    • Geneva’s opportunities for him to preach there, emphasizing his own zeal for reform

  • He was initially expelled from Geneva, though, prior to their accepting the full force of the Protestant Reformation

  • He joined William Farel in demanding that every citizen swear to the Confession of Faith, on pain of banishment

    • However, the council rejected this reform and he and Farel were banished once again

• He became Geneva’s religious leader after initially being banned a religious extremist

  • He was recalled to Geneva in Switzerland after his being expelled there

  • When recalled to Geneva, he implemented his original scheme for the creation of a godly government (with him at its head)

  • He recreated the city in the rigid image of his own Protestant orthodoxy

  • He was a lawyer (and son of a lawyer) and relished the practical details of government

• He reached an agreement about the Eucharist with the followers of Ulrich Zwingli

• He taught and influenced John Knox (founder of Scottish Presbyterianism)

• He ordered the execution via burning at the stake of Michael Servetus

  • His decision was allegedly taken on religious grounds, however Servetus was considered the namesake’s rival and the namesake said he would deal with him harshly if (and when) he came to Geneva

• He died in Geneva, wrapped in a coarse shroud and buried without an address or a hymn

• His collected works were published posthumously

1536 - John Calvin: Institutes of the Christian Religion (All Facts)

• Work in which the namesake author lays out a full statement of his beliefs, including his doctrine of predestination

  • It lays out the doctrine of predestination, that

    • God has already chosen the elect (those who will be saved and go to heaven)

    • nobody, however devout, can alter such a divine decree

    • what determines whether one is chosen or damned cannot be explained

    • only the immoral would dare question who is and is not predestined for salvation

  • It lays out the namesake author’s view of sin in which he argued that

    • man is an insignificant creature dominated by the taint of original sin which followed the expulsion from Eden

    • man, when left alone, is incapable of good and is no more than a prey for every temptation unless he devotes himself to the abject adoration of God

    • man can only live a proper life if he submits himself to divine omnipotence

  • Its essential dogma consisted of the omnipotence and omniscience of God

    • Unlike Martin Luther, who concentrated on man and his sins; this work turns its attention to God and His awesome power, in which God must be worshipped and shown fear

• Work in which the namesake author argues that such devotion to God may not lead him to salvation (heaven), but should satisfy his need to adore a greater being than his lowly self

• Work whose namesake author wrote with the aim of putting an end to the various strands of Protestantism

• Work which the namesake author dedicated to King Francis of France

• Work published during the namesake author’s stay in Strasbourg in Basel in Switzerland

1541 - John Calvin: Ecclesiastical Ordinances (All Facts)

• Work in which the namesake author lays out the basis of Geneva’s government of both church and state

• Work in which the namesake author, a religious zealot, recognizes that he cannot conceive of a government that is anything but subject to the religion of its citizens

• Work in which the namesake author

  • denies that people have free will

  • believes in individual piety, thus every vestige of one’s life must be controlled

• Work whose namesake subject

  • firmly states and clearly lays down what is right and what is wrong, demanding a strict moral order and unswerving religious conformism (in Geneva)

  • deals with the regulation of funerals and marriages

  • states that clergy are authorized to visit all parishes annually, to ensure that they are living properly Christian lives

  • created an improved city code

  • forbids

    • dancing

    • the wearing of slashed breeches

    • the use of folk remedies

    • many everyday pastimes

  • are to be administered by several groups of officials

    • who

      • are all appointed rather than elected

      • meet at the weekly consistory and examine the state of morals (in Geneva)

      • may summon and punish any alleged sinner

    • that include

      • pastors, who deal with religious orthodoxy

      • elders, who deal with public morals

      • doctors, who deal with secular and spiritual education

        • they are appointed, in turn, by the pastors

• Work which stated that only the spiritual health of Geneva’s citizens ultimately mattered, as opposed to their physical health

• Work which lays out that, within the Genevan Republic, the laws of church and state are virtually inseparable, in that

  • Citizenship depends on orthodoxy; whereas perfect orthodoxy includes absolute respect for the state

1489 - 1565 - William Farel (All Facts)

• (French) Founder of Calvinism / the Calvinist Movement in Switzerland

• French Protestant Reformer and Evangelist

  • He made up for his lack of learning with a fiery eloquence

• He founded the Reformed Church (Calvinism) in (French) in Geneva in Switzerland

  • Until the Protestant Reformation was adopted in Geneva, he was compelled to leave the city for preaching his (Calvinist) views twice

  • After overcoming initial opposition from the Catholic hierarchy in Switzerland, he set about establishing Protestantism

  • The more the bishops attacked his preaching, the more the people flocked to hear it

  • His life’s work eventually contributed to and made possible the convention of the Grand Council of Geneva, which solemnly swore to live according to the word of God

  • He instituted the Swiss Reformation in Geneva when he returned there a third time after having been compelled to leave the city twice, and met at the city council in the cathedral where the Swiss Reformation was officially adopted

1568 - Bishops Bible (All Facts)

• Bible in authorized and used by the Church of England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth

• Bible favored by bishops during the reign of Queen Elizabeth, it was not popular throughout England

1514 - 1572 - John Knox (All Facts)

• Founder of the Church of Scotland

  • He was a Scottish Protestant Reformer

  • He was a disciple of George Wishart

  • He was a disciple of John Calvin (Calvinist)

    • He went to Geneva in Switzerland became strongly influenced by John Calvin there

    • He returned to Scotland and began to preach Calvinism

    • He then was forced to flee to Geneva when condemned to further exile for his Protestant beliefs in then-Catholic Scotland at the time

    • He returned to Scotland when they rebelled against Queen Mary of Scotland (in 1559)

• He was the leader of the Scottish Reformation

  • He advocated for and preached Calvinism amongst the Scottish people

  • He drafted the Scots Confession, the Protestant Confession of Faith which Parliament accepted which renounced papal authority in Scotland and forbade the saying of Mass there

  • He essentially laid the foundations for Presbyterianism

• He was captured by royalist forces at St. Andrew’s Castle after a siege

  • St. Andrew’s Castle was being held by Protestants since the assassination of Cardinal Beaton

  • After his capture at St. Andrew’s Castle, he was exiled and condemned to the French galleys by the regent Mary of Guise under the reign of Queen Mary

  • He spent two years in prison after being captured by the French

  • After the English intervened, he was released and fled to Geneva, where he was inspired by Calvin’s teachings

• He died in Edinburgh

1558 - John Knox: First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Women (All Facts)

• Work in which the namesake author argues that rule by women is contrary to the Bible, thus attacking female monarchs of his time (like Queen Mary of Scotland and Queen Mary of England)

• Work in which the namesake author later conceded to Queen Elizabeth of England that it was mainly aimed at the pro-French Queen mother in Scotland, Mary of Lorraine, and her daughter Mary of Guise and her marriage to King Francis II (not at all female monarchs)

1560 - John Knox: (First) Book of Discipline (All Facts)

• Work in which the namesake author sets out a (new at the time) Scottish church constitution based on the Calvinist model

1559 - 1575 - Matthew Parker (All Facts)

• Archbishop of Canterbury during the reign of Queen Elizabeth of England

  • He was chaplain to Anne Boleyn

• Under his leadership, Anglican church services were reintroduced throughout England

1528 - 1590 - Jakob Andreae (All Facts)

• German Lutheran Theologian and Protestant Reformer

• He was the Chancellor at the University of Tubingen

1577 / 1580 - Jakob Andreae: Formula of Concord / Book of Concord (All Facts)

• Work which comprised a formidable tract of some 17K words

• Work which was designed to heal divisions in the Lutheran church at the time

• Work which was published on the day of the jubilee of the Augsburg Confession

• Work which reaffirms (reaffirmed) the Augsburg Confession as the heart of Lutheran doctrine, after the Bible and the “three creeds”

• Work which is conciliatory in tone to Catholic, but fiercely attacks Calvinist views of presedestination as “all false, horrifying, and blasphemous”

1519 - 1605 - Theodore Beza (All Facts)

• French Calvinist Protestant (Huguenot) Reformer, Pastor, Theologian, and Writer

• Co-Founder of the University of Geneva in Switzerland, an academy for the teaching of Calvinist theology

  • He succeeded John Calvin as rector of the Academy of Geneva

• He represented the Huguenot position at the Colloquy of Poissy

• He wrote poetry, histories, treatises, and pamphlets

1553 - Theodore Beza: Abraham Sacrifiant (All Facts)

1560 - 1609 - Jacobus Arminius (All Facts)

• Dutch Reformed Minister and Theologian during the Protestant Reformation whose views became the basis of Arminianism and the Dutch Remonstrant Movement

1554 - 1612 - John Smith (All Facts)

• Founder of the Baptists / Baptist Movement in England

• He was a preacher from Gainsborough

• He

  • believed in rejecting infant baptism in favor of adult baptism because

    • Baptism is not simply “washing in water” but also “baptism of the Spirit, the confession of the mouth”

    • Infants cannot possibly appreciate the importance of Baptism

    • Adult Baptism thus is a more fitting ceremony

• He

  • refused to read the Holy Bible in anything but the original Hebrew or Greek

  • rejected Calvinist doctrines of predestination and original sin

• He

  • caused great controversy

  • faced continuous persecution in England

  • emigrated to Amsterdam in the Netherlands as a result of the persecution they faced

• He

  • wrote “The Retraction of his Errors and the Confirmation of the Truth,” which affirmed the belief for which he was exiled to the Netherlands but withdrew his condemnation of his opponents, which had been fierce and uncompromising

1563 - 1624 - Henry Jacob (All Facts)

• English Calvinist Clergyman

  • He was associated with the Brownists

• He founded the first true Congregationalist Church in England

• Lead signer of the Millenary Petition to King James of Scotland which culminated in the Hampton Court Conference

1575 - 1624 - Jakob Bohme (All Facts)

• German Lutheran Theologian, Mystic, Philosopher, Theosophist, and Shoemaker

1612 - Jakob Bohme: Aurora (All Facts)

• Work which comprises revelations and meditations on God, man, and nature

• Work in which the namesake author shows a remarkable familiarity with alchemical writings as well as the scriptures

• Work which was condemned by the ecclesiastical authorities at the time of its publication

1623 - Jakob Bohme: Mysterium Magnum (All Facts)

1603 - 1625 - James (All Facts)

• He presided over the Hampton Court Conference in which he debated Henry Jacob and the Puritans after being given their Millenary Petition which resulted in

  • The revision of the original and publication of the new Book of Common Prayer

  • The publication of his namesake version of the Holy Bible (KJV)

    • Thus, during his reign, he authorized the publication of his namesake Holy Bible, or KJV translation, as a concession to these demands of Protestant clergy for reform

  • These were the only concessions the namesake made to the Puritans, having dashed Puritan hopes that he would reform the Church of England along the lines suggested by the Millenary Petition

1604 - King James: Book of Common Prayer (All Facts)

• Revision of the namesake that was published due to the Hampton Court Conference

1611 - King James / Robert Barker: King James Version, Holy Bible / KJV (All Facts)

• Authorized, backed, and published during the reign of the namesake for the purposes of conceding to the demands of Protestant (Puritan) clergy for reform

  • Printed by the namesake’s printer Robert Barker

• Bible translation that was produced over the course of seven years by 54 scholars based in Oxford, Cambridge, and Westminster using much of the original Hebrew and Greek

  • It was then reviewed by a committee of 12 scholars led by Thomas Bilson and Miles Smith, who put the finishing touches to its final version

• Critics of its time were impressed by the majesty and music of the rhythm of its language

  • The unity of the style it achieved was most impressive; nobody would have guessed it was the work of a committee

1552 - 1630 - Agrippina d’Aubigne (All Facts)

• French Huguenot Poet, Historian and Soldier

• He fought in the French Wars of Religion

1550s - 1633 - Robert Browne (All Facts)

• English Separatist who opposed but was later reconciled to the Anglican liturgy, having initially fled to Holland

• He founded his namesake religious movement

1576 - 1638 - Jonas Michaelius (All Facts)

• Dutch Reformed Minister

• He was the first to arrive and preach in New Amsterdam in the colonies

1563 - 1641 - Franciscus Gomarus (All Facts)

• Dutch Theologian whose views became the basis of the Gomarists and the Gomarist / Counter-Remonstrant Movement

1643 - Robert Barker (All Facts)

• Printer of the KJV for King James of England

• He authored the infamous “Wicked Bible” which contained a typo in the command “Thou shall not commit adultery” in that it was rendered “Thou shall commit adultery”

1633 - 1645 - William Laud (All Facts)

• Archbishop of Canterbury during the reign of King Charles

• He sought to enforce the liturgy of the Church of England very close to Catholicism, alienating and provoking rebellion among both English Puritans and Scottish Presbyterians

  • He attempted to introduce the Church of England’s Book of Common Prayer and church practices into Scotland, but Scotland rebelled against it

• He was impeached and committed to the Tower of London and executed for treason by Parliament during the Long Parliament during the First English Civil War

1586 - 1656 - Georg Calixtus (All Facts)

• German Lutheran Theologian

1650 - Georg Calixtus: Judgment on the Theological Controversies Agitated Between Lutherans and the Reformed (All Facts)

• Work in which the namesake author attempts to reconcile Lutherans / Lutheranism with Calvinists / Calvinism

1600 - 1669 - William Prynne (All Facts)

• English Puritan Lawyer, Polemicist, and Pamphleteer

  • He was a prominent Puritan opponent of church policy under William Laud

• He was imprisoned and mutilated for seditious writings

  • He had what was left of his ears cut off in punishment for further publications he wrote while in prison

1609 - 1676 - Gerrard Winstanley (All Facts)

• Founder of the Diggers / Digger Movement in England

  • He was an English Religious Reformer, Political Philosopher, and Social Activist

• When he was asked to take off his hat for Thomas Fairfax upon his and his followers’ arrest, he refused, and said that any rights to common land claimed by lords of manors had ended with King Charles’ defeat in the English Civil War

  • Although Thomas Fairfax did not take action against him, local landowning squires prosecuted the namesake and he had been fined for trespassing on their land

1605 - 1682 - Thomas Browne (All Facts)

• English Writer

1643 - Thomas Browne: Religio Medici (All Facts)

• Reflective study of a doctor’s spiritual life

• Work in which the namesake author mulls over the relation between his medical profession and his Christian faith

1617 - 1688 - Ralph Cudworth (All Facts)

• English Philosopher, Theologian, Anglican Clergyman, and Christian Hebraist

• He belonged to the Cambridge Platonist group of Christian Humanists associated with the religiously tolerant “Latitudinarian” followers of Arminius

1678 - Ralph Cudworth: True Intellectual System (All Facts)

• Work in which the namesake author admits mental as well as material forces to science

1628 - 1688 - John Bunyan (All Facts)

• English Writer and Preacher

  • He became a Baptist minister

• He began preaching in the Midlands of England, where he rapidly gained a reputation as a powerful speaker and drew large and enthusiastic crowds

• He was arrested for preaching other than in a parish church, a practice which locate magistrates of England began to prosecute after the Stuart Restoration

• He was imprisoned in Bedford county jail

1656 - John Bunyan: Some Gospel Truths Opened (All Facts)

• Work which vigorously attacked Quakers / the Quaker Movement

1665 - John Bunyan: The Holy City (All Facts)

• Work written while the namesake author was serving a more than dozen-year-long prison sentence for preaching other than in a parish church

1678 - John Bunyan: The Pilgrim’s Progress (All Facts)

• Work written while the namesake author was serving a more than dozen-year-long prison sentence for preaching other than in a parish church

• Work which is a remarkable allegory of the true Christian life, laying out in the form of a dream of a man named Christian and his journey in life from the City of Destruction to the Celestial City

  • On his way to his destination he

    • visits such places as Vanity Fair and the Slough of Despond

    • meets many characters including Mr. Worldly Wiseman and Giant Despair

• Work which was equally popular among the learned and the uneducated

• Work which is notable for

  • its clarity of the English language and being the first novel written in English

  • its vivid images

  • the namesake author’s sense of the world

• Work which was an allegorical journey through life, told in plain prose with a wealth of narrative detail that overrode the narrow puritanism of its namesake author

1682 - John Bunyan: The Holy War (All Facts)

• Complex allegorical work

1615 - 1691 - Richard Baxter (All Facts)

• Nonconformist Clergyman in England

1650 - Richard Baxter: The Saints’ Everlasting Rest (All Facts)

1624 - 1691 - George Fox (All Facts)

• Founder of the Quakers / Quaker Movement in England (also known as the Society of Friends)

  • He was initially a shoemaker

  • He began preaching after he was convinced that he was summoned by the Holy Spirit for him and his followers to reject the Church of England

  • He founded this sect during England’s “Puritan Revolution”

• He taught that the essence of Christianity was the “inward light” in every man that needs no minister, sacraments, or liturgy

• After three years of spreading Quaker beliefs throughout the colonies, he returned to Rhode Island

1614 - 1702 - Margaret Fell (All Facts)

• Founder and leader of the Quakers / Quaker Movement in England (also known as the Society of Friends)

  • She came from an educated, land-owning family

  • Prior to marrying George Fox, she was a devout mother of nine and widow

  • She helped Fox to develop the political organization of the Quakers / Quaker Movement

• Her campaign for religious freedom was based on the Quaker doctrine that the Christian spirit in people has no need for church services conducted by paid ministers to sustain it

• When Quakers were sent to prison, she pleaded King Charles II for their release

  • She was denied and later sent to prison herself for refusing to take the Oath of Allegiance to the king

1666 - Margaret Fell: Women’s Speaking Justified, Proved and Knowed of the Scriptures (All Facts)

• Work in which the namesake author explains the revolutionary ideas of Quakerism and that of her husband

1649 - 1705 - Titus Oates (All Facts)

• English Priest who fabricated the “Popish Plot” to overthrow King Charles II and attributed (Catholic) Jesuit priests as the culprit, initiating a wave of anti-Catholic hysteria under King Charles II

  • He claimed to have discovered a “Popish Plot” to assassinate King Charles II and put James II on the throne

  • This caused crowds of people to roam the streets of London and threaten Catholics there

1635 - 1715 - Thomas Burnet (All Facts)

• English Theologian and Writer

1681 - Thomas Burnet: Sacred History of the Earth (All Facts)

• Work which develops fantastic ideas on evolution

1644 - 1718 - William Penn (All Facts)

• English Writer and Theologian

  • He was a religious thinker and influential Quaker

  • He is better known for having founded the Province (colony) of Pennsylvania and city of Philadelphia