John Wycliffe

John Wycliffe was an English Scholastic philosopher, theologian, lay preacher, translator, reformer
and university teacher at Oxford in England, who was known as an early dissident in the Roman
Catholic Church during the 14th century. His followers were known as Lollards, a somewhat
rebellious movement, which preached anticlerical and biblically-centred reforms. The Lollard
movement was a precursor to the Protestant Reformation (for this reason, Wycliffe is sometimes
called "The Morning Star of the Reformation"). He was one of the earliest opponents of papal
authority influencing secular power.
Wycliffe was also an early advocate for translation of the Bible into the common language. He
completed his translation directly from the Vulgate into vernacular English in the year 1382, now
known as Wycliffe's Bible. It is probable that he personally translated the Gospels
of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John; and it is possible he translated the entire New Testament, while
his associates translated the Old Testament. Wycliffe's Bible appears to have been completed by
1384, with additional updated versions being done by Wycliffe's assistant John Purvey and others in
1388 and 1395.

Jan Huss
Jan Hus often referred to in English as John Hus or John Huss, was a Czech priest, philosopher,
reformer and master at Charles University in Prague. After John Wycliffe, the theorist of
ecclesiastical Reformation, Hus is considered the first Church reformer, as he lived
beforeLuther, Calvin and Zwingli.
Hus was a key predecessor to the Protestant movement of the sixteenth century, and his teachings
had a strong influence on the states of Europe, most immediately in the approval of a reformist
Bohemian religious denomination, and, more than a century later, on Martin Luther himself.
[1]
He
was burned at the stake for heresy against thedoctrines of the Catholic Church, including those
on ecclesiology, the Eucharist, and other theological topics.
After his death in 1415, the followers of Hus's religious teachings (known as Hussites) rebelled
against their Roman Catholic rulers and defeated five consecutive papalcrusades between 1420 and
1431 in what became known as the Hussite Wars.
[2]
A century later, as many as 90% of inhabitants
of the Czech lands were non-Catholic and some still follow the teachings of Hus and his
successors.
[3]


Desiderius Erasmus
Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus , known as Erasmus of Rotterdam, or simply Erasmus, was
a Dutch Renaissance humanist, Catholic priest, social critic, teacher, and theologian.
Erasmus was a classical scholar who wrote in a pure Latin style. Amongst humanists, he enjoyed
the sobriquet "Prince of the Humanists"; he has been called "the crowning glory of the Christian
humanists".
[2]
Using humanist techniques for working on texts, he prepared important
new Latin and Greek editions of the New Testament. These raised questions that would be
influential in the Protestant Reformation and Catholic Counter-Reformation. He also wrote On Free
Will,
[3]
The Praise of Folly, Handbook of a Christian Knight, On Civility in Children, Copia:
Foundations of the Abundant Style, Julius Exclusus, and many other works.
Erasmus lived against the backdrop of the growing European religious Reformation; but while he
was critical of the abuses within the Church and called for reform, he kept his distance
from Luther and Melanchthon and continued to recognise the authority of the pope. Erasmus
emphasized a middle way, with a deep respect for traditional faith, piety and grace, and rejected
Luther's emphasis on faith alone. Erasmus therefore remained a member of the Catholic Church all
his life.
[4]
Erasmus remained committed to reforming the Church and its clerics' abuses from within.
He also held to Catholic doctrines such as that of free will, which some Reformers rejected in favour
of the doctrine of predestination. His middle road approach disappointed and even angered scholars
in both camps.
Erasmus died suddenly in Basel in 1536 while preparing to return to Brabant, and was buried in
the Basel Minster, the former cathedral of the city.
[5]
A bronze statue of him was erected in his city of
birth in 1622, replacing an earlier work in stone.
Erasmus was his baptismal name, given after St. Erasmus of Formiae. Desiderius was a self-
adopted additional name, which he used from 1496. The Roterodamus in his scholarly name is the
Latinized adjectival form for the city of Rotterdam.

John Calvin
John Calvin, born Jehan Cauvin: 10 July 1509 27 May 1564) was an influential
French theologian and pastor during the Protestant Reformation. He was a principal figure in the
development of the system of Christian theology later called Calvinism. Originally trained as
a humanist lawyer, he broke from the Roman Catholic Church around 1530. After religious tensions
provoked a violent uprising against Protestants in France, Calvin fled to Basel, Switzerland, where
he published the first edition of his seminal work Institutes of the Christian Religion in 1536.
In that year, Calvin was recruited by William Farel to help reform the church in Geneva. The city
council resisted the implementation of Calvin's and Farel's ideas, and both men were expelled. At
the invitation of Martin Bucer, Calvin proceeded to Strasbourg, where he became the minister of a
church of French refugees. He continued to support the reform movement in Geneva, and was
eventually invited back to lead its church.
Following his return, Calvin introduced new forms of church government and liturgy, despite the
opposition of several powerful families in the city who tried to curb his authority. During this
period, Michael Servetus, a Spaniard regarded by both Catholics and Protestants as
having heretical views, arrived in Geneva. He was denounced by Calvin and executed by the city
council. Following an influx of supportive refugees and new elections to the city council, Calvin's
opponents were forced out. Calvin spent his final years promoting the Reformation both in Geneva
and throughout Europe.
Calvin was a tireless polemic and apologetic writer who generated much controversy. He also
exchanged cordial and supportive letters with many reformers, including Philipp
Melanchthon and Heinrich Bullinger. In addition to the Institutes, he wrote commentaries on most
books of the Bible, as well as theological treatises and confessional documents. He regularly
preached sermons throughout the week in Geneva. Calvin was influenced by
the Augustinian tradition, which led him to expound the doctrine ofpredestination and the absolute
sovereignty of God in salvation of the human soul from death and eternal damnation.
Calvin's writing and preachings provided the seeds for the branch of theology that bears his name.
The Reformed, Congregational, and Presbyterian churches, which look to Calvin as the chief
expositor of their beliefs, have spread throughout the world.

Martin Luther
Martin Luther OSA was a German friar (Observant Augustinian), Catholic priest, professor of
theology and seminal figure of the 16th-century movement in Christianity known later as
the Protestant Reformation.
[1]
He strongly disputed the claim that freedom from God's punishment for
sin could be purchased with monetary values. He confronted indulgence salesman Johann Tetzel,
a Dominican friar, with his Ninety-Five Theses in 1517. His refusal to retract all of his writings at the
demand of Pope Leo X in 1520 and the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V at the Diet of Worms in
1521 resulted in his excommunication by the Pope and condemnation as an outlaw by the Emperor.
Luther taught that salvation and subsequently eternity in heaven is not earned by good deeds but is
received only as a free gift of God's grace through faith in Jesus Christ as redeemer from sin and
subsequently eternity in Hell. His theology challenged the authority of the Pope of the Roman
Catholic Church by teaching that the Bible is the only source of divinely revealed knowledge from
God
[2]
and opposed sacerdotalism by considering all baptized Christians to be a holy
priesthood.
[3]
Those who identify with these, and all of Luther's wider teachings, are
called Lutherans even though Luther insisted on Christian as the only acceptable name for
individuals who professed Christ.
His translation of the Bible into the vernacular (instead of Latin) made it more accessible, which had
a tremendous impact on the church and on German culture. It fostered the development of a
standard version of the German language, added several principles to the art of translation,
[4]
and
influenced the writing of an English translation, theTyndale Bible.
[5]
His hymns influenced the
development of singing in churches.
[6]
His marriage to Katharina von Bora set a model for the
practice of clerical marriage, allowing Protestant priests to marry.
[7]

In two of his later works, Luther expressed antagonistic views toward Jews, writing that
Jewish synagogues and homes should be destroyed, their money confiscated, and liberty curtailed.
These statements and their influence on antisemitism have contributed to his controversial
status.
[8]
Martin Luther died in 1546, still convinced of the correctness of his Reformation theology,
and with his decree of excommunication by Pope Leo X still effective. On his deathbed, Luther was
asked, 'Are you ready to die trusting in your Lord Jesus Christ and to confess the doctrine which you
have taught in his name?'. He answered, 'Yes' before taking his final breath.