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Protestant Reformers
Protestant Reformers were those theologians whose careers, works and actions brought about the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century. In the context of the Reformation, Martin Luther was the first reformer (sharing his views publicly in 1517), followed by people like Andreas Karlstadt and Philip Melanchthon at Wittenberg, who promptly joined the new movement. In 1519, Huldrych Zwingli became the first reformer to express a form of the Reformed tradition. Listed are the most influential reformers only. They are listed by movement, although some reformers (e.g. Martin Bucer) influenced multiple movements. Notable precursors According to Edmund Hamer Broadbent, throughout the Middle Ages, there were a number of Christian movements that sought a return to what they perceived as the purity of the Apostolic church and whose teachings foreshadowed Protestant ideas. * Claudius of Turin * Gottschalk of Orbais * Berengar of Tours * Peter Waldo * Lorenzo Valla * Wessel G ...
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Theologian
Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the supernatural, but also deals with religious epistemology, asks and seeks to answer the question of revelation. Revelation pertains to the acceptance of God, gods, or deities, as not only transcendent or above the natural world, but also willing and able to interact with the natural world and, in particular, to reveal themselves to humankind. While theology has turned into a secular field , religious adherents still consider theology to be a discipline that helps them live and understand concepts such as life and love and that helps them lead lives of obedience to the deities they follow or worship. Theologians use various forms of analysis and argument (experiential, philosophical, ethnographic, historical, and others) to help un ...
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Peter Waldo
Peter Waldo (; c. 1140 – c. 1205; also ''Valdo'', ''Valdes'', ''Waldes''; , ) was the leader of the Waldensians, a Christian spiritual movement of the Middle Ages. The tradition that his first name was "Peter" can only be traced back to the fourteenth century. This has caused some historians, such as Jana Schulman, to see it as likely a later invention. Relationship with Waldenses Peter Waldo is regarded by many historians, including Jana Schulman, as having founded the Waldensians sometime between 1170 and 1177. There were claims that the Waldensians predated Peter Waldo. In his ''A History of the Vaudois Church'' (1859), Antoine Monastier quotes Bernard, Abbott of Foncald, writing at the end of the 12th century, that the Waldensians arose during the papacy of Lucius. Monastier takes him to mean Lucius II, Pope from 1144 to 1145, and concludes that the Waldenses were active before 1145. Bernard also says that the same Pope Lucius condemned them as heretics, but they were ...
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Joachim Westphal (of Hamburg)
Joachim Westphal (born at Hamburg 1510 or at the beginning of 1511; died there 16 January 1574) was a German " Gnesio-Lutheran" theologian and Protestant reformer. From 1571 to 1574 he served as Superintendent of Hamburg (per pro already since 1562), presiding as spiritual leader over the Lutheran state church of the city-state. He was educated in the school of the parish of St. Nicolai in his native city, then in Lüneburg, and entered the University of Wittenberg, where he became the pupil of Melanchthon and Luther. In 1532, on the recommendation of Melanchthon, he was appointed teacher at the Johanneum in his native city. In 1534 he returned to the University of Wittenberg, and in the following year removed with the university to Jena. After his return to Wittenberg in 1537 he lectured on philology. In 1541 he became preacher of the church of St. Catharine in Hamburg; then acting superintendent in 1562, and was elected Superintendent of Hamburg in 1571. He is best known ...
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Georg Spalatin
Georg(e) Spalatin () was the pseudonym taken by Georg Burkhardt (; 17 January 1484 – 16 January 1545), a German humanist, theologian, reformer, secretary of the Saxon Elector Frederick the Wise, as well as an important figure in the history of the Reformation. Biography Burkhardt was born at Spalt (from which he took the Latinized name "Spalatinus"), near Nuremberg, where his father was a tanner. He went to Nuremberg for his education when he was thirteen years of age, and soon afterward to the University of Erfurt, he received his bachelor's degree in 1499. There he attracted the notice of Nikolaus Marschalk, the university's most influential professor, who made Spalatin his amanuensis and took him to the new University of Wittenberg in 1502. There he lived in quarters on the Schlossplatz just east of Schlosskirche, Wittenberg.Plaque commemorating Spalatin, Wittenberg In 1505 Spalatin returned to Erfurt to study jurisprudence. He was recommended to Conrad Mutianus ...
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Martin Chemnitz
Martin Chemnitz (9 November 1522 – 8 April 1586) was an eminent second-generation German, Evangelical Lutheran, Christian theologian, and a Protestant reformer, churchman, and confessor. In the Evangelical Lutheran tradition he is known as ''Alter Martinus,'' the "Second Martin": ''Si Martinus non fuisset, Martinus vix stetisset'' ("If Martin hemnitzhad not come along, Luther would hardly have survived") goes a common saying concerning him. He is listed and remembered in the Calendar of Saints and Commemorations in the Liturgical Church Year as a pastor and confessor by both the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod. Early life and education Chemnitz, born in Treuenbrietzen in Brandenburg to Paul and Euphemia Chemnitz, was the last of three children. His older siblings' names were Matthew and Ursula. His father was a successful merchant who died when Martin was eleven: thereafter, the family suffered from financial difficulties. When ...
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Justus Jonas
Justus Jonas, the Elder (5 June 1493 – 9 October 1555), or simply Justus Jonas, was a German Lutheran theologian and reformer. He was a Jurist, Professor and Hymn writer. He is best known for his translations of the writings of Martin Luther and Philipp Melanchthon. He accompanied Martin Luther in his final moments. Life and church Jonas was born at Nordhausen in present-day Thuringia where he was the son of the burgermeister. His birth name was Jodokus (Jobst) Koch, which he changed according to the common custom of German scholars in the sixteenth century, when at the University of Erfurt. He entered that university in 1506, studied law and the humanities, and became Master of Arts in 1510. In 1511 he went to University of Wittenberg, where he took his bachelor's degree in law. He returned to Erfurt in Thuringia during 1514 or 1515 was ordained priest. In 1518, he was appointed Canon of St. Severus Church (''Severikirche'') in Erfurt which was a collegiate church. In ...
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Philipp Melanchthon
Philip Melanchthon. (born Philipp Schwartzerdt; 16 February 1497 – 19 April 1560) was a German Lutheran reformer, collaborator with Martin Luther, the first systematic theologian of the Protestant Reformation, intellectual leader of the Lutheran Reformation, and an influential designer of educational systems. He stands next to Luther and John Calvin as a reformer, theologian, and shaper of Protestantism. Melanchthon and Luther denounced what they believed was the exaggerated cult of the saints, asserted justification by faith, and denounced what they considered to be the coercion of the conscience in the sacrament of penance (confession and absolution), which they believed could not offer certainty of salvation. Both rejected the doctrine of transubstantiation, i.e. that the bread and wine of the eucharist are converted by the Holy Spirit into the flesh and blood of Christ; however, they affirmed that Christ's body and blood are present with the elements of bread and wi ...
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Magisterial Reformation
The Magisterial Reformation "denotes the Lutheran, Calvinist eformed and Anglican churches" and how these denominations "related to secular authorities, such as princes, magistrates, or city councils", i.e. "the magistracy". While the Radical Reformation that gave rise to the Anabaptist Churches rejected any secular authority over the Church, the Magisterial Reformation argued for the interdependence of the church and secular authorities, i.e. "The magistrate had a right to authority within the church, just as the church could rely on the authority of the magistrate to enforce discipline, suppress heresy, or maintain order." In addition, the term magister relates to the emphasis on authoritative teachers. Often this is seen in the names of the theological schools descending from magisterial reformers (e.g. Lutheran, Reformed, and Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England ...
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Jan Hus
Jan Hus (; ; 1370 – 6 July 1415), sometimes anglicized as John Hus or John Huss, and referred to in historical texts as ''Iohannes Hus'' or ''Johannes Huss'', was a Czech theologian and philosopher who became a Church reformer and the inspiration of Hussitism, a key predecessor to Protestantism, and a seminal figure in the Bohemian Reformation. Hus is considered by some to be the first Church reformer, even though some designate the theorist John Wycliffe. His teachings had a strong influence, most immediately in the approval of a reformed Bohemian religious denomination and, over a century later, on Martin Luther. Hus was a master, dean and rector at the Charles University in Prague between 1409 and 1410. Jan Hus was born in Husinec, Bohemia, to poor parents. In order to escape poverty, Hus trained for the priesthood. At an early age he traveled to Prague, where he supported himself by singing and serving in churches. His conduct was positive and, reportedly, his commi ...
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John Wycliffe
John Wycliffe (; also spelled Wyclif, Wickliffe, and other variants; 1328 – 31 December 1384) was an English scholastic philosopher, theologian, biblical translator, reformer, Catholic priest, and a seminary professor at the University of Oxford. He became an influential dissident within the Catholic priesthood during the 14th century and is considered an important predecessor to Protestantism. Wycliffe questioned the privileged status of the clergy, who had bolstered their powerful role in England, and the luxury and pomp of local parishes and their ceremonies. Wycliffe advocated translation of the Bible into the common vernacular. According to tradition, Wycliffe is said to have completed a translation direct from the Vulgate into Middle English – a version now known as Wycliffe's Bible. While it is probable that he personally translated the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, it is possible he translated the entire New Testament. At any rate, it is assumed that ...
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Jacques Lefèvre D'Étaples
Jacques Lefèvre d'Étaples ( Latinized as Jacobus Faber Stapulensis; c. 1455 – c. 1536) was a French theologian and a leading figure in French humanism. He was a precursor of the Protestant movement in France. The "d'Étaples" was not part of his name as such, but used to distinguish him from Jacques Lefèvre of Deventer, a less significant contemporary who was a friend and correspondent of Erasmus. Both are also sometimes called by the German version of their name, Jacob/Jakob Faber. He himself had a sometimes tense relationship with Erasmus, whose work on Biblical translation and in theology closely paralleled his own. Although he anticipated some ideas that were important to the Protestant Reformation, Lefèvre remained a Roman Catholic throughout his life, and sought to reform the Church without separating from it. Several of his books were condemned as heretical, and he spent some time in exile. He was, however, a favorite of the King of France, Francis I, and enjoyed ...
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