The Early English ReformationMedieval Precedents

Semper ReformandaWyclif & Lollardy

Anticlericalism in the 16th Century

Learned SocietyHumanism

Ordinary Folk

Early Protestant ReformersGermanySwiss LandsDiversity Among

Protestants

English ReformersTyndale

Biblical Translations

Barnes, Bilney, Coverdale

Cambridge, Germany

The Papal Ass, Melanchthon, 1523; in English Translation, 1579

Medieval Precedents for ReformSemper Reformanda

As Old as the Christian ChurchMonastic Traditions

Penitence, Poverty, Imitatio Christi

Retreat from the WorldBenedictines, Dominicans, Franciscans, Cistercians, Carthusians, Augustinians

Mysticism & Anti-IntellectualismNorwich, KempePopular Piety

Wyclif & LollardyCriticism of the Church (Negative)Calls for Reform from Below (Positive)Biblicism, Christocentrism

Ruins of Innisfallen Monastery, 12th-13th century, County Kerry, Ireland

Anticlericalism in the 16th Century

Learned SocietyChristian Humanism

Erasmus’ In Praise of Folly

More’s Utopia; Colet’s SermonsAd Fontes: Returning to the Sources

Textual Criticism of the Bible

Lorenzo Valla’s AnnotationsNew Testament: 1516, ‘19, ‘22, ‘27, ‘35ROMA: Radix Omnium Malorum Avaritia

Ordinary FolkAntipapalism: Corruption; St. Peter’sIndulgences: Purgatory; FinancePower & Exemption of ClergyHunne’s Case, 1514/5: Burial; Praemunire

Murder; Heresy; Anticlericalism

Erasmus’ New Testament, 1st Edition, Basel, 1516

Erasmus on Monks, In Praise of FollyAnd next these come those that commonly call themselves the religious and

monks, most false in both titles, when both a great part of them are farthest from religion, and no men swarm thicker in all places than themselves. . . . nay, there is scarce an inn, wagon, or ship into which they intrude not, to the no small damage of the commonwealth of beggars. And yet, like pleasant fellows, with all this vileness, ignorance, rudeness, and impudence, they represent to us, for so they call it, the lives of the apostles. . . . And another great happiness they conceive in their names, while they call themselves Cordiliers, and among these too, some are Colletes, some Minors, some Minims, some Crossed; and again, these are Benedictines, those Bernardines; these Carmelites, those Augustines; these Williamites, and those Jacobines; as if it were not worth the while to be called Christians. . . . One shall show you a large trough full of all kinds of fish; another tumble you out so many bushels of prayers; another reckon you so many myriads of fasts, and fetch them up again in one dinner by eating till he cracks again; another produces more bundles of ceremonies than seven of the stoutest ships would be able to carry; another brags he has not touched a penny these three score years without two pair of gloves at least upon his hands; another wears a cowl so lined with grease that the poorest tarpaulin would not stoop to take it up; another will tell you he has lived these fifty-five years like a sponge, continually fastened to the same place; another is grown hoarse with his daily chanting; another has contracted a lethargy by his solitary living; and another the palsy in his tongue for want of speaking. But Christ, interrupting them in their vanities, which otherwise were endless, will ask them, "Whence this new kind of Jews? I acknowledge one commandment, which is truly mine, of which alone I hear nothing.”

Early Protestant Reformers

GermanyErasmus (d. 1536) & Luther (d. 1546)Luther’s 95 Theses, 1517 (Indulgences)

Salvation by Faith AloneClerical Powers & CustomsUse of Vernacular

LanguageDoctrinal Revision of

SacramentsPhilip Melanchthon

Blend of Humanism and ReformNeed for Support of the Magistrates

Swiss LandsUlrich Zwingli (d. 1531)Protestant Militarism (Christian Soldier)Colloquy of Marburg, ’29; Eucharist

Bodleian, MS Eng. The. B. 1, p. 798. (Late 16th c.)

English ReformersWilliam Tyndale (b. c. 1492/4, d. 1536)

From the West CountryConnections to Bristol,

LollardyTranslated Erasmus’ HandbookClashes with Clergy, 1522-3Parable of the Wicked Mammon, Antwerp, 1528The Practice of Prelates, Antwerp, 1530New Testament Translation from Greek

Cologne, 1525Worms, 1526Antwerp, 1534

Old Testament Translation from HebrewPentateuch, 1530Genesis, 1534Jonas & Epistles, 1531,

‘34

Tyndale’s 1526 Translation; BL, C.188.a.17

English Reformers Con’tThomas Bilney (d. 1531)

Greek ScholarshipAnticlerical Sermons

Robert Barnes (d. 1540)Biblical ReadingEvangelical SermonsAnglo-German Connections

Miles Coverdale (d. 1569)Associate of BarnesTime on European Mainland, ‘28->Coverdale Bible, ’35

White Horse Tavern, Cambridge“Little Germany” in the 1520s

Bilney Pulled Down from Pulpit, 1527; From Foxe’s A&M, 1563