Protestant Reformation

About this Collection

The Protestant Reformation was the European religious movement which appeared in the early 16th century and which sought to reform what was regarded as serious problems within the Catholic Church. These problems were doctrinal, financial (to do with corruption), the refusal to permit the use of vernacular translations of the Bible, the celibacy of priests, and the power of the Pope.

Western Europe 16th Century Christian Denominations

Key People

John Calvin

John Calvin

Desiderius Erasmus

Desiderius Erasmus

Jan Huss

Jan Huss

Martin Luther

Martin Luther

Henry Wace

Henry Wace

John Wyclife

John Wyclife

Huldrych Zwingli

Huldrych Zwingli

Titles & Essays

Group by Category

THE READING ROOM

Discussing Milton

By: Sarah Skwire, Garth Bond, and Steven Pincus

I recently had a chance to host a book discussion with Reading Room blogger, Garth Bond, and our friend Steve Pincus about Nicholas McDowell's new book Poet of Revolution: The Making of John Milton, which considers the question of…
MORE

THE READING ROOM

From Hus to Luther: The Challenge to Orthodoxy

By: Gary McGath

In 1415, Jan Hus was burned alive for challenging the authority of the Catholic Church. In 1521, Martin Luther nearly met the same fate but lived to start a new church with new ways of thinking.
MORE

THE READING ROOM

Milton’s Poetry and Prose: From the Liberty Fund Rare Book Room

By: Sarah Skwire

Given that today is the birthday of one of the greatest writers of English prose and poetry, John Milton, I pulled a few of Milton's works from the shelves of Pierre Goodrich's collection in Liberty Fund's rare book room. The first…
MORE

THE READING ROOM

Obfuscating John Milton’s Paradise Lost

By: David V. Urban

As Caroline Breashears has recently discussed, John Milton (1608-74) was a prominent champion of the freedom of the press, something he most famously exhibited in his 1644 tract Areopagitica. But Milton’s own writings were and…
MORE

THE READING ROOM

OLL’s December Birthday: John Milton (December 9, 1608 – November 8, 1674)

By: Peter Carl Mentzel

December’s OLL Birthday essay is in honor of the poet, statesman, and political philosopher John Milton, considered by many to be the most important author in the English language. His deeply idiosyncratic personal, political, and…
MORE

THE READING ROOM

Paradise Lost, Perhaps the Greatest English Poem. Banned for 216 Years

By: Walter Donway

Paradise Lost, published more than 350 years ago (1667), is still almost routinely characterized as the greatest poem in English. More guardedly, it is called “the greatest epic poem.” (Yes, there are others, such as Beowulf,…
MORE

THE READING ROOM

The Complaint of Peace

By: James Hartley

“As Peace, am I not praised by both men and gods as the very source and defender of all good things?...Though nothing is more odious to God and harmful to man, yet it is incredible to see the tremendous expenditure of work and…
MORE

THE READING ROOM

The Institutes of the Christian Religion and Calvin’s Lasting Reforms

By: Philip D. Bunn

It is so common for major, innovative thinkers to suffer at the hands of their states that it is almost a trope in the history of politics and theology. Socrates was tried and executed for impiety, Aristotle was accused of impiety…
MORE

THE READING ROOM

The Peasants’ War and Martin Luther

By: Gary McGath

In 1524, rebellion broke out in southern Germany. The uprising, known as the Peasants’ War, grew out of demands for greater freedom for the serfs. It was not, despite its name, just a revolt by farmers. Serious thinkers advanced it,…
MORE

THE READING ROOM

The Philosophy of Thomas Hobbes “Puts the Century on Edge”

By: Walter Donway

René Descartes had written: “I think, therefore I am.” Thomas Hobbes responded: “I think, therefore matter thinks.”
MORE

THE READING ROOM

Thomas Hobbes: Leviathan

By: Alice Temnick

Life was nasty, brutish and short. Many of us recall these famous words from Thomas Hobbes’ political treatise, Leviathan (1651). Fewer of us remember the context in which he described this state of humanity.
MORE