Church History: General

Paulus Orosius – A Forgotten Augustinian Historian “In the next little light smiles that pleader of Christian times, of whose Latin work Augustine availed himself.” [1] This is how Dante described his brief encounter, in Paradise, with an ancient historian whose name apparently needed no mention...

Leonor de Cisneros and Other Women of the Spanish Reformation When we think of the Protestant Reformation, countries like Italy and Spain rarely come to mind. And yet, they were deeply affected by it, even though its influence was quickly suppressed by the Roman Catholic Church. The Inquisition in...

Cyril Lucaris – A Contested Reformer On June 27, 1638, a man was ordered to board a boat, presumably to move to a different location. Instead, the boat had barely left shore when some guards strangled him and threw his body overboard. This man, Cyril Lucaris, had risen to the highest rank in the...

Jacques Lefèvre D’Etaples – An Early French Reformer The life of Jacques Lefèvre D’Etaples ran almost parallel to that of Martin Luther. Born around 1455 (28 years before Luther), Lefèvre died in 1536, when Luther was still teaching, preaching, and establishing churches. In 1512, when Luther...

For the previous post in this four-part series, part 1 , part 2 , part 3 . Perhaps the most general Puritan principle on habits was their effects in promoting Christlikeness. The Puritans appealed to this in both a positive and a negative sense: the working of duties as being Christlike, and...

Anna Reinhart Zwingli and the Swiss Reformation Most Protestants know the story of Katharina Van Bora, Martin Luther’s wife. Many books and articles have been written about her and her impact on Luther’s life and consequently on the Reformation. Fewer people have heard about Anna Reinhart, wife of...

Justitia Sengers – a Forgotten Sixteenth-Century Exegete Blindness was common in ancient, medieval, and early modern Europe, due to the frequency of infections, malnutrition, accidents, and acts of violence, as well as to the lack of effective treatments. Some men, such as Jan Žižka, a commander of...

Visitors to Geneva, Switzerland, will find at the heart of the Parc des Bastions – the largest historical park in the city center - an impressive monument with giant statues of the main protagonists of the Geneva Reformation: John Calvin, William Farel, Theodore Beza and John Knox (better known for...

Katharina Schütz Zell – Church Mother of the Reformation Often described as “Church Mother,” Katharina Zell was one of the pillars of the Protestant Reformation and one of the most prolific women writers of her time. Unlike other well-known writers such as Katherine Parr, Marguerite of Navarre,...

On July 28, 1480, citizens of Otranto, Italy, spied a large Turkish fleet approaching their coasts. Otranto, an amiable town around the tip of the heel of the Italian “boot,” had long been an important port. Ita strategic position, however, also made it susceptible to attacks from across the...