- 1504 b. Heinrich Bullinger
- 1507 Luther is ordained as a priest at Erfurt
- Henry VIII becomes King of England in 1509
- 1509 b. John Calvin
- 1510 Luther sent to Rome on monastic business. He saw the corruption of the church
- 1513 Leo X becomes Pope
- 1514 b. John Knox
- 1515 While teaching on Romans, Luther realizes faith and justification are the work of God
- 1517 Luther nails his 95 Theses to the door of the church in Wittenburg. It is the first public act of the Reformation
- Zwingli's reform is also underway
- 1519 Charles V becomes Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire
“Unless I am convicted by Scripture and plain reason—I do not accept the authority of popes and councils, for they have contradicted each other—my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. [Here I stand. I can do no other.] God help me. Amen.”
Luther before the Diet of Worms, April 17, 1521. The bracketed part probably wasn’t actually spoken, but it has long been associated with the speech, and is often quoted. Think of it as a famous, almost contemporary, summary of the actual speech.
And now for something completely different...
- 1521 Luther is excommunicated
- 1525 The Bondage of the Will. Many of the essays, discourses, treatises, conversations, etc. that Luther had over the years are collected in his Table Talk
Buy these books from Christian Book Distributors
Martin Luther’s 95 Theses
By Martin Luther / P & R Publishing
In the Ninety-five Theses Luther applied his evangelical theology to indulgences. He hoped thereby to find an answer to a practical problem which had disturbed him and other sincere Christians for a long time.
The Bondage of the Will
By Martin Luther / Baker
Martin Luther's The Bondage of the Will is fundamental to an understanding of the primary doctrines of the Reformation. In these pages, Luther gives extensive treatment to what he saw as the heart of the gospel. Free will was not merely an academic question for Luther. Rather, he believed that the whole gospel of the grace of God was bound up with it and stood or fell according to how one understands the human will in relation to salvation. Luther affirms our total inability to save ourselves and the sovereignty of divine grace in salvation. He upholds the doctrine of justification by faith and defends predestination as determined by the foreknowledge of God. Luther considered this refutation of Erasmus to be his finest theological work and it has remained a classic in the history of Christian thought.
Martin Luther's Table Talk
By Martin Luther / Bridge-logos Publishing
Martin Luther's Table Talk is a compendium of excerpts taken from conversations with his students and colleagues, who furiously scribbled notes as he spoke. Reading them, it's easy to imagine all of them sitting around the table, eating and drinking and discussing issues of great concern to reformists. These excerpts are frequently anecdotal, highly opinionated, sometimes sublime, sometimes unsophisticated, occasionally brutal... and always unequivocating. Right or wrong, Luther has his say. 530 pages, softcover.
Luther: The Movie, DVD
By Vision Video
Joseph Fiennes (Shakespeare in Love) stars as Martin Luther, the brilliant man of God whose defiant actions changed the world, in this epic film that traces Luther's extraordinary and exhilarating quest for the people's liberation. Regional princes and the powerful Church wield a fast, firm and merciless grip on 16th-centur Germany. But when Martin Luther issues a shocking challenge to their authority, the people declare him their new leader - and hero. Even when threatened with violent death, Luther refuses to back down, sparking a bloody revolution that shakes the entire continent to its core. Approx. 2 hours 4 minutes. Close caption. PG-13.
For More, see: Luther’s Works and Luther Studies
Protestant Reformation Studies
- 1529 The Colloquy of Marburg
- 1531 d. Ulrich Zwingli
- c. 1532 or 1533 Calvin's conversion
- 1534 Henry VIII declares himself "The only supreme head in earth of the Church of England"
- 1535 Anabaptists take over Muenster
- 1536 d. Erasmus
- 1536 Menno Simons rejects Catholicism, becomes an Anabaptist, and helps restore that movement back to pacifism
- 1536 William Tyndale strangled and burned at the stake. He was the first to translate the Bible into English from the original languages. He was burned for heresy by King Henry, whose divorce Tyndale had opposed.
- 1536 First edition of Calvin's Institutes
- 1540 Jesuit order is founded. The Catholic Reformation is under way
- c. 1543 Knox converted
- 1545 The Council of Trent begins
- 1546 d. Luther
- 1547 The young Edward VI becomes King of England. The Duke of Somerset acts as regent, and many reforms take place
- 1549 Consensus Tigurinus brings Zwinglians and Calvinists to agreement about communion
- 1553 Mary Tudor (Bloody Mary) begins her reign
- Many protestants who flee Mary's reign are deeply impacted by exposure to a more true reformation on the continent. John Knox is among them
- 1558 Elizabeth is crowned, the Marian exiles return
- 1559 Last edition of the Institutes
Buy these books from Christian Book Distributors
Calvin: Institutes of the Christian Religion, 2 Volumes--Library of Christian Classics
By J.T. McNeill, ed.; F.L. Battles, trans. / Westminster / John Knox
The definitive English-language edition of one of the church's monumental works. Here Calvin expounds his theology in its most systematic and detailed form. Features for the first time in any English edition: chapter headings; footnotes; bibliographies; Scripture, author, and subject indices; and more. Essential to any study of Calvin's theology or Reformed theology. 1734 pages total, two hardcovers from Westminster/John Knox.
Calvin's Commentaries, 22 Volumes
By Baker
John Calvin combined profound reverence for God's Word with a lucid style and objective exegesis. This collector's edition of his writings includes commentaries on 24 books of the Old Testament; all of the New Testament except for 2 & 3 John and Revelation. 22 volumes.
For more on Calvin, see:
Major works of John Calvin and Calvin Studies
For more from this period, see:
Protestant Reformation Studies, English Reformation Studies, Puritanism (both Puritan Works and Studies), and Anabaptist Traditions
- 1559 The Act of Uniformity makes the 1559 Book of Common Prayer the standard in the Church of England and penalizes anyone who fails to use it. It is not reformed enough for the Puritans
- 1560 b. Jacobus Arminius
- Parliament approves the Scot's Confession, penned by the six Johns (including Knox)
- 1561 d. pacifist Anabaptist leader Menno Simons
- 1563 The Council of Trent is finished
- 1564 d. John Calvin
- 1566 Bullinger writes The Second Helvetic Confession
- 1567-1568 The Vestments Controversy. Puritans did not want the ceremony and ritual symbolized by the robes of the Church of England
- 1571 Thirty Nine Articles are finalized
- 1572 d. John Knox
- 1572 b. John Donne, devout Anglican minister and poet
- 1572 Massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day, the worst persecution of Huguenots
- 1575 d. Bullinger
- 1582 The General Assembly in Scotland, with Andrew Melville as moderator, ratifies the "Second Book of Discipline." It has been called the Magna Carta of Presbyterianism
- 1593 b. George Herbert, Anglican country parson and poet
- 1596 b. Moses Amyrald, founder of Amyraldianism, which is basically Calvinism minus limited atonement. Amyraldianism became the theology of the School of Saumer in France
- 1596 b. Descartes, founder of rationalism
- 1598 Edict of Nantes grants Huguenots greater religious freedom
For further study
Download these lectures from Covenant Theological Seminary's Reformation and Modern Church History by Dr. David Calhoun:
