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Top: Society: Religion_and_Spirituality: Christianity: Church_History: The_Reformation: Pre-Reformation
There were people and movements who prepared the way for the Reformation. These include John Wycliffe (sometimes called the "morning star of the Reformation") and William Tyndale who translated the Bible, making it available to English-speaking laymen. Wycliffe also preached that the Bible should be the only rule of faith, not the Pope, whom he called the antichrist.In Bohemia, John Hus accepted the teachings of Wycliffe and was burned at the stake for his beliefs.
In the Netherlands and Germany there arose a movement, called the Brethren of the Common Life, which attempted to reform the Church. One of its members, John of Wessel, attacked indulgences and taught the doctrine of justification by faith. The most famous pupil was Erasmus, who wrote against the excesses of the Church. Another man who was deeply influenced by the movement was Thomas a Kempis, who wrote "The Imitation of Christ."
The Renaissance also had a religious impact, as scholars studied the works of the early Church Fathers and felt that the Church of their day had departed from the simple faith of the early church.
Around 1350 the Brethren of the Common Life, founded by Gerhard Groote, made an attempt to reform the church. Their teachings were called Devotio Moderna (The New Devotion.) This group founded schools, from which came many men who did much to promote learning and piety. Luther attended one of their schools in Magdeburg for one year. Three other pupils who attended were John of Wessel, Erasmus and Thomas a Kempis.
Jacques Lefèvre d’Étaples (1450–1536), was a French theologian and humanist. A priest, he studied in Italy, where he was influenced by Neoplatonism. He became famous for his commentary on the epistles of St. Paul (1512) and his edition of the works of the mystic, Nicholas of Cusa (1514). Caught up in the spirit of criticism of the abuses of the Roman Catholic Church, he became a leading figure of Christian humanism. Although advocating some of the ideas later integral to the Reformation, he believed, like Erasmus, in reform from within and refused to break with the church. Nevertheless, he was subjected to suspicion and persecution. In 1521, the Sorbonne condemned as heretical his book on the three Marys, but Francis I and his sister Margaret of Navarre prevented further action against him. Forced to seek refuge in Strasbourg in 1525, he returned the following year as tutor to the royal children and librarian in the château at Blois. His last years were spent at Nérac, under the protection of Margaret of Navarre. The Protestant reformer Guillaume Farel was one of his pupils. Lefèvre d’Étaples translated the Bible into French (1523–30). He was also known as Jacobus Faber Stapulensis.
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