Erasmus kindled it with his Greek New Testament and translations of the Church’s greatest thinkers. Luther struck the match. From Wittenberg to Zurich, Strassburg, Basel, and Bern the fire swept. It was a fire meant to cleanse the Church of greed and corruption—a fire to restore Christianity. But it did more than that. It changed the map of Europe. It changed lives. Princes gained ground from it; artisans and peasants gained power. It took religion out of the monastery and into the marketplace. It made of Christendom competing factions and gave powers of speech to “even women and simple folk.” It was a fire of ideas that occupied the attention with as much intensity as man’s walk on the moon in this century. To those called heretics (or Anabaptist) it gave the “mark of Christ”—confidence to give one’s own life like a brand to fuel the fire of the “true gospel.”
Reformation World
1516 Erasmus’ edition of Greek New Testament published
1517 Martin Luther posts 95 theses
1517 Erasmus publishes anti-war tract
1518 Luther summoned to Augsburg but refuses to recant
1519 Zwingli becomes People’s priest in Zürich
1520 Luther burns papal bull for his arrest
1521 Carlstadt celebrates first Protestant communion at Wittenburg
1521 Muntzer publishes Prague Manifesto justifying violence in the elect
1522 Luther introduces German liturgy in Wittenburg
1522 Muntzer marries and germanizes services in Allstedt; Zwingli secretly marries
1523 Zwingli holds Zürich disputations
1523 Reformer Martin Bucer arrives in Strassburg; German services introduced
1524 Storm on images in Zürich
1524 Planets align in sign of the Fish; widespread expectation of evil
1524 Carlstadt puts aside priestly vestments to become a “new layman”; declines to baptize infants
1524 Erasmus publishes tract on free will
1525 Luther marries
1526 Erasmus publishes the works of St. Augustine
1527 Urbanus Rhegius publishes anti-Anabaptist “Nikolsburg Articles”
1528 Reformation established in Bern
1529 Reformation becomes official in Basel
1529 Diet of Speyer—Luther’s followers name Protestants
1529 Luther and Zwingli convene at Marburg
1531 Bullinger succeeds Zwingli and publishes first book against Anabaptists
1536 William Tyndale, English reformer, burned at stake
1540 Pope recognizes order of Jesuits; will make them the chief agents of Counter Reformation
1541 John Calvin establishes theocracy in Geneva
1541 John Knox establishes Calvinist Reformation in Scotland
Anabaptists
1521 Hubmaier comes to Waldshut, becomes friend of Zwingli
1522 Stump and Reublin challenge paying of tithes
1523 Hubmaier introduces German services in Waldshut, marries
1523 At Second Zürich Disputation radical followers break with Zwingli
1524 Manz brings Carlstadt’s tracts on infant baptism and Lord’s Supper to Zürich
1524 Swiss Brethren write to Muntzer, Carlstadt, and Luther
1524 Reublin and Brotli refuse to baptize infants
1525 January 17—First Zürich disputation with those opposed to infant baptismJanuary 21—First believer’s baptism in Zürich; Denck banished from Nuremberg for views on Lord’s Supper and living personal faithJanuary 21–29—First Anabaptist congregation of 35 converts established in ZollikonFebruary—First imprisonment of Anabaptists occurs in Zürich; they escapeEaster—Hubmaier establishes Anabaptism as state faithMay—Bolt Eberle executed in Schwyz, becomes first Protestant and first Anabaptist martyrNovember—Third Baptismal Disputation in Zürich held in Grossmünster to accommodate the crowd
1526 Grebel dies
1527 Schleitheim Brotherly Union
1527 Denck and Hatzer publish first German translation of O.T. prophets
1527 Manz drowned in Zürich
1527 Sattler burned in Rottenburg
1527 Denck dies of plague in Basel
1527 Hut dies in Augsburg prison
1528 Hubmaier burned in Vienna
1529 Tyrolean Anabaptists flea homeland for Moravia
1529 Hoffman meets Anabaptists in Strassburg
1529 Blaurock burned in Tyrol
1530 Hoffman baptizes 300 Anabaptists in Emden and sends lay preachers to Netherlands
1530 Confession of Augsburg—Protestant form Schmalkaldic League against Emperor Charles V
1533 Hutter joins Moravian group who become known as Hutterites
1533 Baker Jan Matthijs claims Anabaptist leadership in Amsterdam and sends out 12 disciples in pairs
1533 Hoffman goes to prison in Strassburg to await Second Coming
1534 Jan van Leiden crowned king in Münster
1534 Matthijs moves to Münster; Anabaptists win local election and attempt by force to set up Kingdom of God
1535 Siege of Münster; falls. Persecution begins.
1535 Melchiorite Jan van Geelen storms Amsterdam’s city hall
1536 Jan van Leiden executed; his remains swinging in cage from church serve as reminder into 20th century
1536 Menno Simons breaks with Rome; becomes Anabaptist leader in Netherlands
1539–40 Simons publishes the Foundation Book of Anabaptist faith
1541 Peter Riedeman writes Hutterite Confession of Faith
The Government
1591 Charles V succeeds Maximilian as Holy Roman Emperor
1520 Suleiman I the Magnificent becomes Turkish ruler
1521 German princes back Luther at Diet of Worms
1521 Pope Leo X calls King Henry VIII “Defender of the Faith” for anti-Luther tract
1524 In May peasants’ revolt breaks out in southern Germany
1525 March 6—Peasant’s Twelve Articles drawn up against lords
1525 April 15—Defeat of peasants at Frankenhausen; Müntzer captured and executed
1526 Archduke Ferdinand becomes Margrave of Moravia
1527 Sack of Rome by German troops
1527 Basel orders corporeal punishment and confiscation of property for adult baptism and sheltering Anabaptists
1528 Swabian League authorizes military division of 400 horsemen to scout for Anabaptists
1529 Diet of Speyer restores death penalty for rebaptizing
1529 Turkish siege of Vienna
1534 Henry VIII establishes himself as Supreme Head of Church and Clergy of England
1534 Strassburg decrees that Anabaptists must leave the city
1535 Charles V conquers Tunis and frees 20,000 Christian slaves
1538 Landgrave Philip of Hesse arranges debate between Anabaptists and Bucer; results in Hessian Anabaptists returning to state church and state church deciding to excommunicate immoral Christians
1541 Henry VIII assumes titles of King of Ireland and Head of Irish Church
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