Reformation thought: an anthology of sources

1. In search of Christ : steps toward Reformation: The whole of holy Scripture is the word of the Lord / From John Wyclif, On the Truth of Holy Scripture (1377/1380) ; Who is the church? / From Jan Hus, On the Church (1413) ; Here you have no real home / From Thomas a Kempis, The Imitation of Christ (1420/1427) ; By faith we possess that which we do not have / From Marguerite de Navarre, The Mirror of the Sinful Soul (1531) ; God's gift to us is Christ on the cross / From Benedetto da Mantova, The Benefit for All Christians of Jesus Christ Crucified (1543)

2. Erasmus : the egg that Luther hatched?: All hope of safety rests in iron / From Desiderius Erasmus, Handbook for the Christian Soldier (1503) ; Christianity itself is akin to Folly / From Desiderius Erasmus, Praise of Folly (1509) ; May these be the stories we tell each day / From Desiderius Erasmus, The Summons (1516) ; Spurned and rejected by all, Peace speaks out / From Desiderius Erasmus, The Complaint of Peace (1517) ; Get ready to swim, for life or death / From Desiderius Erasmus, The Shipwreck (1523)

3. Luther the rebel: The believer's whole life should be one of repentance / From Martin Luther, Ninety-Five Theses (1517) ; A free lord of all things, subject to no one / From Martin Luther, On the Freedom of a Christian (1520) ; Faith alone justifies and fulfills the law / From Martin Luther, Preface to the Letter of Saint Paul to the Romans (1522) ; Over the soul, God can and will grant authority to no one but himself alone / From Martin Luther, On the Power of the State (1523) ; They live like dumb cows and unthinking pigs / From Martin Luther, The Small Catechism (1529)

4. Luther's lieutenants: Why else do we adorn them with golden crowns? / From Andreas Bodenstein von Karlstadt, On Extirpating Images (January 27, 1522) ; Not a woman's nonsense, but the word of God / From Argula von Grumbach, Letter to the rector and council of the University of Ingolstadt (September 20, 1523) ; If works can justify, of what use is Christ and our regeneration? / From Philip Melanchthon, Defense of the Augsburg Confession (1530) ; Chosen by God for the reformation of the church / From Philip Melanchthon, Funeral Oration for Martin Luther (February 22, 1546) ; The kingdom of Christ and the kingdoms of this world / From Martin Bucer, The Kingdom of Christ (1550)

5. The Swiss response: The freedom of the Gospel means freedom to eat / From Ulrich Zwingli, On Choice and Freedom in Food (April 16, 1522) ; No woman ever sold Jesus or betrayed him, but a man named Judas / From Marie Dentiere, A Very Useful Letter to Marguerite de Navarre (1539) ; The intolerable blasphemy of the Mass, and a welcome conversion / From John Calvin, Letters, to Renee de France, duchess of Ferrara, and Jeanne d'Albret, queen of Navarre (1541, 1561) ; Eternal election :the inscrutable profundity of God's judgment / From John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion (1559) ; Resisting tyranny-by force of arms if necessary / From Theodore Beza, On the Right of Magistrates over Their Subjects (1574)

7. The radical reformation: The godless have no right to live, unless the Elect permit them to / From Thomas Muntzer, Sermon to the Princes: An Exposition of the Second Chapter of Daniel (Allstedt, July 13, 1524) ; Hear, children, the instruction of your mother / From the martyr testaments of Maeyken van Deventer (Rotterdam, 1573) and Janneken Munstdorp (Antwerp, August 10, 1573) ; All created things belong to all in common / From Peter Riedemann, An Account of Our Religion, Teaching, and Belief (1540-1541) ; Do you think they were discussing hypostases? / From Michael Servetus, On the Errors of the Trinity (1531) ; Then we will know for sure just who are the real heretics / From Sebastian Castellio, On Heretics: Whether They Should Be Punished, and How They Should Be Treated (1554)

7. The English compromise: They have gotten into their hands the third part of your realm / From Simon Fish, A Supplication for the Beggars (1529) ; Who would refuse light in darkness? In hunger, food? In cold, fire? / From Thomas Cranmer, Preface to the Great Bible (1540) ; What did he take, and break, and give, but bread? / From Lady Jane Grey, A Certain Communication (1554) ; We shall either win you heaven, or die upon your pikes / From Edmund Campion, Challenge to the Privy Council (1580) ; And I later returned to private examination and prayer / From Lady Margaret Hoby, Diary (1599-1605)

8. Catholic Reform and renewal: A good bishop will not fail to perform this office / From Gasparo Contarini, The Duties of a Bishop ; You have usurped this new and unprecedented honor / From Reginald Pole, On the Unity of the Church (1536) ; The heretics have spread their false theology to the masses / From Ignatius of Loyola, Letter to Father Peter Canisius (Rome, August 13, 1554) ; I took great care not to do anything against obedience / From Teresa of Avila, The Book of Her Life (1565) ; Devotion is to charity as the flame is to the fire / From Francis de Sales, Introduction to the Devout Life (1609)

9. The expanding Reformation: The effect of religious discord is the destruction of religion itself / From Jacobus Arminius, Oration 5: How to Settle Religious Differences among Christians (February 8, 1606) ; Horrible chains bind the soul during this earthly life / From Jacob Boehme, Of True Repentance, in The Way to Christ (1622) ; The return of all things, when God will be all in all / From Johanna Eleonora Petersen, Autobiography (1718) ; The power and spirit of the Lord Jesus was poured upon them / From Margaret Fell, Women's Speaking Justified, Proved, and Allowed of by the Scriptures (1666) ; God is the joy of his heart, and the desire of his soul / From John Wesley, The Character of a Methodist (1742)

10. The Reformation overseas: War cannot force the Indians to believe, but only to pretend to believe / From Francisco de Vitoria, On the Indians of the New World, First lecture, section two: The false arguments for the subjection by the Spanish of the Indians of the New World (1539) ; So many become Christians, my arms grow weary from baptizing them / From Francis Xavier, Letter to his fellow Jesuits in Rome (Cochin, January 15, 1544) ; Are we not of all people on earth the happiest and most fortunate? / From Marie de l'Incarnation, Letter to a lady of quality (Quebec, September 3, 1640) ; I hear the cry of the whole earth, drunk with the blood of its inhabitants / From Roger Williams, The Bloudy Tenent of Persecution (1644) ; More than three hundred souls were savingly brought home to Christ / From Jonathan Edwards, A Faithful Narrative of the Surprising Work of God in the Conversion of Many Hundred Souls in Northampton (November 6, 1736).