Proto-Protestantism

hideThis article has multiple issues. Please help or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these template messages) This article includes a list of general references, but it remains largely unverified because it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (September 2018) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) This article possibly contains original research. Please by verifying the claims made and adding inline citations. Statements consisting only of original research should be removed. (September 2018) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

Part of a series on the
Reformation
Ninety-five Theses
show Precursors Arnold of Brescia and Arnoldists Peter Waldo and Waldensians John Wycliffe and Lollardy Jan Hus and Hussites Girolamo Savonarola
show Beginning Ninety-five Theses Diet of Worms Luther Bible Magisterials Radicals
show Contributing factors Western Schism Avignon Papacy Bohemian Reformation Northern Renaissance Christian humanism German mysticism Johannes Gutenberg and his printing press Erasmus Johann Reuchlin
show Theologies of seminal figures Theology of Martin Luther Theology of Huldrych Zwingli Theology of John Calvin
show Protestant Reformers Martin Luther Philip Melanchthon Huldrych Zwingli John Calvin Martin Bucer William Tyndale Andreas Karlstadt Theodore Beza George Buchanan Heinrich Bullinger Peter Martyr Vermigli William Farel François Hotman John Knox Hubert Languet Thomas Müntzer Balthasar Hubmaier Menno Simons Thomas Cranmer Richard Hooker Jacobus Arminius Roger Williams Many others
show By location Germany Switzerland (Geneva/Zürich) England Scotland Netherlands Czech Lands Hungary Romania Slovenia Denmark–Norway and Holstein Sweden and Finland Iceland Estonia and Latvia Austria France Italy Poland-Lithuania Ireland
show Major political leaders Henry VIII of England Elizabeth I Oliver Cromwell James VI and I William the Silent Gaspard II de Coligny Henry IV of France Jeanne d'Albret Stephen Bocskai Gabriel Bethlen Gustav II Adolf Frederick V, Elector Palatine Philip I of Hesse Electors of Saxony Frederick III John Frederick I
show Counter-Reformation Catholic Church Council of Trent Counter-Reformation § Politics Censorship of the Bible § 16th century Anti-Protestantism Criticism Holy Roman Emperors Charles V Ferdinand II
show Political and religious conflicts Thirty Years' War French Wars of Religion Eighty Years' War War of the Three Kingdoms German Peasants' War Wars of Kappel Schmalkaldic War
show Art and literature Painting and sculpture Northern Mannerism Lutheran art German Renaissance Art Swedish art English art Woodcuts Art conflicts Beeldenstorm Building Influence on church architecture Literature Elizabethan Metaphysical poets Propaganda Welsh Scottish Anglo-Irish German Czech Swiss Slovak Sorbian Romanian Danish Bohorič alphabet Faroese Norwegian Swedish Finnish Icelandic Dutch Renaissance and Golden Age Folklore of the Low Countries 16th century Renaissance humanism 16th century in poetry 16th century in literature Theater English Renaissance theatre Pastoral Morality History Tragedy Revenge
show Music Forms Hymnody of continental Europe Music of the British Isles Hymn tune Lutheran chorale Lutheran hymn Anglican church music Exclusive psalmody Scottish church music Normative principle Anglican chant Homophony vs. Polyphony Falsobordone Verse anthem Liturgies Reformed worship Calvin's liturgy Formula missae Deutsche Messe Liturgical Struggle Ecclesiastical Latin Lutheran and Anglican Mass in music Cyclic mass vs. Paraphrase mass Roman vs. Sarum Rites Sequence (retained by Lutherans, mostly banned by Trent) Hymnals First and Second Lutheran hymnals First Wittenberg hymnal Ausbund Swenske songer Thomissøn's hymnal Book of Common Prayer Metrical psalters Book of Common Order Souterliedekens Genevan Psalter Scottish Psalter Whole Book of Psalms
show Conclusion and commemorations Conclusion Confessionalization with subsequent Protestant orthodoxy Peace of Westphalia Simultaneous rise of Pietism and Rationalism Monuments Reformation Wall Luther Monuments Calendrical commemoration Reformation Day Lutheran Anglican
Protestantism
v t

Proto-Protestantism, also called pre-Protestantism or pre-Reformation movements,^[1] refers to individuals and movements that propagated ideas similar to Protestantism before 1517, which historians usually regard as the starting year for the Reformation era. Major representatives of proto-Protestantism include Peter Waldo (c. 1140 – c. 1205), John Wycliffe (1320s–1384), Jan Hus (c. 1369 – 1415) and the movements they started.

Peter Waldo and the Waldensians[]

Statue of Peter Waldo at the Luther Monument in Worms

In the early 1170s, Peter Waldo founded the Waldensians. He preached for strict adherence to the Bible, for simplicity and poverty, against Catholic dogmas, like purgatory and transubstantiation which led to conflicts with the Roman Catholic Church. He initiated, and contributed to, a translation of the New Testament into the vernacular, the Arpitan (Franco-Provençal) language.

The Waldensians had adopted ideas that in the late 1130s, Arnold of Brescia, an Italian canon regular, had developed in a first attempt to reform the Roman Catholic Church. His teachings on apostolic poverty gained currency among Arnoldists. By 1215, the Waldensians were declared heretical and subject to persecution.

John Wycliffe and the Lollards[]

John Wycliffe (1320s–1384) was an English theologian and professor at the University of Oxford who developed many ideas similar to those later promoted in the Reformation. He rejected papal authority over secular power, translated the Bible into vernacular English, and preached anticlerical and biblically-centred reforms. Wycliffe's teachings were spread by his followers, known as Lollards.

Lollards claimed that the office of the papacy didn't have a scriptural basis, rejected transubstantiation and stressed the importance of scripture.^[2]

Jan Hus and the Hussites[]

Beginning in the first decade of the 15th century, Jan Hus, a Czech Catholic priest and professor who was influenced by John Wycliffe's writings, founded the Hussite movement. He was burned at the stake as a heretic in 1415. After his execution, a revolt erupted. Hussites defeated five continuous crusades proclaimed against them by the Pope.

Later on, theological disputes caused a split within the Hussite movement. Utraquists maintained that both the bread and the wine should be administered to the people during the Eucharist. Another major faction were the Taborites, who opposed the Utraquists in the Battle of Lipany during the Hussite Wars. There were two separate parties among the Hussites: moderate and radical movements. Other smaller regional Hussite branches in Bohemia included Adamites, Orebites, Orphans and Praguers.

Proto Protestantism

Other early reformers[]

Throughout the Middle Ages, there were many Christian sects, cults and movements whose teachings foreshadowed later Protestant movements.^[3] Some of the main groups were:

• Novatianists: Novatianism was an Early Christian sect devoted to the theologian Novatian (c. 200–258) that held a strict view that refused readmission to communion of Lapsi. Some Protestants argue that Novatian taught Sola fide, based of a quote from his writings. ^[4] According to Cyprian, Novatian rejected the Catholic creed.^[5]
• Augustine of Hippo (354 – 430): Many Protestants, especially Calvinists and Lutherans, consider him one of the theological fathers of the Protestant Reformation due to his teachings on salvation and divine grace.^[6][7][8] Protestant Reformers generally, and Martin Luther in particular, held Augustine in preeminence among early Church Fathers.
• Paulicians – an Armenian group (6th to 9th centuries) who sought a return to the purity of the church at the time of Paul the Apostle. The Paulicians were adoptionist, held to a dualistic cosmology and were generally influenced by the religion of Manichaeism.
• Tondrakians – an Armenian group (9th to 11th centuries) who advocated the abolition of the Church along with all its traditional rites.
• Bogomils – a group arising in the 10th century in Bulgaria,^[9] Macedonia^{[citation needed]} and the Balkans who sought a return to the spirituality of the early Christians and opposed established forms of government and church. The Bogomils were heavily dualist, and bore similarities both to the Paulicians and to the ancient Gnostics.
• The Berengarians, followers of Berengar of Tours, were an 11th century religious sect who opposed the developing doctrine of transubstantiation. The Berengarian sect, considered heretical by the Roman Catholic Church, is said to have numbered 800,000 according to the historian Belamine.^[10]
• Arnoldists – a 12th-century group from Lombardy who criticized the wealth of the Catholic Church and preached against infant baptism and the Eucharist.
• Petrobrusians were 12th-century followers of Peter of Bruys in southeastern France who rejected the authority of the Church Fathers and of the Catholic Church, opposing clerical celibacy, infant baptism, prayers for the dead and organ music.
• Henricans were 12th-century followers of Henry of Lausanne in France. They rejected the doctrinal and disciplinary authority of the Church, did not recognize any form of worship or liturgy and denied the sacraments.
• Cathars, or Albigensians — self-identified as Good Christians, the Cathars were a 12th-14th century sect influenced by the teachings of the Bogomils and Paulicians. Aside from their Gnostic influences, they rejected the spiritual authority of the priesthood and the efficacy of the sacraments. Catharism was heavily suppressed following the Albigensian Crusade, during which the majority of Cathars were killed.
• Brethren of the Free Spirit – a term applied in the 13th century to those, primarily in the Low Countries, Germany, France, Bohemia and northern Italy, who believed that the sacraments were unnecessary for salvation, that the soul could be perfected through imitating the life of Christ, and that the perfected soul was free of sin and beyond all ecclesiastical, moral and secular law.
• Apostolic Brethren (later known as Dulcinians) – a 13th- to 14th-century sect from northern Italy founded by Gerard Segarelli and continued by Fra Dolcino of Novara. The Apostolic Brethren rejected the worldliness of the church and sought a life of perfect sanctity, in complete poverty, with no fixed domicile, no care for the morrow, and no vows.
• Fraticelli, or Spiritual Franciscans — An extreme group of Franciscans, active from the 13th to 15th centuries. The Fraticelli held that the Catholic hierarchy had become corrupt and illicit by way of its wealth and worldliness, and that everyone who was a part of it was damned.
• Girolamo Savonarola – Savonarola's devotees, the Piagnoni, kept his cause of republican freedom and religious reform alive well into the following century, although the Medici—restored to power in 1512 with the help of the papacy—eventually broke the movement. Some Protestants consider Savonarola to be a vital precursor of the Reformation.

See also[]

• Byzantine Iconoclasm
• History of Christianity
• History of Protestantism
• Landmarkism
• Preachership
• Protestantism
• Protestant Reformers#Notable precursors
• The Trail of Blood
• Augustinian Calvinism

References[]

Further reading[]

• Barnett, S. J. (1999). "Where Was Your Church before Luther? Claims for the Antiquity of Protestantism Examined". Church History. Cambridge University Press. 68 (1): 14–41. doi:10.2307/3170108. ISSN 0009-6407. JSTOR 3170108.
• Stephen D. Bows: Reform before the Reformation : Vincenzo Querini and the religious Renaissance in Italy, Leiden [et al.], 2002.
• Walter Rügert: John Wyclif, Jan Hus, Martin Luther: Wegbereiter der Reformation Konstanz, 2017.
• E. H. Broadbent: The Pilgrim Church, Pickering & Inglis, 1937.