Basic Reformation Timeline

As part of my own preparation for this past weekend’s message, “Faith and Grace,” I drew up a basic timeline of the Reformation. I’m simply sharing it here as a number of folks asked me about some of the historical details after services on Saturday and Sunday. You can find a much more detailed timeline here. I have also enjoyed the brief biographical sketches at Christianity Today‘s sub-section on Christian History. Read more here on John Huss, John Wycliffe, Martin Luther, John Calvin, Ulrich Zwingli, William Tyndale and Thomas Cranmer.

Reformation Timeline

1059: East-West Schism/Great Schism: break of communion between Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches

1378-1417: Papal Schism/Western Schism: 3 men simultaneously claim to be true pope

1436: Johannes Gutenberg invents moveable type printing press

1455: Publication of the Gutenberg Bible

1516: Erasmus of Rotterdam publishes his revised Greek New Testament

1517: Pope Leo X establishes indulgences for rebuilding of St. Peter’s Basilica

1517: Martin Luther posts his Ninety-Five Theses on the door of Wittenberg Cathedral in protest of indulgences

1521: Diet of Worms wherein Luther refuses to recant and is labelled a heretic by Pope Leo X; Frederick II of Saxony protects Luther

1522: Luther publishes his German translation of the NT (OT published later in 1534)

1525: First German mass read

1526: William Tyndale publishes the first English NT

1527: Luther writes “A Mighty Fortress”

1529: Luther publishes the Larger Catechism

1530: Augsburg Confessions written as an outline of Lutheran theology and practice

1531: Ulrich Zwingli dies in Battle of Keppel

1534: England breaks with Rome after annulment of Henry VIII’s marriage by Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer

1534: Ignatius of Loyola establishes the Society of Jesus as a missionary group, aiding the Roman Catholic counter-reformation

1536: First edition of John Calvin’s Institutes of Christian Religion published

1545-1563: Council of Trent

1546: Martin Luther dies

1549: The Book of Common Prayer is published in as the guide for faith and practice for the Church of England

1560: Geneva Bible published; first English translation to use verse and chapter divisions

1560: Philip Melanchthon dies

1564: John Calvin dies

1611: King James Bible published