The proper structure of the church was one of the most contested issues of the sixteenth century, and while Protestants agree on the errors of an episcopacy headed by a supreme pontiff, there is still little agreement among them about the right form of church polity. Many of these disagreements emerged early in the Reformation,…

Reflecting on Ephesians 3:14-19, German Reformed theologian and pastor Wolfgang Musculus (1497-1563) draws out the significance of Christ’s indwelling for the nurture of believers. Musculus understands indwelling as our union with Christ as a body of believers, and argues that this relationship is the same as a branch grafted into a vine, from which it…

Despite the upheaval of the Reformation, the need for the people of God to gather regularly was never questioned, even by those seeking the most drastic changes to late medieval piety. Here, the importance of church meetings is attested by Austrian Radical elder Leupold Scharnschlager (d. 1563), who argues that the community should come together…

While most first and second generation reformers did not explicitly enumerate discipline as a mark of the church, they nevertheless attested to its place as an essential function of a healthy church. As Martin Bucer (1491-1551) argues in this excerpt from his work on the care of souls, in order to shepherd their congregants, pastors…

In Ezekiel 22, the prophet enumerates the sins of Israel before describing the Lord’s search for a righteous hedge, which would stand in the gap so that the land not be destroyed. For English Puritan pastor William Greenhill (1591-1671), this hedge is to be understood metaphorically as representing those things which preserve the people of…

Few subjects were as controversial during the sixteenth century as the doctrines of the sacraments. While most reformers agreed that there were two true sacraments—baptism and the Lord’s Supper—rather than the Catholic seven, how these two sacraments were understood amongst the Protestants was a source of debate and division. That the right administration of the…

For the reformers, the first mark of the true church was the faithful preaching of the Word of God. Lutheran pastor and theologian Johannes Brenz (1499-1570) argues in this excerpt from his commentary on Galatians that as a minister of the Lord, a true church leader is distinguished by the ability to speak the truth…

As a defense against heresy, the early and medieval churches held to the doctrine of apostolic succession, teaching that the true church was the one aligned with an uninterrupted series of bishops beginning with the apostles. However, believing that the lives and teaching of the bishops of the Roman church had departed from apostolic teaching…

In his exegesis of Psalm 16:1-4, Lutheran theologian Nikolaus Selnecker (1530-1592) gives a clear statement defining the nature of the catholic church. He argues that it is the congregation of those who, despite being sinners deserving death, are saved by Christ, and through his suffering and death are united to their savior and made children…

The question of holiness has long been controversial in the history of the church, from the debates between Augustine and the Donatists in the patristic era to the magisterial and radical reformers during the sixteenth century. In this selection, Dutch radical reformer Menno Simons (1496-1561) adds his voice to the debate, emphasizing that holiness is…

Reflecting on the Lord’s promises to Israel during the Babylonian siege, Swiss Reformed theologian Heinrich Bullinger (1504-1575) extrapolates their Christological implications. Thus, the “one heart” and the “one way” of the Old Testament are understood as the unity of the Christian faith, founded upon the one, true gospel of Jesus Christ. As there is only…

In this selection from a sermon of Martin Luther (1483-1546), the German reformer discusses the significance of the doctrine of the communion of saints. Those whose faith is in Christ, he argues have as much right to boast of their sainthood as St. Peter. To do so is to both honor Christ, whose holiness paid…