Since everyone knows that Martin Luther caused the modern capitalist order, we thought we’d lean right into that bad boy and use today’s date to unveil the Davenant Institute’s latest publishing endeavor! Behold, we present to you Reformation Theology: A Reader of Primary Sources with Introductions. Get your copy here.
This thing is pretty sweet. Basically, we wanted to give a larger audience access to the most important primary sources of the Reformation, including the stuff the bad guys wrote, in order to give a full and accurate picture of the Reformation. We were tired of things just boiling down to the 5 Solas or Luther hagiographies, and so this book gives you a broad range of writers and topics.
Here’s the table of contents:
| Boniface VIII, Clericis Laicos (1296) and Unam Sanctam (1302) |
| Marsilius of Padua, Defender of the Peace, excerpts |
| John Wycliffe, Trialogus (1384), Bk. IV, chs. 2–6 (on theEucharist) |
| The Council of Constance, Sacrosancta (1414) and Frequens (1417) |
| John Hus, On the Church (1413), chs. 1–3, 10 |
| Erasmus of Rotterdam, Julius Excluded from Heaven (1517), excerpt |
| Martin Luther, Ninety-Five Theses (1517) |
| Martin Luther, A Letter to the Christian Nobility of the German Nation (1520), Introduction and The Three Walls of the Romanists |
| Martin Luther, The Babylonian Captivity of the Church (1520), The Sacrament of the Altar |
| Pope Leo X, Exsurge Domine (1520) |
| Martin Luther, The Freedom of a Christian (1520) |
| Michael Sattler, The Schleitheim Articles (1527) |
| Thomas More, A Dialogue Concerning Heresies (1529), Bk. I, chs. 19-23 |
| Philipp Melanchthon, Apology of the Augsburg Confession (1531), Article IV: Of Justification |
| Thomas Cajetan, Four Lutheran Errors (1531) |
| John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion (1536/1559), Prefatory Address; Book I, chs. 1–6 |
| The Council of Trent, Decree and Canons Concerning Justification (1545) |
| The Council of Trent, Decree and Canons Concerning the Most Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist (1551) |
| Ignatius of Loyola, Spiritual Exercises (1548), excerpt |
| Heinrich Bullinger, Decades (1549), II.7: “Of the Magistrate, and Whether the Care of Religion Appertain to Him or No” |
| Peter Martyr Vermigli, Oxford Treatise on the Eucharist (1549), Preface and Arguments Against Transubstantiation |
| Martin Chemnitz, Examination of the Council of Trent (1565–73), Topic IX, Section 1 (Concerning the Sacrament of Order) |
| Zacharias Ursinus, Commentary on the Heidelberg Catechism (1585), Qs. 86–91 |
| Thomas Cranmer, The Book of Common Prayer (1559), Preface, On Ceremonies, and Order for Holy Communion |
| John Foxe, Acts and Monuments (1563), The Martyrdom of Thomas Cranmer |
| John Field and Thomas Wilcox, An Admonition to Parliament (1572), excerpts |
| Richard Hooker, Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, Preface, chs. 1, 4; Book III, chs. 2–3; Book IV, chs. 1–4 |
| Robert Bellarmine, Controversies of the Christian Religion (1581–93), Controversy I, Q. 4: On the Perspicuity of Scripture |
| William Whitaker, A Disputation on Holy Scripture (1588), Controversy I, Q. 4: On the Perspicuity of Scripture |
| Synod of Dordt, The Canons of Dordt (1619) |
I think that speaks for itself. There’s really not another accessible source to get these all in one place, and a few of them have previously only been available in dusty academic libraries. But now we’re giving it to you, the unwashed masses.
Take and read!
