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'''Protestant Reformers''' were [[theologian]]s whose careers, works and actions brought about the [[Protestant Reformation]] of the 16th century.

In the context of the Reformation, [[Martin Luther]] was the first reformer, sharing his views publicly in 1517, followed by [[Andreas Karlstadt]] and [[Philip Melanchthon]] at [[wikipedia:Wittenberg|Wittenberg]], who promptly joined the new movement. In 1519, [[Huldrych Zwingli]] became the first reformer to express a form of the [[Reformed tradition]].

Listed are the most influential reformers only. They are listed by movement, although some reformers influenced multiple movements and are included in each respective section.

==Notable precursors==
Throughout the [[wikipedia:Middle Ages|Middle Ages]], according to [[Edmund Hamer Broadbent]], there were a number of [[Christianity|Christian]] [[wikipedia:Sociological classifications of religious movements|movements]] that sought a return to what they perceived as the purity of the [[Early Christianities|Apostolic church]] and whose teachings foreshadowed [[Protestantism|Protestant]] ideas.<ref>{{cite book |last= Broadbent|first= E.H.|date= 1931|title= The Pilgrim Church|location= Basingstoke|publisher= Pickering & Inglis|isbn= 0720806771|author-link= Edmund Hamer Broadbent}}</ref>

* [[Claudius of Turin]]<ref name="ODCC">{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/oxforddictionary00late/page/359|title=The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 3rd edition|date=13 March 1997|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=0-19-211655-X|editor1=F. L. Cross|location=USA|pages=[https://archive.org/details/oxforddictionary00late/page/359 359]|editor2=E. A. Livingstone}}</ref>
* [[Gottschalk of Orbais]]<ref>{{Cite web|title=Gottschalk Of Orbais {{!}} Roman Catholic theologian|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Gottschalk-of-Orbais|access-date=2021-10-27|website=Britannica.com|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=caryslmbrown|date=2017-07-18|title=Reformation parallels: the case of Gottschalk of Orbais|url=https://doinghistoryinpublic.org/2017/07/18/reformation-parallels-the-case-of-gottschalk-of-orbais/|access-date=2021-10-27|website=Doing History in Public|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Lockridge|first=Kenneth R.|title=Gottschalk "Fulgentius" of Orbais|url=https://www.academia.edu/11213309}}</ref>
* [[Berengar of Tours]]<ref>{{Cite book|last=Minton|first=Gretchen E.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oejHBAAAQBAJ&dq=Berengar+of+Tours&pg=PA448|title=John Bale's 'The Image of Both Churches'|date=2014-01-26|publisher=Springer Science & Business Media|isbn=978-94-007-7296-0|language=en|quote=Berengar of Tours was an 11th-century theologian who argued that the doctrine of transubstantiation was contrary to reason and unsupported by scripture}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Siebeck|first=Mohr|title=Prophecy, Piety, and the Problem of Historicity: Interpreting the Hebrew|date=11 March 2016|isbn=978-3-16-154270-1|location=Germany|pages=372|quote=Berengar of Tours (c. 1005-1088), Bernand of Clairvaux, the Waldensians in the twelfth century, the Albigensians in the thirteenth century and John Wycliffe (x. 1330-1385) and Jan Hus (c. 1370-1415) in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, are all prefigured in the poetic images of Solomon's Songs. They all become forerunners of Luther and Calvin}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last1=Jung|first1=Emma|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=w15tJYbQgBwC&dq=Berengar+of+Tours+forerunner&pg=PA225|title=The Grail Legend|last2=Franz|first2=Marie-Luise von|date=1998|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=978-0-691-00237-8|language=en|quote=Berengar of Tours (first half og the eleventh century), whose views occasioned the dispute known as the Second Eucharistic Controversy. Berengar aught that the body and the blood of the Lord were no "real" in the Eucharist but a specific image or likeleness ("figuram quandam similitudinem"). He was thus a forerunner of the Reformers.}}</ref>
* [[Peter Waldo]]<ref>{{Cite web|title=Pierre Valdo (1140-1217) and the Waldenses|url=https://museeprotestant.org/en/notice/pierre-valdo-1140-1217-and-the-waldenses/|access-date=2021-12-31|website=Musée protestant}}</ref>
* [[Lorenzo Valla]]<ref>{{Cite web|title=Philip Schaff: History of the Christian Church, Volume VI: The Middle Ages. A.D. 1294-1517 - Christian Classics Ethereal Library|url=https://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/hcc6.all.html|access-date=2021-12-23|website=www.ccel.org}}</ref>
* [[Wessel Gansfort]]<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2016|title=The forms of communication employed by the Protestant Reformers and especially Luther and Calvin|url=http://www.pharosjot.com/uploads/7/1/6/3/7163688/article_25_vol_98_2017.pdf|journal=Pharos Journal of Theology|volume=98|quote=John of Wessel was one member in the group who attacked indulgences (Reddy 2004:115). The doctrine of justification by faith alone was the teaching of John of Wessel (Kuiper 1982:151). He rejected the doctrine of transubstantiation where it is believed when the priest pronounces the sacraments then the wine and bread in turned into the real body and blood of Christ}}</ref>
* [[Girolamo Savonarola]]<ref>{{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Savonarola, Girolamo}}</ref>
* [[Jacques Lefèvre d'Étaples]]<ref>{{Cite web|title=Philip Schaff: History of the Christian Church, Volume VI: The Middle Ages. A.D. 1294-1517 - Christian Classics Ethereal Library|url=https://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/hcc6.all.html|access-date=2021-12-23|website=www.ccel.org}}</ref>
* [[John Wycliffe]]<ref>{{Cite web|title=Lollard {{!}} English religious history|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Lollards|access-date=2021-10-27|website=Britannica.com|language=en}}</ref>
* [[Jan Hus]]<ref>{{Cite web|title=Jan Hus (1369-1415) and the Hussite wars (1419-1436)|url=https://museeprotestant.org/en/notice/jan-hus-1369-1415-and-the-hussite-wars-1419-1436/|url-status=live|website=museéprotestant |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230618001350/http://museeprotestant.org/en/notice/jan-hus-1369-1415-and-the-hussite-wars-1419-1436/ |archive-date=Jun 18, 2023}}</ref>

==Magisterial Reformers==
[[File:Zentralbibliothek Zürich - Effigies praecipuorum illustrium atque praestantium aliquot theologorum - 000008283 cropped.jpg|thumb|250px|upright=1.5|Fictitious dispute between the leading Protestant Reformers (sitting at the left side of the table: [[Martin Luther|Luther]], [[Huldrych Zwingli|Zwingli]], [[John Calvin|Calvin]], [[Philip Melanchthon|Melanchthon]], [[Johannes Bugenhagen|Bugenhagen]] and [[Johannes Oecolampadius|Oecolampadius]]) and the representatives of the Catholic Church]]There were a number of key reformers within the [[Magisterial Reformation]], including:

===Lutheran===
* [[Martin Luther]]
* [[Philipp Melanchthon]]
* [[Justus Jonas]]
* [[Martin Chemnitz]]
* [[Georg Spalatin]]
* [[Joachim Westphal (of Hamburg)|Joachim Westphal]]
* [[Andreas Osiander]]
* [[Johannes Brenz]]
* [[Johannes Bugenhagen]]
* [[Andreas Karlstadt]], later a [[Radical Reformation|Radical Reformer]]
* [[Hans Tausen]]
* [[Mikael Agricola]]
* [[Primož Trubar]]
* [[Jiří Třanovský]]

===Reformed===
* [[Huldrych Zwingli]]
* [[Martin Bucer]]
* [[John Calvin]]
* [[Heinrich Bullinger]]
* [[Theodore Beza]]
* [[William Farel]]
* [[John Knox]]
* [[Wolfgang Capito]]
* [[Johannes Oecolampadius]]
* [[Pietro Martire Vermigli|Peter Martyr Vermigli]]
* [[Leo Jud]]

===Anglican===
* [[Thomas Cranmer]]
* [[Thomas Cromwell]]
* [[Matthew Parker]]
* [[William Tyndale]]
* [[Hugh Latimer]]
* [[Richard Hooker]]

===Arminian===
* [[Jacobus Arminius]]

==Radical Reformers==
Important reformers of the [[Radical Reformation]] included:

===Anabaptist===
* [[Thomas Müntzer]]
* [[Zwickau prophets]]
* [[John of Leiden]]
* [[Menno Simons]]
* [[Dirk Willems]]

===Schwenkfelder===
* [[Kaspar Schwenkfeld von Ossig|Kaspar Schwenkfeld]]

===Unitarians===
* [[Ferenc Dávid]]
* [[Michael Servetus]]

==Second Front Reformers==
There were also a number of people who initially cooperated with the Radical Reformers, but separated from them to form a "Second Front", principally in objection to [[sacralism]]. Among these were:

===Anabaptists===
* [[Johannes Bünderlin]]
* [[Hans Denck]]
* [[Christian Entfelder]]
* [[Conrad Grebel]]
* [[Balthasar Hubmaier]]
* [[Felix Manz]]

==Counter-Reformers==
[[Catholics]] who actively opposed the Reformation and partook in the [[Counter-Reformation]] include:
* [[Girolamo Aleandro]]
* [[Augustine Alveld]]
* [[Thomas Cajetan]]
* [[Johann Cochlaeus]]
* [[Johann Eck]]
* [[Jerome Emser]]
* [[Pope Leo X]]
* [[John Tetzel]]
* [[Thomas More]]
* [[Ignatius of Loyola]]
* [[Francis de Sales]]
* [[Pope Paul III]]
* [[Pope Pius V]]
* [[Charles Borromeo]]
* [[Francis Xavier]]
* [[Peter Faber]]
* [[Diego Laynez]]

==See also==
* [[List of Protestant Reformers]] (alphabetical)

==Further reading==
* George, Timothy. Theology of the Reformers. Nashville, Tenn.: [[Broadman Press]], 1988. {{isbn|978-0805401950}}. N.B.: Comparative studies of the various leaders of the Magisterial and Radical movements of the 16th century Protestant Reformation.

==References==

[[Category:Protestant Reformers]]
[[Category:Religious reformers by religion]]