Famous Men of the Renaissance & Reformation

The Renaissance and the Reformation are pivotal periods in both Church History, Western History, and World History. The Renaissance was the beginning of the modern world. Its leading thinkers were the first to recognize that there was now a huge gap between themselves and the ancient nations of Greece and Rome, and that civilization had been through a “dark age.” The Renaissance revered Greece and Rome and sought to recover the ancient languages, literature, art, and in some cases also their pagan religion. The Reformation, too, was a modern movement in which theologians and Christian thinkers became aware of the large differences between the late medieval church and the early church and the teachings of Christ in the Bible. The towering figure of Martin Luther dominates the Reformation. He mastered the literature and language skills of the Renaissance humanists, and became convinced that the church was desperately in need of reform. The printing press spread his ideas rapidly and he m