The Reformation Theologians

An Introduction to Theology in the Early Modern Period

Carter Lindberg, Carter Lindberg

• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781119468059
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: History of Religion

The Reformation Theologians is the ideal introduction to the study of the sixteenth-century Reformations. It introduces the theological context, though, and contributions of theologians from this period, offering students and scholars an essential resource and insight. This comprehensive and lively book discusses all the major strands of Reformation thought and explores the work of a range of influential figures, including theologians and non-theologians, humanists, clergy and laity, men and women.

The contributors to this volume are leading scholars in the field of historical and systematic theology. Accessibly structured, it covers the Humanist, Lutheran, Reformed, Roman Catholic, and "Radical" Theologians. An introductory chapter explores the interpretations of the Reformation and a concluding chapter explains the influence of Reformation theologies on the modern period. The text also includes useful bibliographies and a glossary of theological terms.

part 1
Humanist Theologians

• 1 Jacques Lefèvre d’Etaples
  Guy Bedouelle, OP
• 2 Desiderius Erasmus
  J. Laurel Carrington

chapter 1
Jacques Lefèvre d’Etaples (c.1460–1536)

Guy Bedouelle, OP

Faber Stapulensis, Jacques Lefèvre, was born about 1460 in Etaples in Picardy, the northern French province from which came Farel and Calvin. Though a priest, he was never a doctor of theology, a point that his theologian adversaries such as Noël Beda would not hesitate to emphasize. Nevertheless, he rightly deserves to be ranked among the theologians of his time, especially because of the influence he exercised upon his contemporaries, due perhaps as much to his person or center of interest than to his specific ideas.

We know him by his writings, which were widespread during his time, but which after his death were for all practical purposes not well known and of little influence. In distinction from Erasmus, we have very little of his correspondence, although the numerous dedications addressed and received permit the drawing of a sufficiently complete portrait of him.¹

This serene and peaceful man, friend of cloisters and books, had an eventful enough life, and its evolution knew numerous stages, reflected by the different circles of his entourage. This is why it is essential to begin by tracing the influences upon his theological thinking and the different periods of his life. After this, we shall examine his hermeneutics and some themes of his theology.

The Four Circles of Lefèvre d’Etaples

Lefèvre is one of the most precocious and most famous figures of French humanism, studiously applying himself to return ad fontes! The return to the sources, in his case, may appear eclectic but it is unified by a vision of spiritual theology. In fact, Lefèvre found himself at the confluence of divers interests that were like successive stages in his intellectual itinerary: first philosophy, then medieval spirituality and patristics, and finally Holy Scripture. At each stage he was at first surrounded by teachers but soon by friends and disciples. It has been noted that the devotion Lefèvre aroused throughout the course of his career was so extensive that Erasmus appeared jealous at times of those “Fabristae.” His disciples came from far – Hungary and Poland – and near, and were true friends in spite of age differences.

Paris

Lefèvre was a student and then a professor at the Collège du Cardinal-Lemoine in Paris. During his visit to Italy in 1492, he encountered the Aristotelian Barbaro, the Platonist Ficino, and Pico della Mirandola, who was attempting a synthesis of the two traditions. On his return, Lefèvre became the “restorer” of Aristotle, annotating the whole of the latter’s work, but he also was interested in the hermetic writings and in Pseudo-Dionysius. He retained the most mystical writings of the Middle Ages, for example those of Richard of Saint Victor, Ramon Lull, Ruysbroeck, and Hildegard of Bingen. As for patristics, although he himself edited The Pastor of Hermas, he had a circle of disciples working for him. These books, published by the first Parisian printers (W. Hopyl, J. Higman, H. Estienne, and Josse Bade), are characterized by a labor of editing, translation when needed, and annotations according to a pedagogical method he maintained to the end of his life. His works are further unified by his concern for the communication of his Christian convictions. According to a comment in his 1505 Preface to Ramon Lull’s Contemplations, this editorial activity was a vocation that substituted for the call to the monastic life for which his health made him unfit. His work as editor culminated with three volumes of the works of Nicholas of Cusa in 1514, of which he was the chief architect, supported by a veritable team of scholars including Reuchlin and Beatus Rhenanus.

Lefèvre gradually abandoned this sphere of interests in order to devote himself exclusively to the Bible. He did so in three stages, comparable to three “conversions,” becoming commentator, translator, and, with his disciples, preacher. From 1509, when he was in contact with Josse Clichtove – his earliest disciple – Charles de Bovelles, Alain de Varènes – who later kept their distance – and François Vatable, Lefèvre resided at the abby of Saint-Germain-des-Prés in Paris, where he had been called by Guillaume Briçonnet. There he presented in synoptic form five Latin versions of the Psalter, the Quincuplex Psalterium, a work whose annotations by both Luther and Zwingli we know.² This work, wonderfully printed by Henri Estienne, was re-edited by Lefèvre in 1513. The year before, he had published a commentary on the Pauline epistles that certainly constituted a turn in his theological thinking and which was read as a work announcing the intuitions of the Protestant Reformation. This work is of major importance for dealing with his theology.

In the second edition, curiously antedated to 1515, he responded to Erasmus’s comments in the Annotationes of the Novum Instrumentum of 1516, that gave rise to a dispute over interpretation.³ The error of the publication date was probably only the printer’s mistake, but the importance of this controversy may not be underestimated to the extent that, as we shall see, Erasmus, outraged by this public contradiction, was able to detect and reveal certain weaknesses of the Parisian humanist’s exegesis. Another controversy centered on who was right concerning the liturgy that made Mary Magdalene into one person whereas the Gospels, Lefèvre maintained in terms of the tradition, apparently distinguished three Marys.⁴

In any case, these disputes between humanists – and it was also one of the arguments of Erasmus – became a card in the hand of the professional theologians who were on the alert for divisions among the partisans of belles-lettres, and attentive to their mistakes. To protect himself from these attacks, Lefèvre left Saint-Germain-des-Prés, but remained fully at the service and under the protection of his former student, Guillaume Briçonnet, who invited him to follow him to Meaux where he became the bishop.

Meaux

In 1521, after arriving in Meaux, Lefèvre, who became a sort of episcopal vicar to Briçonnet, began his commentary on the four Gospels. A circle of disciples formed around him composed of François Vatable, one of the best Hebraists of his day; Gérard Roussel; Michel d’Arande, an itinerant preacher supported at the Court by the sister of the king, Marguerite d’Alençon; Martial Masurier, a doctor of the Sorbonne; and at certain times, Guillaume Farel. It can be said that this circle constituted a laboratory of preaching. Lefèvre and his disciples composed a collection of homilies on the pericopes for Sundays and the major festivals that by its simple, pastoral style and unique recourse to Scripture broke with the contemporary sermonic style of inexhaustible divisions, taken from scholastic usage, or occasional ludicrous anecdotes and exempla. In place of such homiletic pedantry, Lefèvre and his colleagues concentrated on the proclamation of the Christian faith and its mysteries. Lefèvre also translated the New Testament into French in order to facilitate its reading by the people.

In a second stage that began in April 1523, the circle of disciples was modified. Though Roussel, d’Arande, and Masurier remained, there were now present more radical figures such as Matthieu Saunier or Jacques Pauvan, who was burned at the stake in Paris in 1525. There was also Pierre Caroli, a doctor of the Sorbonne, who oscillated between Rome and Geneva. This is why, in the context of the penetration of Lutheran ideas into France, the attacks of the Paris Theology Faculty became incessant, and Lefèvre’s commentary on the Gospels was subjected to examination. Briçonnet, as early as October 1523, forbade his diocesan priests to possess Luther’s works. This is the time frame for dating two letters by Lefèvre to Guillaume Farel, then in Basel, which affirm his sympathy “for that which comes from Germany,” and his admiration for the Reformation theses of Breslau composed in April 1524 by Johannes Hess, which he found “consonant with the Spirit.”⁵

Meanwhile, King Francis I, taken prisoner at Pavia and imprisoned in Madrid, who through his sister, Marguerite, was the protector of Lefèvre, was no longer able to act. Thus Lefèvre and some members of his circle at Meaux considered they had to leave the diocese and find a refuge in Strasbourg.

Strasbourg

In Strasbourg, which he reached at the end of October 1525, Lefèvre composed his commentary on the “Catholic Epistles,” published in 1527, the last work signed by his name. But above all, he pursued the French translation of the Vulgate Bible that would lead to a complete version of the Bible in French. It was printed in Antwerp in 1530. This translation, at least the New Testament part, la...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Table of Contents
• Series
• Title
• Copyright
• Acknowledgments
• Contributors
• Abbreviations
• Introduction
• part 1: Humanist Theologians
• part 2: Lutheran Theologians
• part 3: Reformed Theologians
• part 4: Roman Catholic Theologians
• part 5: “Radical” Theologians
• Glossary
• Index
• End User License Agreement