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Johannes Tauler · 1330–1361 · Sermon
Johannes Tauler's sermons represent one of the finest expressions of fourteenth-century Rhineland mysticism, delivered to Dominican communities and devout laypeople during a period of intense spiritual hunger and ecclesiastical upheaval. Preached primarily…
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Jan van Ruusbroec · 1335–1350 · Treatise
Jan van Ruysbroeck's "Die Gheestelicke Brulocht" (The Spiritual Espousals) stands as one of the masterworks of medieval mystical theology, written in Middle Dutch sometime between 1335 and 1350. Ruysbroeck composed this treatise…
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Julian of Norwich · 1373–1388 · Book
For readers who already know the Revelations and want to see where it began — the same visions, told sooner and more briefly. A newcomer should start with the long text.
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John Wycliffe · 1380–1384 · Book
John Wyclif's English works emerged from his conviction that ordinary believers needed direct access to Christian truth in their native tongue. Writing in the final years of his life after his controversial…
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John Wycliffe · 1380–1395 · Other
The Wycliffe Bible represents the first complete translation of Scripture into English, emerging from the reformist circle surrounding John Wycliffe at Oxford in the late fourteenth century. Wycliffe and his associates undertook…
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Wycliffite Bible Wycliffite Bible — Later Version
Wycliffite revisers; traditionally linked with John Purvey · 1388 · Scripture
The Later Version of the Wycliffite Bible is the most widely copied medieval English Bible and a major vernacular precursor to Reformation translation. Covering the complete Bible, it was translated from Latin…
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Julian of Norwich · 1393–1416 · Book
For anyone drawn to prayer or troubled by suffering and sin — the best first book of English mysticism. Not for a reader wanting doctrine set out in order: it moves by vision and reflection, returning to each sight more than once.
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Thomas à Kempis · 1418 · Book
The Imitation of Christ emerged from the devotional ferment of the Low Countries in the early fifteenth century, when communities of lay Christians and clergy sought deeper spiritual formation amid the upheavals…
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Unity and Reform Unity and Reform: Selected Writings of Nicholas de Cusa
Nicholas of Cusa · 1433–1464 · Book
This collection gathers key writings from Nicholas of Cusa (1401-1464), the German cardinal, philosopher, and mystic who lived through one of the most turbulent periods in church history. Writing during the Great…
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Nicholas of Cusa · 1453 · Treatise
The Vision of God emerged from Nicholas of Cusa's profound engagement with the mystical tradition and his revolutionary approach to understanding divine knowledge. Written in 1453 as a guide for the monks…
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Girolamo Savonarola · 1494–1498 · Treatise
Savonarola composed these meditations on the Miserere during his final years as prior of San Marco in Florence, as his prophetic ministry faced mounting opposition from Pope Alexander VI and the city's…
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Desiderius Erasmus · 1503 · Book
Erasmus composed this spiritual manual in 1503 as a practical guide for Christian living in an age when many found traditional forms of devotion inadequate to the challenges of daily life. Writing…
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Martin Luther · 1507–1546 · Letter
Luther's letters to friends, princes, opponents, his wife and his children, from 1507 to the week of his death, in Latin and German.
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Desiderius Erasmus · 1509 · Essay
Erasmus composed this satirical masterpiece in 1509 while recovering from illness at the home of his friend Thomas More in England. Writing in elegant Latin, he created a mock encomium — a…
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Thomas More · 1513–1518 · Book
Thomas More's unfinished biography of Richard III emerged from the political turbulence of early Tudor England, where the legitimacy of Henry VII's dynasty depended partly on vilifying the Yorkist king he had…
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Thomas More · 1516 · Book
Thomas More's Utopia emerged from the intellectual ferment of early sixteenth-century humanism, written during More's diplomatic mission to Flanders in 1515. The work responds to the social upheavals of his time—enclosure of…
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Martin Luther · 1517 · Treatise
For anyone who wants to see where the Reformation began: short numbered propositions against the sale of indulgences. Read it with a note on what indulgences were; it is a debate paper, not a full statement of Luther's faith.
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Desiderius Erasmus · 1517 · Treatise
The Complaint of Peace stands as Erasmus's most sustained meditation on war and Christian governance, written in 1517 as Europe teetered on the brink of renewed conflict. With the major powers of…
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Colloquies The Colloquies of Erasmus
Desiderius Erasmus · 1518–1533 · Other
The Colloquies began as simple Latin conversation exercises for Erasmus's pupils but evolved over fifteen years into a sophisticated collection of satirical dialogues that held up a mirror to sixteenth-century European society.…
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Desiderius Erasmus · 1518 · Other
The Familiar Colloquies began as a modest collection of Latin phrases and dialogues designed to help students at the University of Paris improve their conversational Latin. Erasmus initially compiled these exercises around…
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Martin Luther · 1519 · Treatise
In the closing weeks of 1519, Luther published three short German sermons on the sacraments, one each on penance, baptism, and the body of Christ. This treatise is the third of them.…
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Martin Luther · 1519 · Treatise
A Treatise on Baptism is a short vernacular sermon Luther published in late 1519, one of three German treatments of the sacraments he issued that year alongside companion pieces on penance and…
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Martin Luther · 1519–1521 · Commentary
For serious students of the Psalms and of the young Luther: his second lectures, where the theology of the cross takes shape. Dense, long and in an old translation.
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Martin Luther · 1520 · Treatise
In 1520, the same year he published his three great Reformation treatises, Martin Luther also issued a small pastoral work in German for ordinary people who could not read Scripture for themselves.…
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