Jan Hus 1370 – 1415
Hus was a Bohemian theologian and reformer whose ideas predated the Protestant reformation by a century and who influenced those later thinkers. His followers, the more traditional of which were called Hussites, proved influential long after Hus, who was tricked into attending a Church council under promises he would not be harmed, and then arrested and burnt at the stake for heresy.Tomás de Torquemada 1490 - 1498
A Dominican monk and confessor to Isabella I of Castile, Torquemada was appointed as the first Grand Inquisitor of the Spanish Inquisition in 1483. Under his command the Inquisition widened its original remit of removing heresy to cover a wide range of "immoral" human experiences and introduced the use of torture to gain evidence. His name is synonymous with religious bigotry and the horrors wrought by the Inquisition.Desiderius Erasmus 1469 – 1536
The greatest scholar of the Northern Renaissance (as opposed to the southern, Italian led part), Erasmus’ humanist writings led to great fame while he was still alive. Amongst many works, he used techniques of textual criticism to critically study the texts of the Bible, producing a new New Testament and influencing the Protestant reformers, although Erasmus himself was to disagree with them.Martin Luther 1483 – 1546
A monk and theologian in Germany, Luther helped cause a massive schism in the church when his reforming views, expressed most famously in his 95 Theses (which he may have nailed to the door of a cathedral to start debate), started the German Protestant Reformation. He developed his views in a series of polemical documents, attacked by the Catholic Church but saved from persecution by powerful supporters. He has been called one of the most influential people in the second millennium CE of European history.Huldrych Zwingli 1484 – 1531
The key figure in the Swiss Protestant Reformation and an important person in the Protestant Reformation in general, Zwingli first preached his new take on Christianity in Zurich, from where it spread across the Swiss Cantons. He was killed in battle while accompanying the army of Zurich as a chaplain. Luther and Zwingli disagreed on key issues and there is debate about exactly how much influenced each other.Saint Ignatius of Loyola 1491 – 1556
In an early career as a knight, Ignatius survived being struck in the leg with a cannonball. He turned to austere Christianity when recovering, studying and establishing the Jesuits (the Society of Jesus) as a means of spreading Catholicism, and stopping Protestantism, through preaching. They became one of the key aspects of the Catholic Counter Reformation.John Calvin 1509 – 1564
A French Protestant, Calvin was the most important figure in the second wave of Protestant Reformation. Teaching largely out of Geneva, and transforming the town into a centre for reformed thinking (the "Protestant Rome"), Calvin’s theology and version of Christianity was established in the Calvinist - or 'Reformed' - church which spread across Europe. He is also considered influential in the development of liberal politics.George Fox 1624 – 1691
An English preacher, Fox founded the Society of Friends, also known as the Quakers, due, in part, to a dislike of established church conventions and scriptural creed. The role of the Quakers in the industrial revolution is the subject of debate, but Quaker support and money is believed to have played a role in facilitating the massive changes, albeit nowhere near the role once ascribed to them.John Wesley 1703 – 1791
Born into a religious family, Wesley was educated and pursued a career in the church which led him to the American colonies. This position proved unsuccessful, due in part to a personal falling out, and he returned to England where, along with his brother, he developed a new, more evangelical, version of Christianity which became the Methodist movement; the church later split away from the Church of England.
