The Spiritual Awakenings That Influenced the Protestant Reformation

Throughout the centuries, as the Church—united with the state—strayed further and further from the truth of the Holy Scriptures, various groups of Christians strove to remain faithful to the pure teachings of the New Testament. Thus, God never remained without His people, people who confessed Him both by their lives and with their mouths, even at the risk of their lives. Among these groups, the Donatists, Waldensians, and Anabaptists are particularly noteworthy. Subjected to savage persecution by the Western Church, harassed everywhere, tortured, slaughtered, and largely massacred, these people "did not love their lives, even unto death." As the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews says: "...some, in order to obtain a better resurrection, did not want to receive the deliverance that was offered to them and were tortured. Others suffered mockery, beatings, chains, and imprisonment; they were stoned, sawed in two, tortured; they died by the sword; they went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, afflicted, mistreated—of whom the world was not worthy—wandering in deserts and mountains, in caves and holes in the ground" (Hebrews 11:35-38). This study aims to explore these spiritual awakenings and the courageous communities and individuals behind them, showing how their convictions and sacrifices helped pave the way for the Protestant Reformation.