Chris Castaldo: Small Groups from the Sixteenth Century

It may come as something of a surprise to learn that small groups were a significant part of the Protestant Reformation. Since the story of Luther, Zwingli, Calvin, and the English Reformers is fairly well known, I would like to share another example, from a location that is seldom associated with evangelicalism.

Most people are unaware that southern Europe also witnessed a considerable amount of evangelical activity (at least until the Inquisition in 1542). This was due to numerous factors such as an abysmal standard of morality by Pope Alexander VI and his Borgia family, the Medici papacies which had made the city of Rome into a veritable haven of humanism, the popularizing of democratic ideals by public intellectuals such as Erasmus (who visited Italy in the years 1506-09), and the distribution of Protestant tracts that questioned the accuracy of Catholic Church doctrine.

On account of these factors, there was widespread recognition of the need for reform. In the opening address at the Fifth Lateran Council in 1512, for example, the Augustinian Cardinal Egidio da Viterbo (1469-1532) declared: "Men must be changed by religion, not religion by men." This religious uneasiness, common to the whole of Europe at the start of the sixteenth century, sent thoughtful Christians to reexamine the roots of their faith. While this examination produced a wide range of initiatives for stimulating spiritual awakening, a central thrust of the movement focused on the necessity of Christians to gather together and study the Bible. Keep reading