Friday, October 30, 2020

Wessel Gansfort "A Reformer Before the Reformation"

And they that understand among the people shall instruct many: yet they shall fall by
the sword, and by flame, by captivity, and by spoil, many days. Daniel 11:33

"Wessel Harmensz Gansfort (1419 – October 4, 1489) Called “a reformer before the Reformation,” Gansfort was a Dutch theologian and early humanist whose works would inspire Martin Luther and Huldrych Zwingli.
Gansfort has been called one of the reformers before the Reformation
 
He protested against 
---paganizing of the papacy, 
---superstitious and magical uses of the sacraments, 
---the authority of ecclesiastical tradition, 
---and the tendency in later scholastic theology to lay greater stress, in a doctrine of justification, upon the instrumentality of the human will than on the work of Christ for man's salvation.
 
Thomas à Kempis encouraged Wessel on several occasions to turn to Mary for assistance. Wessel reacted by saying: “Why do you not lead me to Christ.."
wiki/SC