Biographies

Puritans & Reformers 1480–1699

The lives behind the books — preachers, missionaries, and writers whose words still speak.

Portrait of Martin Luther

Martin Luther 1483–1546

6 sermons

Martin Luther (1483–1546) was the German monk whose recovery of justification by faith alone sparked the Protestant Reformation. Driven into a monastery by terror in a thunderstorm and then into peace by a verse in Romans, he posted his Ninety-Five Theses in 1517, defied pope and emperor at the Diet of Worms, translated the New Testament into German at the Wartburg, and gave the church its hymns and catechisms. His last written words were, “We are beggars. This is true.”

Portrait of John Calvin

John Calvin 1509–1564

4 sermons

John Calvin (1509–1564) was the leading theologian of the second generation of the Reformation and the pastor of Geneva for over twenty years. A French lawyer and humanist turned reformer after a “sudden conversion,” he wrote the Institutes of the Christian Religion — the fullest statement of Reformed faith — and shaped Protestantism across Europe through his preaching, his commentaries on nearly the whole of Scripture, and the Academy of Geneva.

Portrait of Teresa of Ávila

Teresa of Ávila 1515–1582

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Teresa of Ávila (1515–1582) was a Spanish Carmelite nun, mystic and reformer who taught that prayer is “an intimate sharing between friends.” She founded the reformed Discalced Carmelites, wrote The Interior Castle, and in 1970 became the first woman named a Doctor of the Church.

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John Foxe 1516–1587

1 book in the library

John Foxe (c. 1516–1587) was an English Protestant historian and preacher who gave up his Oxford fellowship for conscience, fled Queen Mary's persecution, and in exile and after gathered the records of those who died for the Reformed faith into Actes and Monuments (1563), known ever since as Foxe's Book of Martyrs. In old age he pleaded with Queen Elizabeth to spare even the heretics he opposed from the fire.

Portrait of George Herbert

George Herbert 1593–1633

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George Herbert (1593–1633) was a Welsh-born English poet and Anglican priest who left an aristocrat’s path to court to become a humble country parson at Bemerton. His devotional poems, published after his death as The Temple, and his pastoral manual The Country Parson made him a model of the devout parish priest.

Portrait of John Owen

John Owen 1616–1683

1 book in the library

John Owen (1616–1683) was the foremost theologian of English Puritanism — chaplain to Cromwell, Dean of Christ Church and Vice-Chancellor of Oxford, and after 1662 a dissenting minister barred from the universities he had led. He is famous for the density of his prose and for an unusually exact understanding of how sin actually works on a person, which is why The Mortification of Sin has outlived almost everything else written in its century on the subject.

Portrait of Blaise Pascal

Blaise Pascal 1623–1662

4 books in the library

Blaise Pascal (1623–1662) was a French mathematician, physicist and Christian thinker whose experiments on the vacuum and work on probability made him famous across Europe. On the night of 23 November 1654 he met the living God in an experience he recorded in his Memorial and carried sewn into his coat for the rest of his life. His Provincial Letters and the unfinished defence of the faith published after his death as the Pensées remain among the most searching Christian writings ever composed.

Portrait of John Bunyan

John Bunyan 1628–1688

5 books in the library

English writer and Puritan preacher, a Bedford tinker by trade who was imprisoned for more than a decade for preaching without a licence. During that confinement he wrote The Pilgrim's Progress, one of the most published allegories in the English language.

Portrait of Jeanne Guyon

Jeanne Guyon 1648–1717

1 book in the library

Jeanne Guyon, born in 1648 in Montargis, France, became a leading voice of Christian mysticism. Drawn early to deep prayer, she dedicated her life to interior surrender and spiritual renewal. Her teachings stirred both devotion and controversy, eventually leading to imprisonment. She died in 1717, but her writings still influence Christian spirituality today. Her autobiography remains a classic of spiritual literature. Guyon's emphasis on pure love and abandonment to God challenged formal religion.

Portrait of Susanna Wesley

Susanna Wesley 1669–1742

1 book in the library

Susanna Wesley, born in 1669 in London, England, was the mother of John and Charles Wesley, founders of Methodism. A devout Anglican and mother of nineteen children (ten survived to adulthood), she provided rigorous religious education to her children, establishing daily routines of prayer and Scripture study. Despite financial hardships and her husband's absences, she maintained a strong spiritual household.

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Isaac Watts 1674–1748

1 book in the library

The father of English hymnody: a frail Dissenting minister who taught the church to sing the gospel in its own words, giving it “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross,” “Our God, Our Help in Ages Past” and “Joy to the World.” Laid aside by illness for years and sheltered for thirty-six by the Abney family, he also wrote Divine Songs (1715), the songs generations of children learned by heart.

Portrait of William Law

William Law 1686–1761

1 book in the library

William Law (1686–1761) was an English priest whose refusal to swear allegiance to George I cost him his Cambridge fellowship and any career in the established church. Barred from preferment, he wrote instead — and A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life (1729) became one of the most influential devotional books in English, shaping John Wesley, George Whitefield, and Samuel Johnson.

Biographies