More than 450 years have passed since Luther's famous protest at Wittenberg, a protest that has come to stand for and represent the whole of the Reformation. In a very real sense, of course, the Reformation 'is' Luther, and Luther 'is' the Reformation. The acid test, therefore, of any work on this period is whether the author understands, and has the capacity to communicate, the fundamental concerns of Luther. In this book, Professor Atkinson, who is recognized internationally as an outstanding authority on Luther and his period, not only carries out this task supremely well, but also sets us on a vantage point from which we may survey and assess the other men and movements of the period. From Luther, Professor Atkinson passes to Zwingli and the Swiss Reformation; to Calvin and the establishment of Protestantism; to the Reformation in Britain under the Tudors; and so to the beginnings of the Elizabethan discontent that would issue in the Puritan revolt of the seventeenth century. James Atkinson is Professor Emeritus of Biblical History and Literature at the University of Sheffield. His other books include 'Martin Luther and the Birth of Protestantism'.