Wolfgang Capito (1478–1541), a leading Christian Hebraist and Catholic churchman who converted to Protestantism, was a pivotal figure in the history of the Reformation. After serving as a professor of theology in Basel and adviser to the archbishop of Mainz, he moved to Strasbourg, which became, largely due to his efforts, one of the most important centres of the Reformation movement after Wittenberg.

This penultimate volume in the series is a fully annotated translation of Capito’s existing correspondence covering the years 1532–36 and culminating in the Wittenberg Concord between the Lutheran and Reformed churches. The correspondence includes Capito’s efforts, alongside those of his colleague Martin Bucer, to negotiate that compromise. Other letters deal with local, political, financial, and doctrinal questions, as well as Capito’s personal life. The letters demonstrate the importance of Capito and his colleagues in providing advice in matters concerning the churches in southern Germany and Switzerland, but also regarding the evangelicals in neighbouring France.

Milton Kooistra’s annotation provides historical context by identifying classical, patristic, and biblical quotations as well as persons and places. Continuing in the tradition of rigorous scholarship established in Volume 1 and Volume 2, this volume provides crucial details on the evolution of Capito’s thought and its contribution to the Reformation movement.

Wolfgang Capito (1478–1541) was a leading Christian Hebraist who converted to Protestantism and became a pivotal figure in the history of the Reformation.

Wolfgang Capito's profile page

Erika Rummel has taught at the University of Toronto and WLU, Waterloo. She has lived in big cities (Los Angeles, Vienna) and small villaes in Argentina, Romania, and Bulgaria. She has written extensively on social history, translated the correspondence of inventor Alfred Nobel, the humanist Erasmus, and the Reformer Wolfgang Capito. She is the author of a number of historical novels, most recently The Road to Gesualdo and The Inquisitor's Niece, which was judged best historical novel of the year by the Colorado Independent Publishers' Association. In 2018 the Renaissance Society of America honoured her with a lifetime achievement award. She divides her time between living in Toronto and Santa Monica, California. The Loneliness of the Time Traveller is her eighth novel.

Erika Rummel's profile page

Milton Kooistra is a Fellow at the Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies at the University of Toronto.

Milton Kooistra's profile page

“A brilliant achievement ... Readers of this volume will have the pleasure of engaging with one of the keenest minds in Reformation studies.”

“A brilliant achievement ... Readers of this volume will have the pleasure of engaging with one of the keenest minds in Reformation studies.”

Renaissance and Reformation

‘Erika Rummel and Milton Kooistra have done their usual excellent job of presenting smooth and lucid translations; the foot notes are concise and learned.’

The Catholic Historical Review vol 102:04:2016

“A valuable source for students of the Renaissance and the early Reformation in the German Empire. Rummel’s translations are accurate, clear, and eminently readable.”

Renaissance Quarterly

"This third volume of a projected four sets Capito among his contemporaries, and does so with the degree of detail and accuracy that we associate with Toronto editorial projects … Both for its value in providing unique detail to our knowledge of Capito’s work and as a resource for the study of Reformation-era religious thought, this volume, like its two predecessors, is indispensable. We await the fourth and final volume. "

<em>Renaissance Quarterly</em>

“Any student of the Reformation, or indeed of the sixteenth century, will find much of interest here.”

Catholic Historical Review

“A singular service to scholars of both humanism and the Reformation.”

Journal of Ecclesiastical History

“Meticulously researched, edited, and contexualized.”

Neo-Latin News

‘Capito project provides readers a unique insight into many of the great issues of the period… With this third volume the Capito project continues to pay great dividends to historians of the reformation era.’

Sixteenth Century Journal