Matija Vlačić Ilirik and Matthias Flacius Illyricus: the two names used in the title of this book suggest dual but related contexts for the study of this leading sixteenth-century Evangelical theologian. Matija Vlačić was born in 1520 at Labin in Istria, now part of Croatia. His was one of a group of advocates for the cause of religious reform in his homeland. Vlačić's life and scholarship has been the subject of detailed study by Croatian scholars who have traced his intellectual development and influence in the region. Some of the texts in this collection about Vlačić are in Croatian although the editors have provided summaries in English. Tullio Vorano explains the context of Vlačić's home town, Josip Bratulić examines support for reform in towns and among nobles in Croatian lands, and Fanika Krajnc Vrečko considers Vlačić's influence through personal contacts and correspondence on the progress of reform in Slovenia. These studies on Matija Vlačić are also significant in gaining an understanding of his emotional and spiritual commitment to the cause of religious reform as a response to the profound historical changes that impacted the northern Balkans during his lifetime.

This collection also examines the life and work of the international scholar and theologian, Matthias Flacius. Flacius was educated in Venice before moving to study at Basel and Tübingen. He arrived as a student at Wittenberg in 1541 where he encountered ‘the third Elijah’ (p. 302), Martin Luther. Luka Ilić explains the deep personal loyalty that Flacius felt towards Luther. Flacius' 1549 Apologia recorded that during a period of intense spiritual turmoil ‘Luther then comforted me by sharing his own example, as well as through the word of God, and when the congregation [at St Mary's in Wittenberg] had prayed for me, the torment lessened from day to day until a year later I was well again’ (p. 296). Flacius' subsequent career was marked by a commitment to publish Luther's works and to defend Luther's ideas amid strident debates about the character of the emerging Evangelical Church. A number of the contributions to this volume examine Flacius' achievements as a theologian. Robert Kolb explains that the heart of Flacius' intellectual agenda was to provide clear explanations of the meaning of the Bible through intense study of its original languages and of the historical contexts in which texts were written. Kolb is among a number of authors who analyse Flacius' works Clavis scripturae sacrae (1567) and Glossa compendiaria (1570). In the latter work Flacius presented readers with parallel Greek and Latin texts of the New Testament with marginal notes highlighting the significance of particular words and phrases. Flacius also provided his intended audience of preachers with suggestions for topics to teach about each chapter and how to apply texts to the lives of their parishioners. Flacius believed that during his lifetime the Gospel was being restored as the source of true authority within the Church. However, Flacius' interpretations of the Bible quickly led to controversy. Oliver Olson details one of Flacius' debates with Catholic opponents. Hans Peter Grosshans reveals the issues at stake between Flacius and the Silesian reformer Kaspar von Schwenckfeld. Daniora Pociūtė explains how Flacius tried to influence Duke Mikołaj Radziwiłł to hold to the Evangelical cause and to reject anti-Trinitarianism in Lithuania. Henning Jürgens analyses how Catholics highlighted Flacius' role in divisions within the Evangelical party. Flacius was particularly engaged in arguments about the doctrine of original sin. He held that, since the Fall, sin had become not merely an accident or quality of human nature but rather the very essence and substance of human nature. Flacius believed that his position upheld what Luther had taught. However, as Robert Christman highlights, divisions over this issue became bitter and entrenched. Following a debate at Weimar, Flacius was dismissed from his post at the University of Jena in 1561 and was then banned from teaching on the territory of Ernestine Saxony. Christman also details how a Flaccian party was silenced within the territory of Mansfeld in 1574.

Amid these bitter contests to define the theological character of the Evangelical Church, the middle decades of the sixteenth century also saw a related effort to provide the Evangelical movement with a clear history. Flacius' approach to history provides a final key area for this volume. Douglas Grandon examines Flacius' Catalogus testium veritatis (1556) as a compilation of witnesses across the history of the Church who had resisted the papacy and its errors. An excellent article by Phillip Haberkern further explores how Flacius engaged with the Christian past. Throughout the 1550s Flacius gathered materials for a comprehensive history of the Church and was a key player in the collaborative project to produce the multi-volume Magdeburg Centuries, which is examined here by Harald Bollbuck. Phillip Haberkern also highlights Flacius' objectives as a historian by focussing on a 1558 text about the Bohemian reformer Jan Hus. For Flacius, Hus was a prophet of the Evangelical cause who spoke of Luther when he warned that ‘they will roast a goose now, but after a hundred years they will hear a swan sing, and him they will have to endure’ (p. 146). For Flacius, Hus provided a vital bridge between the Evangelical present and the past of heroic figures who had resisted the power of Rome. Flacius also used the history of the Hussite movement as a cautionary tale to warn Evangelicals about the dire consequences of internal divisions and of any willingness to compromise with Rome. Readers of this volume will encounter both Matija Vlačić Ilirik and Matthias Flacius Illyricus and be drawn by both into a valuable analysis of the character of Evangelical religion in the Empire and across Central Europe during the mid-sixteenth century.