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John Wycliffe (1320-1384)
Introduction
14th century. He preached all over the world and had many followers, known as Lollards. He lead a rebellious movement which preached anticlerical and biblically-centered reforms.
Life
Wycliffe was born in the factory village of modern-day Hipswell in the North Riding of Yorkshire, England in the mid-1320s. His family was long settled in Yorkshire. The family was quite large, covering much territory. {http://samuelatgilgal.files.wordpress.com/2008/10/john-wycliffe.jpg} John Wycliffe
Wycliffe was educated at Balliol Collge and received the Degree of Doctor of Theology in 1372. His living was fairly nice and was granted by papal provision a prebend in a well known church. He preached all over the world and had many followers, known as Lollards. He lead a rebellious movement which preached anticlerical and biblically-centered reforms.
His writings were focused around Evangelical povery, logical writings, and metaphysical writings. He questioned Evangelical povery, and hated clerical and monastic endowments.
Most of the controversy came about through his radical movements, especially when he denied the doctrine of Transubstantiation. His position towards it reflected Lutheran ideans. Both the friars and the State itself turned from him.
It is probable that he was paralyzed during the last years of his life, and eventually that he died of a stroke.
Most of his writings have been published and edited by the Wycliffe Society. Two "Wyclifite" versions of the Bible exist as well.
Sources
John Wycliffe
Catholic Encyclopedia

1714-1770
Information
George was {http://www1.assumption.edu/users/mcclymer/His130/P-H/greatawakening/whitefield.jpg} Portrait of George Whitefield only two of school.
{http://www1.assumption.edu/users/mcclymer/His130/P-H/greatawakening/whitefield.jpg} Portrait
By age 17, he entered Pembroke College at Oxford. It was here that he joined a group known as the "Holy Club." And through this club, he met Charles and John Wesley. They loaned him a book called "The Life of George WhitefieldGod in the Soul of Man" which caused him to convert in 1735. However, through this conversion his health severely diminished. Thus he was forced to leave school. For nine months he stayed at home where he was accompanied by the bishop of Gloucester. The bishop ordained him as a deacon and later a priest in the Church of England. Upon finishing his degree at Oxford, in 1736 he was ordained by Bishop Benson.
Whitefield is remembered as a great preacher who attracted thousands of people. His views were extremely Calvinistic. However, he reached out towards all denominations such as Presbyterians, Congregationalists, and Baptists. With the Wesleys, he inspired the Methodist movement. In his lifetime, he preached more than 18,000 sermons. And many of them were repeated, however, fewer than 90 of them still survive.
References
Portrait of George Whitefield

At Paris he was honored with the friendship of the King, St. Louis, with whom he frequently dined. In 1261, Urban IV called him to Rome where he was appointed to teach, but he positively declined to accept any ecclesiastical dignity. St. Thomas not only wrote (his writings filled twenty hefty tomes characterized by brilliance of thought and lucidity of language), but he preached often and with greatest fruit. Clement IV offered him the archbishopric of Napleswhich he also refused. He left the great monument of his learning, the "Summa Theologica", unfinished, for on his way to the second Council of Lyons, ordered there by Gregory X, he fell sick and died at the Cistercian monastery of Fossa Nuova in 1274.
St. Thomas was one of the greatest and most influential theologians of all time. He was canonized in 1323 and declared Doctor of the Church by Pope Pius V.
copied-and-pasted at all.all (but, as per-usual, made up in the dark recesses of a certain young man's bountiful imagination).
Sources
Thomas Aquinas

Smartly so, the Counter Reformation began as a movement against the pesky Protestants, so called for splitting from the infallible and most holy Catholic Church. The Church and its various friars (the furious Franciscans and dominate Dominicans) fought most valiantly against the idiotic protestors, crushing them with the most Holy force of God, showing the Schistists their faults, and most importantly, charging them for their split. To say the least, the Catholics won, and the Protestants, like usual, ended up defeated.
Actually, no, this is not what happened. Various groups did form against the Reformation but they were unsuccessful. To fight against the Reformation by forming Catholic Orders is rather like trying to stop the ocean tide by splashing in the water, wearing very silly gold-gilded inflatable floaties.
But to the contrary again, the Catholics were indeed the Great Ocean that is forever endless: vast, powerful, never-ending, and insurmountable. It is the childish Protestants that wore the silly floaties made of lead, and all the more foolish as they sunk instead of staying afloat.
Sources

Scopes Trial
{monkey.jpg} Monkey- Oooh ooh Ah Ah!
The infamous "Monkey Trial" took place in July 1925 in the Rhea County Courthouse in Dayton, Tennessee. Though the full case name of the trial is The State of Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes, perhaps it can be more aptly labeled as rural traditionalism v. urban modernism.
The Scopes Trial was certainly not the commencement of the controversy regarding evolution; rather, it was the climax, at least for the time being. The evolution controversy was, in fact, evolutionary--at least fifty years in the making. Southern evangelicals had been denouncing the teaching of evolution (which came to be known as Darwinism after Darwin's On the Origin of Species was published) since the 1870s. During the post-Civil War era, while the northern conservative Protestants were content to focus on defending the authority of Scripture, their southern counterparts became actively involved in combatting the teaching of evolution.

At Paris he was honored with the friendship of the King, St. Louis, with whom he frequently dined. In 1261, Urban IV called him to Rome where he was appointed to teach, but he positively declined to accept any ecclesiastical dignity. St. Thomas not only wrote (his writings filled twenty hefty tomes characterized by brilliance of thought and lucidity of language), but he preached often and with greatest fruit. Clement IV offered him the archbishopric of Napleswhich he also refused. He left the great monument of his learning, the "Summa Theologica", unfinished, for on his way to the second Council of Lyons, ordered there by Gregory X, he fell sick and died at the Cistercian monastery of Fossa Nuova in 1274.
St. Thomas was one of the greatest and most influential theologians of all time. He was canonized in 1323 and declared Doctor of the Church by Pope Pius V.
And the above was not copied-and-pasted at all.
Sources
Thomas Aquinas

Ordination
{http://www.churchtimes.co.uk/uploads/images/St%20Thomas%20Aquinas(1)%231%23.jpg} Thomas Aquinas
When he became of age to choose his state of life, St. Thomas renounced the things of this world and resolved to enter the Order of St. Dominic in spite of the opposition of his family. In 1243, at the age of seventeen, he joined the Dominicans of Naples. Some members of his family resorted to all manner of means over a two year period to break his constancy. They even went so far as to send an impure woman to tempt him. But all their efforts were in vain and St. Thomas persevered in his vocation. As a reward for his fidelity, God conferred upon him the gift of perfect chastity, which has merited for him the title of the "Angelic Doctor".
After making his profession at Naples, he studied atCologne under the celebrated St. Albert the Great. Here he was nicknamed the "dumb ox" because of his silent ways and huge size, but he was really a brilliant student. At the age of twenty-two, he was appointed to teach in the same city. At the same time, he also began to publish his first works. After four years he was sent to Paris. The saint was then a priest. At the age of thirty-one, he received his doctorate.
At Paris he was honored with the friendship of the King, St. Louis, with whom he frequently dined. In 1261, Urban IV called him to Rome where he was appointed to teach, but he positively declined to accept any ecclesiastical dignity. St. Thomas not only wrote (his writings filled twenty hefty tomes characterized by brilliance of thought and lucidity of language), but he preached often and with greatest fruit. Clement IV offered him the archbishopric of Napleswhich he also refused. He left the great monument of his learning, the "Summa Theologica", unfinished, for on his way to the second Council of Lyons, ordered there by Gregory X, he fell sick and died at the Cistercian monastery of Fossa Nuova in 1274.
St. Thomas was one of the greatest and most influential theologians of all time. He was canonized in 1323 and declared Doctor of the Church by Pope Pius V.
Sources
Thomas Aquinas

Introduction
Smartly so, the Counter Reformation began as a movement against the pesky Protestants, so called for splitting from the infallible and most holy Catholic Church. The Church and its various friars (the furious Franciscans and dominate Dominicans) fought most valiantly against the idiotic protestors, crushing them with the most Holy force of God, showing the Schistists their faults, and most importantly, charging them for their split. To say the least, the Catholics won, and the Protestants, like usual, ended up defeated.
Actually, no, this is not what happened. Various groups did form against the Reformation but they were unsuccessful. To fight against the Reformation by forming Catholic Orders is rather like trying to stop the ocean tide by splashing in the water, wearing very silly gold-gilded inflatable floaties.
Sources

Jonathan Edwards
Jonathan Edwards (October 5, 1703- March 22, 1758) was a preacher who greatly influenced the First Great Awakening. His most well-known sermon is "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God," which includes descriptions of Hell that lead to many conversions.
He was puritan by religious orientation, and very concerned by theological metapyhsics. He went to Yale when he was young, and graduated as Valedictorian. When younger, he hated Calvinism, but as he grew older he learned to enjoy it. He got married to a fine woman named Sarah and produced eleven babies- these would later be called his "children."
He began hitting up the most popular revival sites, and was well known for his fiery speaking ability. However, he got in a bit of a squabble when he refused to serve communion to just anyone- he did not find this to be a sign of conversion but rather something just well-entrenched church members should do. He was eventually dismissed as pastor by the spiritual king-pins of the time.
This time off allowed him to write his major work, Freedom of the Will, in 1754, in Massachusetts. He was later elected to President of Princeton. He then died of fever, as was the custom of the time.
{http://christthetruth.files.wordpress.com/2009/08/jonathan-edwards.jpg} Portrait of Jonathan Edwards
References