ABSTRACT
As was also the case abroad, one of the most important spiritual presuppositions
of the Reformation in Denmark was humanism (see p. 88), and it was sustained
by men who had either read the writings of Erasmus of Rotterdam or else had
absorbed the new ideas in the course of student sojourns to the universities of
Louvain, Paris, Bologna, Rostock, Erfurt or Wittenberg. Around 1520 the hu-
manistic movement had made major beachheads in Denmark so that ‘modern’
humanist teachers appeared in such large towns and cities as Aarhus, Ribe,
Roskilde, Lund and Copenhagen. With respect to the church the most important
figure was Poul Helgesen (c.1485-1535). He was the leader of the Carmelites, a
monastic order that placed a premium on learned study, and in his theology and
critical view of the church he was in broad agreement with his great model,
Erasmus. For Poul Helgesen the humanist slogan ‘Back to the sources!’ meant
that he placed the study of the Bible, and in particular the New Testament, the
writings of the church fathers and the life of the early church at the centre of his
activities. He was a typical Roman Catholic biblical humanist who sought to
reform his church without breaking with it. Naturally, Helgesen repudiated
much of the Catholicism of his day. The sacraments were not as prominent in his
thought as were the Scriptures and piety. In Helgesen’s view, the presupposi-
tions for a true understanding of the Bible and for true Christianity are theologi-
cal ability, knowledge of the classical languages and the situation of the early
church, taken together with true personal piety. Like the Protestants, Poul
Helgesen found it possible to affirm that man is saved by faith, but he addition-
ally emphasized the significance of piety and a moral way of life. For him,
salvation was not simply a free gift from God, as Luther maintained; rather,
there were certain conditions which man had first to fulfil, and Helgesen knew
nothing of the certainty of salvation of which Luther spoke.
