The Art Archive/University Library Geneva/Dagli Orti
Like prophets of old, the Protestant reformers hold up scrolls bearing their writings (compare them with Isaiah and Ezekiel on the preceding pages). This 1738 engraving shows, from left to right, the German priest Martin Luther (1483–1546), Dutch reformer Menno Simons (1496–1561) and Frenchman Jean Calvin (1509–1564), whose followers formed the Lutheran, Mennonite and Calvinist denominations. The Reformers likened themselves to rebellious prophets. They compared their assault on the Roman church with what they (mistakenly) identified as the prophets’ assault on the religious institutions of biblical times.