No one, including the most zealous Protestant, would assert that the Reformers were divinely inspired or authoritative in themselves.

But it may be enlightening to compare modern Protestantism with the doctrines that were actually being taught during the Reformation. Many things that are unquestioningly accepted today as normal would have seemed blasphemous to Luther, Calvin, and the other original Reformers. For example, here is what normal Protestant teaching on Mary looked like during the Protestant Reformation.

Martin Luther

In his sermon of August 15, 1522, the last time Martin Luther preached on the Feast of the Assumption, he stated: “There can be no doubt that the Virgin Mary is in heaven. How it happened we do not know. And since the Holy Spirit has told us nothing about it, we can make of it no article of faith… It is enough to know that she lives in Christ.”

“The veneration of Mary is inscribed in the very depths of the human heart.” (Sermon, September 1, 1522).

“[She is the] highest woman and the noblest gem in Christianity after Christ… She is nobility, wisdom, and holiness personified. We can never honor her enough. Still honor and praise must be given to her in such a way as to injure neither Christ nor the Scriptures.” (Sermon, Christmas, 1531).

“No woman is like you. You are more than Eve or Sarah, blessed above all nobility, wisdom, and sanctity.” (Sermon, Feast of the Visitation, 1537).

“One should honor Mary as she herself wished and as she expressed it in the Magnificat. She praised God for his deeds. How then can we praise her? The true honor of Mary is the honor of God, the praise of God’s grace… Mary is nothing for the sake of herself, but for the sake of Christ… Mary does not wish that we come to her, but through her to God.” (Explanation of the Magnificat, 1521).

“It is the consolation and the superabundant goodness of God, that man is able to exult in such a treasure. Mary is his true Mother.” (Sermon, Christmas, 1522)

“Mary is the Mother of Jesus and the Mother of all of us even though it was Christ alone who reposed on her knees… If he is ours, we ought to be in his situation; there where he is, we ought also to be and all that he has ought to be ours, and his mother is also our mother.” (Sermon, Christmas, 1529).

“She is full of grace, proclaimed to be entirely without sin- something exceedingly great. For God’s grace fills her with everything good and makes her devoid of all evil.” (Personal [‘Little’] Prayer Book, 1522).

“Christ, our Savior, was the real and natural fruit of Mary’s virginal womb… This was without the cooperation of a man, and she remained a virgin after that.” [Luther’s Works, eds. Jaroslav Pelikan (vols. 1-30) & Helmut T. Lehmann (vols. 31-55), St. Louis: Concordia Pub. House (vols. 1-30); Philadelphia: Fortress Press (vols. 31-55), 1955, v.22:23 / Sermons on John, chaps. 1-4 (1539) ]

“Christ… was the only Son of Mary, and the Virgin Mary bore no children besides Him… I am inclined to agree with those who declare that ‘brothers’ really mean ‘cousins’ here, for Holy Writ and the Jews always call cousins brothers.” [Pelikan, ibid., v.22:214-15 / Sermons on John, chaps. 1-4 (1539) ]

“A new lie about me is being circulated. I am supposed to have preached and written that Mary, the mother of God, was not a virgin either before or after the birth of Christ.” [Pelikan, ibid.,v.45:199 / That Jesus Christ was Born a Jew (1523) ]

“Scripture does not say or indicate that she later lost her virginity… When Matthew [1:25] says that Joseph did not know Mary carnally until she had brought forth her son, it does not follow that he knew her subsequently; on the contrary, it means that he never did know her… This babble… is without justification… he has neither noticed nor paid any attention to either Scripture or the common idiom. [Pelikan, ibid.,v.45:206,212-3 / That Jesus Christ was Born a Jew (1523) ]

“She is full of grace, proclaimed to be entirely without sin… God’s grace fills her with everything good and makes her devoid of all evil… God is with her, meaning that all she did or left undone is divine and the action of God in her. Moreover, God guarded and protected her from all that might be hurtful to her.” [Luther’s Works, American edition, vol. 43, p. 40, ed. H. Lehmann, Fortress, 1968]

“She is rightly called not only the mother of the man, but also the Mother of God… It is certain that Mary is the Mother of the real and true God.” [Sermon on John 14.16: Luther’s Works (St. Louis, ed. Jaroslav, Pelican, Concordia. vol. 24. p. 107]

“Christ our Savior was the real and natural fruit of Mary’s virginal womb… This was without the cooperation of a man, and she remained a virgin after that.” [On the Gospel of St. John: Luther’s Works, vol. 22. p. 23, ed. Jaroslav Pelican, Concordia, 1957]

“Men have crowded all her glory into a single phrase: The Mother of God. No one can say anything greater of her, though he had as many tongues as there are leaves on the trees.” (From Commentary on the Magnificat.)

“She is rightly called not only the mother of the man, but also the Mother of God … It is certain that Mary is the Mother of the real and true God.” [Weimar edition of Martin Luther’s Works, English translation edited by J. Pelikan [Concordia: St. Louis], volume 24, 107.]

“It is an article of faith that Mary is Mother of the Lord and still a Virgin.” [Weimar edition of Martin Luther’s Works, English translation edited by J. Pelikan [Concordia: St. Louis], Volume 11, 319-320.]

“But the other conception, namely the infusion of the soul, it is piously and suitably believed, was without any sin, so that while the soul was being infused, she would at the same time be cleansed from original sin and adorned with the gifts of God to receive the holy soul thus infused. And thus, in the very moment in which she began to live, she was without all sin…” [Weimar edition of Martin Luther’s Works, English translation edited by J. Pelikan [Concordia: St. Louis], Volume 4, 694.]

“There can be no doubt that the Virgin Mary is in heaven. How it happened we do not know.” [Weimar edition of Martin Luther’s Works (Translation by William J. Cole) 10, p. 268.]

“The veneration of Mary is inscribed in the very depths of the human heart.” [Weimar edition of Martin Luther’s Works (Translation by William J. Cole) 10, III, p.313.]

“Is Christ only to be adored? Or is the holy Mother of God rather not to be honoured? This is the woman who crushed the Serpent’s head. Hear us. For your Son denies you nothing.” (From Luther’s last sermon at Wittenberg in January 1546.) [Weimar edition of Martin Luther’s Works, English translation edited by J. Pelikan [Concordia: St. Louis], Volume 51, 128-129.]

John Calvin

“Elizabeth called Mary Mother of the Lord, because the unity of the person in the two natures of Christ was such that she could have said that the mortal man engendered in the womb of Mary was at the same time the eternal God.” [Calvini Opera [Braunshweig-Berlin, 1863-1900], Volume 45, 35.]

“Helvidius displayed excessive ignorance in concluding that Mary must have had many sons, because Christ’s ‘brothers’ are sometimes mentioned. [Harmony of Matthew, Mark & Luke, sec. 39 (Geneva, 1562), vol. 2 / From Calvin’s Commentaries, tr. William Pringle, Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1949, p.215; on Matthew 13:55]

“[On Matt 1:25:] The inference he [Helvidius] drew from it was, that Mary remained a virgin no longer than till her first birth, and that afterwards she had other children by her husband… No just and well-grounded inference can be drawn from these words… as to what took place after the birth of Christ. He is called ‘first-born’; but it is for the sole purpose of informing us that he was born of a virgin… What took place afterwards the historian does not inform us… No man will obstinately keep up the argument, except from an extreme fondness for disputation.” [Pringle, ibid., vol. I, p. 107]

“Under the word ‘brethren’ the Hebrews include all cousins and other relations, whatever may be the degree of affinity.” [Pringle, ibid., vol. I, p. 283 / Commentary on John, (7:3) ]

“It cannot be denied that God in choosing and destining Mary to be the Mother of his Son, granted her the highest honor.” [John Calvin, Calvini Opera [Braunshweig-Berlin, 1863-1900], Volume 45, 348.]

“To this day we cannot enjoy the blessing brought to us in Christ without thinking at the same time of that which God gave as adornment and honour to Mary, in willing her to be the mother of his only-begotten Son.” [John Calvin, A Harmony of Matthew, Mark and Luke (St. Andrew’s Press, Edinburgh, 1972), p.32.]

Ulrich Zwingli

Zwingli published in 1524 a sermon on ‘Mary, ever virgin, mother of God’ in which he wrote: “I have never thought, still less taught, or declared publicly, anything concerning the subject of the ever Virgin Mary, Mother of our salvation, which could be considered dishonourable, impious, unworthy or evil … I believe with all my heart according to the word of holy gospel that this pure virgin bore for us the Son of God and that she remained, in the birth and after it, a pure and unsullied virgin, for eternity.” [Max Thurian, Mary, Mother of All Christians, p.76]

“It was given to her what belongs to no creature, that in the flesh she should bring forth the Son of God.” [Ulrich Zwingli, In Evang. Luc., Opera Completa [Zurich, 1828-42], Volume 6, I, 639]

“I firmly believe that Mary, according to the words of the gospel as a pure Virgin brought forth for us the Son of God and in childbirth and after childbirth forever remained a pure, intact Virgin.” [Ulrich Zwingli, Zwingli Opera, Corpus Reformatorum, Volume 1, 424.]

“I esteem immensely the Mother of God, the ever chaste, immaculate Virgin Mary. Christ… was born of a most undefiled Virgin… It was fitting that such a holy Son should have a holy Mother.” [Ulrich Zwingli in E. Stakemeier, De Mariologia et Oecumenismo, K. Balic, ed., (Rome, 1962), 456.]

“The more the honor and love of Christ increases among men, so much the esteem and honor given to Mary should grow.” [Ulrich Zwingli, Zwingli Opera, Corpus Reformatorum, Volume 1, 427-428.]

John Wesley

The Blessed Virgin Mary, who, as well after as when she brought him forth, continued a pure and unspotted virgin. [“Letter to a Roman Catholic,” quoted in This Rock, Nov. 1990, p.25]