Excursion in Basel
Bern's leap into the Reformation was followed soon after by Basel, but Protestant theology was no new idea in this city. The wealthiest and most literary city in Switzerland in the early 16th century, Basel was home to a highly-regarded university and some of the most important humanist thinkers of its day. Key among those was Erasmus, Father of Renaissance Humanism, whose 1516 edition of the Greek New Testament made the Protestant Reformation possible. Oecolampadius was also from Basel, an expert debater, scholar and consensus-builder, and Froben Printers, the printing house which published the writings of its local scholars. Basel's humanist influence had a profound impact on the thinking of Luther, Zwingli, Thomas More, the Anabaptists and many others.