Well, happy Reformation Day to all of you who listen to five minutes in church history on this episode.

Let's look at the patrons of the Reformation.

These are the folks behind the reformers. They don't always get mentioned, but from a human standpoint they helped make the

reformation happen. The first is an Englishman, Humphrey of Monmouth.

Humphrey of Monmouth heard William Tyindale preach and he also was aware of

Tindale's efforts to bring the Bible into the hands and into the language of the

English people. So for six months, Humbrey of Monmouth took Tindale in supported him, gave him room and board,

really gave him everything he needed so that Tindale could just simply focus on

translating the text.

Well, once he completed that task,

he now needed to print this

and get it into print and available to people.

So Tindale, of course, went over to the continent

and used Europe's printers because he was an outlaw in England and while

he was in Europe again Humphrey of Monmouth helped him and supported him.

Humphrey of Monmouth made his wealth through being a cloth merchant and not only was he a cloth merchant but he also

managed to assemble a whole fleet of ships and he used those ships to smuggle Christian

literature coming in from the continent and spread it all over England so that the

reformation could spread. And of course once Tyndale printed his new testament

Humphrey of Monmouth put those on his ships he would hide them and his workers would hide them in bundles of cloth and

they'd be shipped across to England and then distributed. We know that Tindale was eventually

arrested and martyred for his faith and for his efforts and so too Monmouth also suffered persecution.

...