Martin Luther’s monastic origins within the order of Augustinian Hermits present a curious case for historians of the Protestant Reformation. Seemingly following Luther’s theological leadership, this monastic order was overrepresented in the Reformation by numbers hugely disproportionate to its otherwise small size. Luther was joined in theological reform by his confrères Wenzeslaus Link, Johann Lang, Gabriel Zwilling, Richard Nangle, the Antwerp Augustinians – including Jakob Propst and Hendrik van Zütphen – Jean Chatelain, Michel d’Arande, Agostino Mainairdi da Piemonti, Guilio della Rovere, Ambrogo da Milano and Nicolo da Verona. So too was it the Augustinians who showed initiative in providing vernacular translations of the Bible in Germany, France and England. This trend is particularly curious given that the Augustinians were the only mendicant order directly founded by a pope, but which simultaneously housed voices so vehemently opposed to the papal office.

In England, the Austin Friars, as the order was known there, produced Robert Barnes, the only Lutheran Reformer in Henrician England. From the same priory as Barnes came Miles Coverdale, the renowned translator of the Bible and eventual bishop of Exeter. They were joined by George Browne, the institutional Reformer who functioned as a general visitor to the mendicant houses in the years leading up to their dissolution, and who later unsuccessfully transposed his evangelical vision to Ireland while there as archbishop of Dublin.