The Protestant sixteenth century saw changes in the study of the Bible which had huge consequences. A new textual criticism, an acceptance of translations into the vernacular, new theological preoccupations, brought elements in the Bible's teaching which had not been so apparent before to a lasting prominence. It was felt that a necessary break was being made with the traditions of the late Middle Ages, that there was much which had to be rejected in the scholasticism of previous generations. Erasmus of Rotterdam wrote to his friend Martin Dorp in May, 1515:

The reformers and the pioneers of the new criticism were not by any means always in agreement. Erasmus accuses Luther of a lack of the ‘courtesy’ of Christ himself: that ‘evangelical spirit’ which ‘has its own prudence, … its own courtesy and gentleness’.