Electors of Saxony Holy Roman Emperors Building Literature Theater Liturgies Hymnals Monuments Calendrical commemoration Johannes von Goch (born Johann Pupper) (c. 1400 – 1475) was a German Augustinian friar, thought by some to be a precursor of the Reformation, because of his views on scripture, justification and monasticism.
[1] He was born at Goch in the Rhineland, probably studied at Paris, and was the founder of an order of canonesses at Tabor, near Mechelen in Brabant, in 1451, of which he subsequently became prior.
[2] Johann Pupper was educated by the Brothers of the Common Life, as a priest he studied law at Cologne in around 1454.
[3] He may in some respects be considered a precursor of the Reformation, and in his writings, De Libertate Christiana, De Quatuor Erroribus circa Legem Evangelicam, and Epistola Apologetica (1521), he attacks the influence of Pelagianism in the Church, and advocates a return to the text of the Bible as the only true source of religious truth.
[1] Ullmann argued that Johannes von Goch anticipated Luther in the doctrine of justification by faith alone.