Johannes von Goch

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.

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. He was considered a man of profound piety, and as a theologian was unexcelled in his day.