Marburg Religious Discussion

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The Marburg Religious Discussion in 1529 was part of the theological debate between the Lutheran and Reformed branches of the Reformation .

The Marburg Religious Discussion between Luther, Zwingli and other theologians, convened by Landgrave Philipp the Magnanimous , probably took place in the Prince's Hall of Marburg Palace .

It led to the 15 Marburg Articles , a compilation of confessional statements that were published on Monday, October 4th, 1529.

Historical background, connections

The Marburg Religious Discussion took place from Friday 1st to Monday 4th October 1529 at the invitation of Landgrave Philip the Magnanimous at Marburg Castle . He introduced the Reformation in his territory at the Homberg Synod in 1526 , and since 1527 the University of Marburg was the first university to operate in the Lutheran spirit.

Since the Edict of Worms was again confirmed at the Diet of Speyer in 1529 , Philip of Hesse tried to strengthen the cause of the Reformation by trying to win both branches of the Reformation for a common line against the Old Believers and the Habsburgs . But that was only possible if they agreed on fundamental theological questions. Since 1527 at the latest, there has been a violent dispute between Martin Luther and Ulrich ("Huldrych") Zwingli , who was viewed by Luther as dividing the church ( Last Supper dispute ) , in particular about the significance of the Lord's Supper . The conversation in Marburg was supposed to settle this dispute.

Johannes Bugenhagen made an important contribution to the establishment of the North Hessian Religious Discussion . He himself was involved in the preparations for the Marburg Religious Discussion in Wittenberg. However, he did not take part in this; Instead, he devoted himself to the renewed discussion of the resistance question and took part in the drafting of the Torgau articles on the Augsburg Reichstag , which were included in Articles 22 to 28 of the Confessio Augustana . To a certain extent, the Marburg Talks can be seen in an overall thematic context. The Flensburg disputation took place a few months earlier , in which the spiritualistic preacher Melchior Hofmann and several Lutheran theologians, including Johannes Bugenhagen and Hermann Tast , faced each other and in which the doctrine of the Lord's Supper also played a role. Melchior Hoffman shared his spiritualistic view of the Last Supper with Andreas Rudolf Bodenstein von Karlstadt and Ulrich Zwingli, among others. Luther disputed the question of the Lord's Supper with the latter two. This dispute then culminated in the Marburg Religious Discussion with Zwingli.

Content of the discussion

Marburg Religious Discussion (colored woodcut 1557)

In addition to Luther and Zwingli as well as Philipp Melanchthon and Johannes Oekolampad from Basel , a number of other men took part largely as listeners. a. Martin Bucer , Jakob Sturm , Caspar Hedio , Justus Jonas the Elder , Andreas Osiander , Johannes Brenz and Stephan Agricola .

The actual conversation about the biblical foundations of the doctrine of the Lord's Supper was mainly held over two days by Luther, Zwingli and Ökolampad. Despite smaller approaches, however, it was not possible to move the previously irreconcilable positions towards one another. Bucer's attempt to mediate was also unsuccessful. When the conversation failed, Landgrave Philipp demanded that at least an inventory should be made of the consensus points. The result were the Marburg articles , which Luther had elaborated on the basis of his Schwabach articles drawn up shortly before and which Zwingli supplemented. They reached a consensus between the two directions on 14 points.

In addition, the rejection of the old believing church could be determined.

The 15th article dealt with the sacrament . The different conceptions of the essence of the Lord's Supper remained irreconcilable; especially the question of real presence . Both sides were against the doctrine of transubstantiation and in favor of keeping the lay chalice .

But for Zwingli the Lord's Supper was an act of confession by the congregation, for Luther Christ was really present at the Lord's Supper; Last Supper Controversy . The real presence was maintained by Martin Luther, while Ulrich Zwingli taught a symbolic understanding. With that, the sacrament controversy continued. Both parties saw no way of reaching an agreement. They parted in this dissent and hoped for mutual understanding and the help of God in a correct understanding of the sacrament. According to legend, when it was clear that the talks would fail, Luther cut the tablecloth between himself and Zwingli with a knife.

The Marburg Religious Discussion was the first in a series of many Lutheran Reformed Communion Discussions.

aftermath

"Religious Discussion in Marburg" (1867 by August Noack ), an artistically graphic interpretation of the 19th century

The religious discussion is considered to be the point in time since the Lutheran and Swiss (Reformed) Reformations were finally separated. This prevented the Swiss Protestant cantons from joining the Schmalkaldic Confederation of Evangelical Territories in Germany, which was founded in 1531 . Over the centuries there have been new attempts at rapprochement, but it was not until the Leuenberg Agreement of 1973 that the mutual doctrinal condemnations in the doctrine of the Lord's Supper were overcome and the way to church fellowship was cleared. In the later Lutheran Reformed conversations, neither the Marburg articles nor the subjects of the actual conversation played a major role. Although the first round of talks between Lutheran and Reformed theologians in the USA from 1962 to 1966 was on the topic of "Marburg Revisited", a much wider range of topics was dealt with here too.

The entry of the reformers is shown on the wall paintings in the old auditorium of the Philipps University of Marburg . There are also works by various artists, such as the Hessian history painter August Noack , who deal with the subject. There is a painting from the meeting in the Landgrave Palace.

Web links

Commons : Marburg Religious Discussion  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

literature

  • Ludwig Julius Karl Schmitt: The religious conversation in Marburg in 1529. Elwert, Marburg 1840, ( digitized ).
  • Walther Köhler : Zwingli and Luther. Their quarrel over the Lord's Supper after its political and religious relationships. 2 volumes. 1924-1953;
    • Volume 1: The religious and political development up to the Marburg Religious Discussion in 1529 (= sources and research on the history of the Reformation. 6, ISSN  0171-2179 ). Association for Reformation History, among others, Leipzig 1924;
    • Volume 2: From the beginning of the Marburg negotiations in 1529 to the conclusion of the Wittenberg Agreement of 1536 (= sources and research on the history of the Reformation. 7). Bertelsmann, Gütersloh 1953.
  • Walther Köhler: The Marburg Religious Discussion 1529. Attempt at a reconstruction (= writings of the Association for Reformation History . Vol. 48, No. 1 = No. 148, ISSN  0171-2179 ). M. Heinsius Nachf., Leipzig 1929.
  • Paul C. Empie, James I. McCord (Ed.): Marburg Revisited. A Reexamination of Lutheran and Reformed Traditions. Augsburg Publishing House, Minneapolis MN 1966.
  • Gerhard May (Hrsg.): The Marburg Religious Discussion 1529 (= texts on the history of the church and theology. 13, ISSN  0082-3597 ). Gütersloh publishing house G. Mohn, Gütersloh 1970.
  • Gerhard May:  Marburg Religious Discussion . In: Theologische Realenzyklopädie (TRE). Volume 22, de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 1992, ISBN 3-11-013463-2 , pp. 75-79.
  • Holger Th. Gräf , Andreas Tacke (Ed.): Prussia in Marburg. Peter Janssen's historical painting cycles in the university auditorium (= sources and research on Hessian history. 140). Hessische Historische Komm. Ua, Darmstadt et al. 2004, ISBN 3-88443-094-7 .
  • Gottfried Hoffmann: Quotes from the Church Fathers in the Last Supper Controversy between Oekolampad, Zwingli, Luther and Melanchthon. Strategies of legitimation in the inner Reformation debate about the Lord's Supper (= Oberurseler Hefte supplementary volumes . 7). 2nd Edition. Edition Ruprecht, Göttingen 2011, ISBN 978-3-7675-7142-6 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Helga Schnabel-Schüle: Reformation. Historical and cultural studies manual. Metzler, Heidelberg 2017, ISBN 978-3-476-02593-7 , pp. 34–35.
  2. ↑ Kerstin Lundström: Polemics in the writings of Melchior Hoffman's staging of rhetorical culture of debate in the Reformation period. Stockholm University Press, Stockholm 2015, ISBN (PDF) 978-91-7635-016-4, p. 207 [1]