Treatment of the Lord's Supper in the Reformation

Controversies over the Supper were often at the heart of Reformation-era disputes, both between Protestants and Roman Catholics and amongst Protestants themselves. Two aspects of this conflict are worth mentioning.

1. The Colloquy of Marburg. In 1529, several leaders of the Protestant Reformation--Luther, Zwingli, Bucer among them--met to establish a common doctrine of the various Reformed Churches. They were able to agree on every point save one: the relationship of Christ to the Supper. This is where Luther insisted on the woodenly literal meaning of the phrase, "This is my body." Failure here meant that the fledgling Protestant Church was fractured at a time when union would have been highly beneficial. Marburg was one of the great missed opportunities of history.

2. Protestant martyrs of the English Reformation. Following the accession of Mary Tudor to the English throne and the re-establishment of Roman Catholicism (following the Henrician split from papal authority and the more thorough-going Protestantism realized during Edward VI's brief reign), several Protestant leaders were called upon to recant their denial of transubstantiation (which we will examine in greater detail subsequently) and put to death when they refused. Accounts of their trials and executions are found in Foxe's Book of Martyrs.

Tomorrow: A brief review of the nature of sacraments.