Image: Wittenberg c. 1530 from the host's personal collection.
In May 1536 several prominent Reformed reformers traveled to Wittenberg to confess their understanding of what is received in the sacrament of Holy Communion and who receives it. Luther, Melancthon, and other Lutheran reformers readily signed on in agreement concerning this contentious doctrine. This was seen as a significant breakthrough and a celebrated establishment of fellowship and would later directly influence the Formula of Concord.
Read more about this topic here in Gordon Jensen's book.
Image: Wittenberg c. 1530 from the host's personal collection.
In May 1536 several prominent Reformed reformers traveled to Wittenberg to confess their understanding of what is received in the sacrament of Holy Communion and who receives it. Luther, Melancthon, and other Lutheran reformers readily signed on in agreement concerning this contentious doctrine. This was seen as a significant breakthrough and a celebrated establishment of fellowship and would later directly influence the Formula of Concord.
Read more about this topic here in Gordon Jensen's book.
Welcome back to the Lutheran History podcast. This episode is another alternate format episode. It is a recording of the presentation I gave a few months ago at Concordia Lutheran seminary as part of my coursework for the class on the reformed reformation. Of course, the reformed reformation isn't focused on the Lutheran Reformation. However, I found interesting little episode. That was a pretty big deal at the time that shows a distinct overlap and interconnection between some of those who formerly belong to the reformed camp in the Reformation, having a Concord and agreement with the Lutherans of the Reformation took place in Wittenberg in 1536. So this presentation that I gave is largely based on the work of someone else. It's a glorified beefed up book report. I did do some primary source research on the side to back it up. But this presentation is primarily based on the work of Gordon a Jensen, who teaches at the Lutheran Theological Seminary in Saskatoon, Canada. He published his research in a book simply titled, The Wittenberg, Concord. So what you're about to hear is that presentation, and basically, the background information you need to know if you don't know this already, is that during the Reformation, of course, there were more reformers and Martin Luther, the most famous early reformer who's tried to do things a bit differently was vaguely down in Switzerland, but also very early on a man named Martin boots or was in the German speaking city of Strasbourg and the far western part of the Holy Roman Empire Today part of France but then it was largely a German speaking part of the Empire. Well, anyways, Martin boots are really liked Zwingli he also really like lutherie, one of them to both get along. The Marburg colloquy is a famous episode where that meeting did take place. Yet Bootsy his goal for having unity between the Zwinger aliens and the Lutherans did not take place, the main item of contention, of course, for those who know was the item of the Lord's Supper, specifically the presence of Jesus in the sacrament as friendly and Luther could not and would not agree boots or wanted to brush things over and say, well, it's all just a misunderstanding where, you know, we're fighting over words and such. Luther said, there's, there's no mistake here. So the presentation is going to talk about what happened when boots are actually shifted away from Zwingli. And more towards Luther and this group of Western and South German reformers who are kind of in the middle between the two, at least for a time gravitated towards Luther and they wrote a formal agreement, a Concord, a confessional statement, where boots are and other reformed. Reformers agreed with Martin Luther on the doctrines of the Lord's Supper, baptism, and on absolution. So hopefully, you'll find this topic interesting. Again, it's in a different format. I have recorded my PowerPoint presentation with pictures with quotes with maps with diagrams and all of that, and put it up on YouTube. Normally, I put those YouTube videos behind the paywall Behringer, to, to give something special for our patrons on Patreon. But because this particular presentation is probably best seen in a PowerPoint format, I encourage you if you'd like to sit down and just watch it to go to the Lutheran history channel and watch his presentation. Otherwise, though, it's not a bad listen, if you want to just keep on listening to the Wittenberg Concord today on the podcast. I'm going to start off with just a little show and tell because I don't have too many people share this with this image of Wittenberg. I don't know if you've seen this one before. I found it at an online auction for a really affordable and it's from Basel from around 1550. It's one of these kind of world encyclopedias, and it's hand colored. So you may find this in black and white but this is like a written originally hand color. So it's kind of cool. You can tell how typing is hard because at the end, I don't know if that's backwards or they just because it's it's a mirror image when you are typesetting. So it's kind of neat little thing, but You know it's from it's from Basel, and the guy who put this together some Sebastian Munster. And he started on this project and 1528. The only public, I think this is from 1550. He was constantly updating it. But I kind of wonder, how did how did he get this image? Did he go? Maybe did the delegation of South German seven artists with him like how did he get this image is? It's a question I had. But anyway, this is the Wittenberg Concord and I forgot how I actually got on this this topic, I think it appeared in a footnote or just a passing reference. But I thought this is pretty interesting, because Martin boots, sir, and the South Germans who are kind of Zwingli leaning suddenly kind of make almost a confessional diamond is a confession of faith that Martin Luther signs, how could you know, boots are and Martin Luther signed the same document. And I think that was pretty significant. Or at least interesting, potentially. The context for this was the couple things going on. He had the small called IQ League, this is the era of trying to get political alliances. And one of the questions is, can we do this? With theological understanding, how unified do we have to be this is going on in the background. Of course, this is following the Marburg colloquy, which is depending on your take, but kind of a giant failure in that regard. So this is kind of this isn't quite try to, but it is kind of the follow up on that. So I'm going to this presentation is going to work with the assumption that you're already familiar with kind of Zwingli and bootsector and Luthers view on these things. We're gonna jump on the main doctrines here, we're gonna jump into it. The two main issues that they had to deal with were really the Lord's Supper, and then kind of fellowship is or ecumenism, whatever you want to call it is kind of that the issue in the background and the book I'm relying on here is here. Dr. Bodie, put me on to this. So it's, it's all in here, and basically doing a book report on this. They, they kind of cover ecumenism. The author, author is Gordon Jensen, I don't know him, but he's, at least at the time of printing and 2018 was a teacher at the Lutheran Theological Seminary in Saskatoon and Canada. I think affiliated with the ELCA in America would be that, that brand trip so it's that's kind of the perspective is coming from. So the final chapter talks about, well, what can how can we use this for ecumenism today, and I didn't really get into that, but that's kind of the angle he's taking as far as application. But the main doctrine that's at the center, the center of this is the Lord's Supper, we'll get into it later but just for so you know what it's really going to get at they cover the sacraments, Lord, separate baptism, and then they have a article absolution. That's all this document is. Nothing more, nothing less just going to cover these three. Here's another map. We've had a lot of maps. I don't know if you show this one yet. This is a little bit later of Switzerland. This is basically showing reformed, not reformed. So the issue is, of course, you want to get as many Protestants united as as possible and we already had the map of Strasburg up to the north on the Rhine River The my drawing my pointer, the Rhine River, though is kind of where it says Margrave ative BOD and that's where it is you just follow the river north there Strasburg. Okay, so we have there's a problem between boot sir and Luther boot, sir, had been republishing some of Luther and bulgan hog and stuff, especially about communion because we're going to get on the same page. What do we teach on the Lord's Supper, but boots are was editing it a little bit apparently, when he republished it, I think in Strasburg is where he was doing that. And he made Luther sound like he agreed with singing. So Luther had something to say about that. He said that boots are had seized my book and loaded it and smeared it with his dumb. Of course, Luther would say that. Sure, there's some psychoanalyst who just went all over that. But then he also at at Marburg. So you met boots, or, you know, face to face. You called him a naughty boy. Or a rascal was there the translation for that? So how can these guys have a Concord have harmony, right? That's kind of the definition of Concord, one of them in agreement with this kind of personal relationship, and one of the points of this book towards the end for ecumenism is like, it's good to have face to face meetings. That's how you get stuff done. Well, not at Marburg, that didn't go over very well, because you had the dung smearing naughty boy, and Luther. Okay. So a lot of this is is context. If I could sit here I could read you the Wittenberg, conch. heard, it takes two and a half pages I'd be done and third of my time. So I'm going to have to give you some context for the importance because this is kind of the only time we're really delving into Lutheran stuff per se. As primary source figures, your timeline, you got Marburg colloquy, and October 15 29. Died of Augsburg is less than a year later, of course, got the kind of birth of the Lutheran church there with the Augsburg confession. As you recall from our reading, then he had the TETRA politan confession for the wannabes. You know, the guys who didn't quite make it. The rump of the German delegation, you know, poor cities isn't really all that much they grow. Of course they more than that, but that's the confession that comes through, they were looking at what they say about the Lord's Supper in a little more detail. But then, just the very next month, Blitzer isn't giving up. He says this, I want this to happen. I guess people questioned his motives. Luthor is not very trusting at first, you know, is this just for political reasons, but but boots are is is convinced that this is a this isn't a disagreement on actual doctrine. It's more of a semantic issue. Like we're, it's a quibble about words. I have the lat the Greek phrase in here somewhere. It's actually yes. logo. Makia. Thank you. Yeah. That's just an awesome word, isn't it? Yeah, it's Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So so and you know, he can be sincere, and yet, they're viewing the level of importance of this at two different levels. So marbre colloquy, the head agreement between the Zwingli and South South Germans is what how this book describes the Buddha and his friends. You know, are we here just for a general consensus? Or is this like, do or die doctrine and Lutherans? Our Do or Die doctrine and the rest are more political consensus? Let's see. And then. Boozer does visit Luther at the Colbert castle where he's hanging out because he can't go to Augsburg and that's September 15 30. And here, this is where things turn around. He doesn't get called a naughty little boy, at least as far as we know. Luther was now cautiously optimistic because because booster was really saying, you know, we can make make make it, we can make some progress here. He was trying to convince Luther that Zwingli was now open to a real presence ideal. Luther wasn't buying that but he thought it well, if Bootsy is trying so hard to convince me. Maybe he actually does believe in real presence at least. Okay. The correspondence continues with her out to boots here and January 15 31. So again, this is all really close together just months apart from each development. He said it was dangerous to force a verbal agreement and then have us in fellow fellowship or in communion with each other while the two parties are believing two different things he said it could actually it's like blasphemy he was using words like that you can really wreck your soul kind of kind of stuff. And this is where the interpretation side gets interesting. And Jensen saying, Well, this is a you know, put on a category of altar fellowship. For some reason, I'd be might be more inclined to view but he's just talking about fellowship in general on a unified agreement of doctrine across the board, it happens to be about communion that I didn't really go into that but I think those are some historical questions that have place for dialogue today what was the fellowship issue here just communion or agreement on doctrine or all the above let's see what's what's next here we got Zwingli now though, is ending all pretense of agreement with with loose friends. And this is writing to boots are some boots who really can't win and maybe it's obvious to us in hindsight Well, they've two opposite positions. They're not budging you can't get everyone to like you. So while he went to Marburg you know, Zwingli kind of like boots or, and boots was kind of going over to Luther and that was nice. To me. It almost seems like there's jealousy over the two first generation reformers Well, you don't like me you like him? You know, that kind of thing. And it's about doctrine, but I think personality is is involved here. For sure. So we actually get boots are apologizing to Zwingli said I'm sorry for wasting your time. With this, it says I will no longer quote harass you for a Concord so boots or breaks with him to me a little hand myself but that's what's going on here. So the TETRA policy confession gives us context. Now you get the falls right between Marburg and closer to marbre than it does to the Wittenberg Concord, which is in 1536. By the way, if I didn't mention that earlier, um, here's Wolfgang capito. So this is kind of like I said, the rump Protestants, the guys who didn't quite go on along with the Augsburg confession, boots or wasn't allowed to have a partial subscription to it. So they came up with this document. As you may recall, when they talked about the sacraments, they talked about an outward word, sacred symbols visible signs of invisible grace, okay, that sounds you know, more reforms of England baptism though they're pretty clear that washes away sin saves us but also made the comparison circumcision. And this is kind of the interesting phrase for the Lord separate Christ Danes. Remember that supposed to mean to give his true Body and Blood to be truly eaten and drunk for food and drink of souls? Okay, so that's, they're defining it that way. So, but again, it's, it's, you know, maybe can we see see some common ground here? And they're kind of like Shakespeare, I think they doth protest too much a little bit. Well, we take this very seriously very religiously, but I think they're trying to prove we're not these crazy Anabaptist so we're not we don't have a crude idea about this. This is something sacred. Okay. Oh, yeah, here's here's the break with with Swingley Zwingli. Also, considered boots are now to be politically motivated by Jakub storm and other civil leaders and Strausberg you got this gotta have this alliance got to have this alliance. So he's, once he stops agreeing with with Swingley on everything that he's pretty much calls him you're giving into Luther. Okay, back back to the timeline, then. How can progress possibly continue? Well, if Zwingli dies and Lachlan, Pontius dies, well then always willingly, willingly died in October, I think I missed that point. Well, you have the two personal obstacles are gone. So it was booster, not only thing so I can, I can bring my people but maybe I can still get the Swiss of Swingley personally isn't involved. So the first Basel confession that we looked at, and then the constant articles are constants. That's a city on Lake Constance, northern Switzerland. So Bootsy is putting together stuff, Lutherans are ready to talk, they're open to talking, we need to kind of come up with with our position. And by sheer coincidence, Luther comes up with his pre meeting notes from a length and he can't traveled to Castle. And Lincoln's gonna have a pre meeting for the Wittenberg, Concord. So we're gonna look at those two documents briefly. The other thing, the background is the fall of the this is a fun name, the Telfer a fun one stir, and anyone know what that is. It's like the Baptist empire of monster realm of monster. So the Anabaptist went crazy took over a monster. There's books. Dan Carlin did like a four or five hour podcast on it. It's crazy stuff. But that's radical reformation. But some apparent I just learned this from the book, some of these radicals who are doing forced adult baptism like it, the edge of a sword point like this is it gets culty you get multiple wives marry me or you die. Like literally, that's what's going on there. Some of those people had come from Strasburg and moved up to Munster. So it's a little close to home. What do we think about baptism? So that's in the background to immediate context on the timeline, they have the first Helvetic confession and February 15 36 You have the Wittenburg articles, you know that those are set right? That's when Henry the Eighth sent his delegation right. So there again, Protestant Alliance talk. Then you finally have the Wittenberg Concord is in May, they met for about a week and Wittenberg. Okay. So, again, brief context, what are they talking about in the sacraments here in Basel and 1534? As a nearly Lutheran some some that was a criticism from the other reformed they say the true Body and Blood of Christ is offered to us with the bread and wine. Okay, that's a third of the way to Luthers catechism definition right. Christ is present in his holy supper. Okay. So that's yeah, they're getting they're getting there. So now we have the constants articles like I said, this is preparing for the preliminary meeting. Boots who comes up with these points with his South German northern Swiss friends says with the visible things of bread and wine, the true body and True Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ are truly presented and distributed. I don't think we would throw the heresy flag at that. That one. Anyone? Yeah, just like a yellow you just yeah. yeah I don't know so don't don't throw it at me for thinking that's okay and let's see have you know I don't I don't see a problem with that this is also keep talking Christology Jesus as true God and man is presented and distributed. Okay, so significant Oh this was that was the boot boot sir. Yeah, and friends I think but yeah boot sir. Yeah, this was on the backside of my Wittenberg image so colored Luther put on there probably not his best image but it's mine though some sharing so leuchars thoughts on December 7 He said there but this is what he's saying. And Bucha saying, well, it's just a Mako logo Makia you know, battle about words. He's like, No, there's no misunderstanding you were wrong at Marburg so he's not he's not willing to yield the point. But based on what's coming out of Switzerland you know in Basel are the are constants he's like, Okay, this can there's there's we can work with that. He was he's going to emphasize the action of God in the sacraments you know, arrow coming down from heaven. He's doing stuff says Christ is truly presented, distributed and received and eaten. He's eaten to okay. But Christ's body isn't chewed anymore. So that's his one main concession from Marburg. Okay, we're not chewing Christ's body moving in this realm of sacramental union. Okay, but they must concede at least you're holding Christ. You may not be chewing chewing Christ, but you're holding Christ. So it's very interesting. You're using the senses. Now you can I do I see Christ Am I tasting you know what? It's getting pretty detailed here. Okay, and then we have the other kind of background document that we talked about the first Helvetic confession speaks in categories of sign and substance. The signs are received by the body the substance faith alone. Baptism is regeneration intended for children. Again, get the Telfer icon Munsters is in the background here, and communion Christ truly offers his body and blood the bread and wine are highly significant holy signs again, protesting that we're not crazy about this true communion of the Body and Blood is affirmed believers are presented with spiritual things that they signify. So kind of a spiritual presence. There's clearly a distinction between spiritual and real, though it's not quite quite there. Okay, now we're actually at the windbreak Concord got the background, May 15 36. So the delegation of South Germans were supposed to meet Lutheran Eisenach, and if you've been in Germany, you do the Luther tour. You know, the Wartburg, is kind of in the corner. Everything else is to the east and north a bit. So this was kind of the the meeting point, because Luther is still under the band, he's not allowed to leave Saxony. So this is the convenient spot. But Luther is sick. And they say let's move to grandma. And the south Germans is boots to say, You know what, we'll just go to Wittenberg. Like, we're already we're already 75% of the way there, we're just gonna go all the way. So that's how it ended up being in Wittenberg itself. So this is the word I think we talked. Did you mentioned that earlier. exhibit is what does it mean? Yeah, that but that's translated as in the Wittenberg, Concord and English as is offered, exhibited? Well, this is a main word and part of the point in this book is like I said, the document is so short, that Jensen is say reconstructing but he's adding in all this context. They said this one word, they all signed to this one word, but he's pretty convinced they kind of walked away with different understandings of what this word meant. So that's maybe you know, why don't why don't we all still signed to the Wittenberg, Concord? Well, it was insufficient for the true purpose of the document. Well, here's Luthers view. Jensen summarizes four points. That's not Zingales, translation or understanding of show signify or point to, but Christ is distributed, to hit to give his forgiving presents, and challenges the Swiss separation of the cross and the sacrament, right the benefit of the cross is kind of wrapped up and, and received in Christ in the sacrament, but it's also meant to reject any Transubstantiation or impersonation, while joining the forgiveness of the cross. So that past event is present right there in the sacrament. And his point to is with just this just distribution is the proclamation of the Word. And Jensen says this one word is the key to understanding the real presence, debate and his opinion So the the other phrase is company which is you know just with the bread so boots are preferred with the bread he didn't really like in or under which course Luther we all in our catechism use those three words. Boots are likes company though with the bred to show sacramental union with believers if the brand the body are being multi meaning and avoids impersonation, you know the word in may sound kind of like an incarnation with or impersonation right? Sets parallels with the body of Christ as I said. So who another thing is who receives the Lord separate this is usually If I hear one, I've heard one thing about the Wittenberg, Concord, it's kind of the litmus test of Are you really a Lutheran, if you say, an unbeliever also receives Christ, right. And that's, that's the test and that kind of comes from from this, which part of it at least. So, they together in the document in the Concord they reject Donna autism, they don't use that word. But basically, it's not the worthiness of the Minister, that gives the sacrament its validity, validity, they come up with three get categories of well, what kind of people could possibly receive we have the godly the pious, using Latin terms, the ungodly, and the unworthy. And they they, they kind of divided ungodly and unworthy to kind of make everyone happy. But Jensen is saying the Lutherans and the boots rights, if you want to call them that had different understandings of unworthy or at least different nuances on it. Louis friends are sticking to the center St. Idea. We're all unworthy taking it anyway. Right. So the unworthy, basically everyone receives them anyway. Right? Well, the South Chairman's would prefer to think of unworthy as Billy, the not so good believers, if you're struggling in your faith, you still, you're unworthy, but you're still receiving it. Okay. But they still they say everyone is receiving Christ in this document. The Lutherans are going to emphasize that worthiness of the receipt recipient does not validate the sacrament. So both ends both the minister distributing and the people receiving that is not what makes it valid. It's the word. This document, though, does not directly address Christological issues. So yeah, that's the chief article, if you can call it that of, of a two and a half page document, it's on the Lord's Supper. They do have items on baptism. This is coming towards the end of the document, but they say we do not understand God's working in children. So they're trying to avoid the rational explanation for everything. Needing to explain how it works. They look at the promise of the word for the importance and efficacy of baptism. So both everyone there affirmed infant baptism, regeneration, baptism. Jenson brings in the context illusions held that faith was possible prior to baptism, and says this was offensive to the boots or in the south Germans. Because they focused on you know, well, baptism is the thing that gives you the bath of regeneration. We don't see any other way it's possible Lutherans like the John the Baptist story, which I had a seminary prof who really didn't like that application. So they found that very interesting that at this time in place, you know, they're holding out hope for babies outside of baptism. Without under saying we understand how it all works or what happens. So the south Germans are going a little bit deeper than maybe the Lutheran thing they're saying they have a comb Aqua to with the water because they want to avoid like a holy water concept to both wanting to avoid ex opera opera Otto, but neither side or the document itself does not mention the issues of original sin. Okay, we also have absolution is the final article here. It's pretty much taken from the Augsburg confession, preserves private confession and absolution but also says don't make it mandatory. So this, I guess, no big surprises here. But private confession is seen as useful and pastoral Lutherans Jensen says they're always going to focus on the gospel proclamation of the rite of absolution while the south Germans or he says are a little more focused on the confessional right itself okay real quick just showing you where this is a scam straight from the book it's really hard to see probably at that that angle. Saxony remember it's it's its own country really there. We're dealing with a lot of cities though for the rest but every basically if it's on there, it accepted the Wittenberg Concord concluding interesting and if Basel itself inconstant so you get to Swiss cities that they went along with this. This is your delegation, your reformed or South German. I think got the Lutherans. Luther said at the end this weekend accepts you now as brothers in Christ in regard to these three articles. So again, your div and fellowship, you know, okay, is he doing kind of unit stuff now? Or you're not? I don't know. They really look at that too much. But you have, you know, Wolfgang musculus. Capital booster, probably the three main guys that I recognize from our readings. So I guess the, the question is, was this a failure or success? Or not? So this, the Swiss weren't really convinced. Apart from Basel, so if you're saying, Well, it's the Zwingli. Ins and Lutherans are getting together, the answer is clearly no. But what did happen was he had a South German, really West German to southwest German acceptance of it and conclusion of the book is that they're not really Zwingli ins. Maybe they're not Lutheran, but they're definitely more Lutheran than than Swingley. And according to this document, boots you can I don't think it's a term to be a Bootsy right, but it's kind of what what they were but Bootsy Wright's gonna get along with it, Lutherans on these things. The the main takeaway, for one of the historians looked at this, there's consensus not conquered. So it's not exactly a statement of unified faith, but at least consensus. It also influenced me lengthens 15 4040 variadic, and the language used there was was found again, I guess the biggest, like legacy for Lutherans today is that the formula of Concord has direct quotes straight from this document. So there was still referencing it decades later, and found it at more than adequate to, to talk about things such as the worthiness of recipients. And they made sure we know that company means also in and under so as a starting point, at least for some of those articles. So it was it was a processing, you know, the Saxons pretty much. I mean, they're all right there. Wittenburg. Who else are going to ask if Lutheran Millington sign on to it? charlatan signed it later, I believe, to his kind of the government signing off on it. And you know, the Secretary of the lector Yeah, we're good. And that's the nice thing about having the electorate of Saxony, that's this whole region, just in a, you know, 30 seconds of signing the whole region now is falls into line, all these other cities, you have to go to the city council's and get talk this through. And that's a big, you know, geopolitical difference. That was a challenge, perhaps of getting conquered. But it happened in in those cities. It's called a comp card. Right. So it's an agreement, but Right, it was, it was limited sort of limited purposes. And I didn't have the quote right up on here. But, you know, Luther, realized that you don't need to have full doctrinal agreement, to have a political agreement, he says you can make countries can make alliances, whether or not you agree on your faith, you know, kind of the two kingdoms idea. So well, you know, kind of two different levels, that's almost flipped like the Lutherans take the doctrine more seriously than just, you know, a general general vibe, but then the reformed are going to take the political aspect more seriously. There's another document in there we didn't get to about what do you do with the government taking over church lands and they had opposite responses to that as well. So and it says, it starts off the preamble preamble is you know boots are and his friends and it says they believe this they believe that and it's some view it as a concession by boot sir. And friends that maybe should have made that much more clear in a way like Lutheran lengthen or, you know, signing off on Yep, they made their confession. They were wrong. We were right. Doesn't it isn't said that way, but they're basically sounding like Lutherans at this Wittenberg Concord? And they said, Okay, we examined that, you know, almost like a confirmation examination. They said what they were supposed to say. We can now say we agree on these three articles. So it's much less of two two sides coming together and hashing things out. But depending on who you ask, it may be seem to the Lutherans that these guys are making a different kind of confession, right. Confession, confession. All right. That is it for our presentation on the Wittenberg, Concord. Hopefully you found that somewhat interesting. 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