


“Second, we believe that neither the Father nor the Holy Spirit, but the Son of God the Father, true and natural God himself, became man through the working of the Holy Spirit without the agency of male seed, was born of the pure Virgin Mary, was altogether human with body and soul, like another man, but without sin. “First, that we on both sides unanimously believe and hold that there is only one true, natural God, Maker of all creatures, and that this same God is one in essence and nature and triune as to persons, namely, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, exactly as was decided in the Council of Nicaea and as is sung and read in the Nicene Creed by the entire Christian church throughout the world. These are the Articles of Marburg, signed on October 3, 1529: The last article called for each side to respond to the other in Christian love. The fifteenth stated many points of agreement regarding the Eucharist and also noted the primary point they could not agree on. Luther prepared fifteen articles that both sides would sign. However, there was great agreement on other issues. The spiritual benefit does not come from the elements but in the act of remembering Christ’s broken body and shed blood for sin as the symbolic elements are eaten.Īt the Colloquy of Marburg, the opposing positions were presented and debated, and the final outcome was that there would be no agreement forthcoming on this issue. The Eucharist (the Lord’s Supper or communion) is simply a memorial or a ritual of remembrance. Zwingli taught something that would be called memorialism. Other Reformers taught that the body of Christ was spiritually present in the elements and that the believer is spiritually nourished by receiving the elements. Consubstantiation is the idea that the body and blood of Christ are with the elements, but the elements do not change into the actual body and blood of Christ. Luther and the Reformers who followed him taught consubstantiation (although the term was coined later). This teaching, known as transubstantiation, the Reformers universally rejected. According to Catholic teaching, when the communicant receives the Eucharist, he or she is actually eating the body of Christ. The Roman Catholic Church taught that, through a miracle, the priest changes the elements of the Eucharist into the actual body and blood of the Lord, although they retain their original appearance, taste, and smell. Phillip of Hesse called the colloquy in an attempt to settle the issue and achieve unity. However, Lutheran Protestants wanted a common confession of faith to be the basis of any alliance, and there was a significant theological difference regarding the Eucharist. He felt that the Protestant territories in Germany and Switzerland should form a political alliance to resist Catholic forces in case they attempted to forcefully subdue the Protestant territories. Philip of Hesse was the Protestant landgrave, or ruler, of the German territory of Hesse, a central German state.
#Definition of colloquy full#
Even though the Protestant Reformation was in full swing, Catholic forces seemed to be gaining political and military power. There were Catholic rulers presiding over Catholic territories, and there were Protestant rulers and territories. Martin Luther, Martin Bucer, and Philip Melanchthon from Germany and John Oecolampadius and Huldrych (or Ulrich) Zwingli from Switzerland were the primary presenters, but there were a number of observers and delegates who attended.Īt the time of the Marburg Colloquy, church and state were inextricably entwined. The Marburg Colloquy was one such meeting that took place in Marburg, Germany, October 1–4, 1529, between representatives of the German Reformation and the Swiss Reformation. However, the term is often used in a more technical sense to denote a meeting to discuss theological matters. A colloquy, in a general sense, is simply a conversation.
