The Reformation Movement Of The German Town Of Marburg On...

In the German town of Marburg-on-the-Lahn over the days of the 1st-4th October 1529 a meeting of minds was convened. Those involved were the leading theologians of a burgeoning religious movement. Their hearts and minds were focussed on the reformation of the church, driven by their love for, and study of Scripture. Conversely there still remained strongly held, widely different views on certain matters of belief and practice. These views were polarised around the issue of Eucharistic understanding, an issue, which at its core had implications for the immediate context of the reformation movement, and the course of the wider early modern social, political and ecclesiastical history . Implications, which at the deepest level, involved†¦show more content†¦The seeking of protective alliances was a crucial matter in the context of the German movement, Owen Chadwick describes the Germany of the 16th century as governed by a miscellany of local powers, princes, bishops, city mag istrates, nobles or robber barons, knights. The Central government was weak and these local powers depended on local strength rather than upon weak imperial law. The previous year had seen war panic whereby Otto von Pack provisional chancellor of the Duchy of Saxony, fraudulently led Phillip into the belief that Ferdinand of Austria, the Electors of Mainz and Brandenburg, the Dukes of Saxony and Bavaria, and other Roman Catholic rulers had concluded a league at Breslau, May 15, 1527, for the extermination of Protestantism. This fraught situation had elicited a rash response from Phillip, which had painted the Protestant princes as ‘aggressors and disturbers of the peace’. These issues coupled with the recent chaos of the Peasants war (1524-25) impressed upon Phillip and many of those attending Marburg, the necessity and urgency of an alliance built on common belief and practise. Tensions in Switzerland between Protestant and Catholic cantons had lead to violence, and the formulation of a â€Å"Christian Union† by catholic cantons, backed by Frederick, Duke of Austria, with the aim of protecting the faith. The formulation of this ‘Christian Union’ was