Luther and Zwingli Meet at Marburg

Landgrave Philip of Hesse called the reformers of Wittenberg and those of the Swiss and south German cities to his court at Marburg (Osiander, Report on Marburg report to the council of Nuremberg). His chancellor opened the public session by urging them to seek God’s glory and brotherly unity (Osiander, Report on Marburg report to the council of Nuremberg).

Martin Luther and his party arrived on Thursday 30 September 1529 (Osiander, Report on Marburg report to the council of Nuremberg). The landgrave first had the leaders talk in private pairs, Luther with Johannes Oecolampadius and Philip Melanchthon with Huldrych Zwingli; four sessions followed before the landgrave and no more than twenty-four hearers (Zwingli, Letters, to Vadian, 20 October 1529).

The question was how to understand Christ’s words “this is my body” (Matthew 26:26). Andreas Osiander, who sat with Luther’s party, reports that Luther wrote the words on the table in chalk. Zwingli argued from the saying “The flesh profits nothing” (John 6:63) that a bodily eating would be useless, and from texts on Christ’s likeness to us that his body, like ours, can be in only one place. Luther answered that John 6 does not speak of the Supper and that God can keep a body in one place, in many or in none. Asked for his proof from Scripture, he lifted the cloth and pointed to the chalked words (Osiander, Report on Marburg report to the council of Nuremberg).

No agreement was reached on this point. Osiander says that his side would have accepted the others as brothers if they had confessed that Christ’s body is present in the Supper, in whatever manner, and that they would not; they in turn asked to be received as brothers and to share communion, and this was refused. It was then agreed that Luther should set down the chief articles of faith and that all should sign (Osiander, Report on Marburg report to the council of Nuremberg).

Ten theologians signed fifteen articles. Fourteen record agreement, from the Trinity and justification by faith to infant baptism and civil authority (Marburg Articles articles 1–14 and signatures). The fifteenth says that both sides hold the sacrament of the altar to be a sacrament of the true body and blood of Christ, and the spiritual partaking of that body and blood to be necessary for every Christian. It then states that they have not agreed at this time whether the true body and blood of Christ are bodily present in the bread and wine, and that each side should show the other Christian love, as far as conscience allows, and pray God for a right understanding (Marburg Articles article 15).

The two sides reported the outcome differently. Luther wrote to his wife that “although we object to be brethren, we wish to live at peace” (Luther, Letters, to his wife, 4 October 1529). Zwingli wrote that Luther had been beaten in the eyes of fair judges, and that the papists could no longer hope to win Luther over now that the two parties agreed on the other doctrines (Zwingli, Letters, to Vadian, 20 October 1529).

The confession presented at Augsburg the next year teaches that the body and blood of Christ are truly present and distributed in the Supper, and rejects those who teach otherwise (Augsburg Confession article 10); see the Augsburg Confession.