Meeting of the Reformers

The Marburg Colloquy could have been a milestone event in the history of the Reformation movement. Landgrave Philip of Hesse invited the leading Protestant reformers to a meeting in Marburg in October 1529. Since the doctrinal controversy between Luther and Zwingli over the Eucharist threatened to divide the Protestants, Philip wished that the participants would come to an agreement. His motivation was also political in the way that he planned to form a strong religious unity, which was able to act as a military alliance against Charles V. Besides Luther and Zwingli, the reformers Philipp Melanchthon, Martin Bucer, Johannes Oecolampadius, Andreas Osiander and several others participated in the meeting.

Religious Colloquium of Marburg, 1557

After a lot of discussions over a couple of days the reformers had in indeed a lot in common but Luther and Zwingli couldn’t agree on their debate over the Lord’s Supper. For Luther Christ was bodily present in bread and wine. Zwingli preferred a more figurative interpretation of the words “This is my body” and denied any form of real presence of the body. In the end both agreed to disagree and the unified alliance Philip went for, dissolved.

1867

         

For this weeks post I found two pictures of the Marburg Colloquy. One is a wood carving (the painter is anonymous), which was made during the 16^th century. The other one is an oil painting by the German painter August Noack (1822-1905) from the 19^th century. I wanted to show both pictures because I found it interesting how different the scenes of the Marburg Colloquy are depicted. In the wood carving are far less people who are sitting in a circle. We can see some people reading and some gesticulations but the entire scenery seems to be laid-back and more like a talk between old friends. The painting of Noack, on the other hand, looks actually more like a controversial debate. There are a lot of people in the room who are talking to each other. We see more emotion in the faces such as approval or reflectiveness. In the center of the picture, the cross takes a prominent place. Luther and Zwingli are right next to it. Luther is pointing to the Greek word “estin” (“is”), which is written on the table whereas Zwingli points upwards (because Christ ascended to heaven and will return only with the apocalypse).

Sources:

Zophy 203

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/364040/Colloquy-of-Marburg

http://germanhistorydocs.ghi-dc.org/sub_image.cfm?image_id=3323