United States or French Polynesia ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
The latter, in a letter of November 16, 1524, to Alber, a preacher at Reutlingen, had already disputed the Real Presence, by interpreting the words 'This is my body' to mean 'This signifies my body. In March 1525 he made known this interpretation to the world by publishing his letter, together with a pamphlet 'On the True and False Religion. He was joined at Basle by Oecolampadius, whom Luther had welcomed formerly as a fellow-labourer, and who published his own interpretation of the words of Christ.
After much anger and discontent, Luther broke out, in September 1544, with the tract, 'Short Confession of the Holy Sacrament. He had nothing to do with any new refutation of false teachers these, he said, had already been frequently convicted by him as open blasphemers but simply to testify once more against the 'fanatics and enemies of the Sacrament, Carlstadt, Zwingli, Oecolampadius, Schwenkfeld, and their disciples, and once and for all to renounce all fellowship with these lost souls.
Zwingli and Oecolampadius, on the contrary, relied mainly, as heretofore, on the words of Christ in the sixth chapter of St. John, where He evidently alluded to a spiritual feeding, and declared that 'the flesh profiteth nothing. Honour must be given to God, he said, by accepting from Him this clear interpretation of His Word.
One of his opponents said: 'Luther has drawn a large part of the Church to himself, Zwingli and Oecolampadius also some part, but Erasmus the largest'. Erasmus's public was numerous and of high culture. He was the only one of the Humanists who really wrote for all the world, that is to say, for all educated people.
And now they saw each other again at Basle, in 1522: Oecolampadius having left the monastery, a convinced adherent and apostle of the new doctrine; Erasmus, the great spectator which he wished to be. Erasmus treated his old coadjutor coolly, and as the latter progressed, retreated more and more.
A popular rising put an end to the resistance of the Council and cleared it of Catholic members; and in February 1529 the old service was prohibited, the images were removed from the churches, the convents abolished, and the University suspended. Oecolampadius became the first minister in the 'Münster' and leader of the Basle church, for which he soon drew up a reformatory ordinance.
The same day, the second of the debate, Zwingli and Oecolampadius sought to fortify their theory by evidence adduced from Christian antiquity. On some points at least they were able to appeal to Augustine. But Luther put a different construction on the passages they quoted, and refused altogether to accept him as an authority against Scripture.
The first person who preached the reformed doctrines in Geneva was the missionary Farel, a French nobleman, spiritual, romantic, and zealous. He had great success, although he encountered much opposition and wrath. But the reformed doctrines were already established in Zurich, Berne, and Basle, chiefly through the preaching of Ulrich Zwingli, and Oecolampadius.
Zuinglius and OEcolampadius likewise proceeded too far in this your ungodly meaning; but when Brentius withstood them, they then lessened their opinions, alleging they did not reject the literal Word, but only condemned certain gross abuses.
Oecolampadius tried to keep him from leaving the town, and, when it proved too late for that, to persuade him to return later. They took leave with a handshake. Erasmus had desired to join his boat at a distant landing-stage, but the Council would not allow this: he had to start from the usual place near the Rhine bridge. A numerous crowd witnessed his embarkation, 13 April 1529.
Word Of The Day