The Two Martins

Nineteenth century propaganda about the nature of Anglicanism has tended to hide the deep connections between the English Reformation, and that of the German Lands. Anyone with a knowledge of the Reformation era documents on both sides of the North Sea can soon identify a deep and abiding influence which was not always one way. German ideas about theology may have spread to England in the 1520s, 30s, and 40s, but in later times, the example of the Church of England was seen as a way of possibly reuniting the Lutheran and Reformed traditions in the German Lands, especially around 1697-1713, and again in the second quarter of the 19th century.

The first of my two Martins is the obvious one - Martin Luther (1483-1546) who was both born and died in Eisleben, Saxony. Intending to become a lawyer, he became an Augustinian monk in response to a rash vow made during a thunderstorm, and his own particular spiritual struggles led the local head of his order to instruct him to study Scripture. In the course of his work as a Professor of Theology, Luther focused far more on the Bible than many of his contemporaries, and in process rediscover St Paul's teaching on justification and sanctification. The actual explosion that occasioned the Reformation actually came when an indulgence began to be preached to raise funds for both St Peter's Basilica in Rome, and also to reimburse Albrecht of Mainz's election "expenses." Indulgences were effective Papal pardons that said that if the possessor died in a state of grace they would be remitted, some, if not all, of the pains of Purgatory. Given the late mediaeval obsession with Purgatory, they tended to be a pretty good business proposition for cash strapped Popes and bishops, but this time, they ran into trouble with a Professor who had come to see them as a distortion of Christian teaching.

Martin Luther's "95 Theses" on Indulgences were posted on the Church door, which also served as the University noticeboard, on October 31st, 1517, and quickly pirated by local printers. The result was a theological movement which was initially dismissed as a 'monkish quarrel' but the Papacy. This was to prove a fatal miscalculation as Luther's ideas spread rapidly through the German Lands, so that by the time he was excommunicated, Luther had enough support among the princes to successful defy the Papal ban. The Evangelical Church itself came into being in the mid-to-late 1520s. Melanchthon's 'Loci Communes' systematizing Luther's thought appeared in 1522, Luther's Formula Missae appeared in 1525, followed closely by the German Mass and a revised order of baptism. Bugenhagen, a close associate of Luther's in Wittenberg did sterling work organizing the Evangelical Churches of Northern Germany and Denmark-Norway; then lastly the Augsburg Confession drawn up by Melanchthon with Luther's encouragement, appear in 1530.

For the rest of his life, Luther tended to remain within Saxony, teaching, preaching, and influencing successive generations of Reformers. Although his ideas were often welcome in England, because Luther had sided against Henry VIII on his 'Great Matter,' Luther was persona non grata in the English Court, and Lutheran influence tended to be communicated through Bugenhagen and Melanchthon, and their English friends. Age, and increasing illness did not improve his temper, and he became quite irascible. Unfortunately, he sometimes gave vent to this anger in print - something which was to complicate his legacy in the 20th century. He died in his home town on February 18th, 1546.

All this did not occur in isolation. In Zurich another Reform movement was launched by Swiss humanist, Ulrich Zwingli (1484-1531) which was much less reverent in its treatment of sacramental theology, and eventually radically reordered both the worship and polity of the Church. Our second Martin - Martin Bucer (1491-1551) - was influenced by both Luther and Zwingli. Born in Alsace of a family of coopers, he entered the Dominican Order in 1507, studied the new humanist thought at the University of Heidelberg, where, in 1518, he heard Martin Luther disputing on the topic of Indulgences. He found himself to be in agreement with Luther, and over the next few years he slowly drifted away from the Dominican Order finally being released in 1521. During this period, he became attracted by the ideas of Zwingli, mainly because of their common humanist background. For the next few years he was protected by von Sickingen, and by the younger brother of the Elector Palatine, whose chaplain he was. Eventually, von Sickingen offered to pay for Bucer to study in Wittenberg, but on the way there he became involved in a reform movement in Wissembourg with the result that he was excommunicated by the Bishop of Speyer, and fled to nearby Strassburg where he joined Wolfgang Capito in reforming the Church there.

Strassburg was to be Bucer home for the next 24 years. He soon became the leading reformer in the city, dealing with issues of Church order, theology, the Anabaptist, and the rising tensions between the German and Swiss Reformations. Luther and Zwingli's only meeting, at Marburg in 1529, had been a disaster. Luther was in a disagreeable mood, and not really interested in compromise with the Swiss on the doctrine of the Eucharist being unable to take anything other than a 'literal' view of the words of institution. On the fringes of this meeting Melanchthon and Bucer met, and both became preoccupied with reconciling the two branches of the Reformation. They both moved to a spiritual understanding of the Real Presence, and it was this view which was to prevail in the German Reformed Churches. Bucer spent 1536 in Hesse where he reformed the Catechism and the practice of Confirmation, and also helped to broker the Wittenberg Concord which temporarily healed the breach between Evangelical and Reformed. The early 1540s found him working with Melanchthon to help reform the church in Cologne at the behest of Archbishop Hermann von Weid. The liturgy that Bucer and Melanchthon drew up for Cologne was to influence the Book of Common Prayer.

Bucer's time in Strassburg came to an end in the wake of the defeat of the Schmalkaldic League. Under pressure to accept the Augsburg Interim, he left the city as a fugitive heading for London, and the household of Archbishop Thomas Cranmer. He was soon placed as Regius Professor of Divinity at Cambridge. Despite rapidly declining health, he lectured there for almost two years becoming a mentor to the small circle of English Reformers including Matthew Parker, who was to be Archbishop of Canterbury from 1559-75. Bucer left his mark on the English Church in other ways. The Cologne Church Order influenced the Book of Common Prayer; his desire for a middle way between Lutheran and Reformed made its mark on the Thirty-nine Articles, and his advice helped to shape the Ordinal. He died in Cambridge of tuberculosis in February 1551, and rapidly fell into semi-obscurity.