Page:Luther's correspondence and other contemporary letters 1521-1530.djvu/498

 bishops, which can be compared with one year of Philip's work, or even with his one book of Commonplaces?* But this was no place for these complaints; we will talk about it sometime. Farewell. Be a holy enemy of the country saints, and all other private saints, and cultivate the publicans, i,e., the holy sinners in public station, and pray for me.

Martin Luther.

850. LUTHER TO NICHOLAS GERBEL AT STRASSBURG.

Enders, vii, 166. Marburg^ October 4, 1529.

This letter and those immediately following have to do with the Marburg Colloquy. On the last day of September a large number of leading Protestant divines assembled at Philip's fine castle at Marburg on the Lahn, to discuss the doctrine of the sacrament As a basis of discussion Luther and Melanchthon drew up a confession called the Schwabach Articles, in which their differences with the Swiss were sharply set forth. It is commonly said that the Schwabach Articles came after Marburg, but Schubert: Bekenntnisbildung und ReligionspoHHk, 152^30, 1910, pp. 2oS^ has shown that they were really drawn up before. On October i there were private discussions: Luther with Oecolampadius, Melanchthon with Zwingli, Bucer with Hedio, and Brenz with Osiander. On October 2 and 3 there was a debate before a large audience, Luther speaking on one side and Zwingli and Oecolampadius alternately on the other. Eight contem- porary accounts of the debate are given in Weimar, xxx, part iii, pp. 94ff. Another source on Zwingli in Marburg is found in Daniel Greser's autobiography, published in Zzvingliana, 1910, ii, 324; cf, Kohler, ibid, 356ff. ; Kostlin-Kawerau,' ii, i2ifiF. ; S. M. Jackson : Ztcn'fi- gli, 1900, p. 315; Smith, 243ff.

Grace and peace in Christ. You will know, my dear Gerbel, how far we attained harmony at Marburg, partly by the verbal report of your representatives, partly by the Articles* they are taking with them. We defended ourselves strongly and they conceded much, but as they were firm in this one article of the sacrament of the altar we dismissed them in peace, fearing that further argiunent would draw blood. We ought

iThe Loci Communes of T53T.

cola, Brenz, Oecolampadius, Zwingli, Bucer and Hedio. The first fourteen articles are on common dogmas, the fifteenth expresses the inability of the two parties to agree on the coporeal presence of the body and blood. They are printed in Kidd, no. xio, and translated into English by H. E. Jacobs: Book of Concord, ii, 69^.
 * The Marburg Articles, signed by Luther, Jonas, Melanchthon, Osiander, Agri^

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