The early Reformation debate over the sacraments provoked a crisis of authority within the evangelical movement. The conflict developed from contrasting presuppositions held by Martin Luther and Erasmus of Rotterdam concerning the relationship between spiritual and material reality; it also reflected differences in biblical hermeneutics and the interpretation of specific Scripture passages. Both infant baptism and the Lord’s Supper were discussed privately in the early 1520s, but the public debate began in late 1524 with the printing of Andreas Karlstadt’s pamphlets rejecting Christ’s corporea ... More

The early Reformation debate over the sacraments provoked a crisis of authority within the evangelical movement. The conflict developed from contrasting presuppositions held by Martin Luther and Erasmus of Rotterdam concerning the relationship between spiritual and material reality; it also reflected differences in biblical hermeneutics and the interpretation of specific Scripture passages. Both infant baptism and the Lord’s Supper were discussed privately in the early 1520s, but the public debate began in late 1524 with the printing of Andreas Karlstadt’s pamphlets rejecting Christ’s corporeal presence in the Lord’s Supper. Printers, editors, and translators increased the controversy’s polemical tone and spread it throughout Germany and Switzerland and to every level of society. The sacramentarian alternative to Luther’s position gradually coalesced from arguments advanced by the reformers of Basel, Strasbourg, Zurich, and Silesia. Luther’s tremendous personal authority gave the Wittenbergers an advantage that their opponents lacked, and the Wittenbergers proved better at using print to reach even the illiterate. The two sides could not reach agreement on the Lord’s Supper at the Marburg Colloquy, but that meeting shifted the focus of debate away from Christ’s bodily presence to how communicants could receive Christ in the sacrament—a question that opened the way for future negotiations. The Marburg Articles also introduced a new source of authority for Protestants: an official confession of faith endorsed by all participants.