It is probable that he had invited Luther to a religious conference as early as the year 1527 but on that occasion he met with a refusal. Strassburg pronounced for conciliation: but the most powerful and zealous champion of peace was to be found in the landgrave Philip of Hesse, who recognized the absolute necessity - from a political standpoint - of the union of all German Protestants. At a very early period, however, efforts were made to allay the dissension. The feud which raged round the doctrine of the Lord's Supper had already broken out before the first diet of Spires, and had aroused great and immediate excitement. Still, it was devoid of political significance, unless backed by the united force of all the princes and states subscribing to the Evangelical teaching and this unity was wanting. This decision was at once challenged, on the 19th of April, by the protest of the Evangelical states (whence the name Protestants) and the effect of this disclaimer was not small. The circumstances in which it was held, the influence of the men who conducted its deliberations, and the result of its proceedings, combine to render it of no small importance for the history of the Reformation in Germany.Īfter the Imperial Diet of Spires in 1526 had decreed that all states of the empire should observe the Edict of Worms (1521), banning Luther and his adherents, in such a manner that they should not be afraid to answer it before God and the emperor, the reform movement had received such an access of strength that the Catholic party felt itself menaced in earnest, and in 1529 again passed a resolution at Spires, deigned not merely to preclude any further expansion of the Reformation, but even to prevent it from maintaining the ground already won. COLLOQUY OF MARBURG ( Marburger Religionsgesprach), the name given to a conference of divines held in 1529 in the interests of the unity of Protestant Germany.
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