Friday, November 11, 2022

*** This is a rough transcript of today’s show ***

It is the 11th of November 2022. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org; I’m Dan van Voorhis.

I would like to begin with a quick addendum to this past Tuesday’s show on Dorothy Day. Mackenzie of Georgetown, Texas, told me I referred to Dorothy as a Suffragette. This was a term of derision of the feminine and diminutive “ette” on end. In Britain, the women arguing for Women’s suffrage accepted the term as a badge of honor, but in America, it was not accepted. Thus Dorothy was a suffragist. Thanks, Mackenzie. And way to go with your town being filmed in both Friday Night Lights and Varsity Blues.

Okay- so it is a week of Martins. Two days ago, we talked about Martin Chemnitz; yesterday was Martin Luther’s birthday (we did his show last year), and today we remember another important Martin of the Reformation- Martin Bucer. It’s worth noting that all three men are named in honor of this week’s saint- St. Martin of Tours.

Martin Bucer was born on this day in 1491 in the Alsace- that region, sometimes French and sometimes German, and caught between two cultures. It is fitting that a man who did everything in his power to bridge disparate Reformations would hail from this “in-between” land.

Martin was the son of a shoemaker and thus not likely to be well educated, but after his initial studies went well, he joined the Dominican Order to continue his studies. He attended the University of Heidelberg, where he was nonplussed about the scholastic curriculum. But in 1518, he was at the University when Martin Luther came to the famous Heidelberg Disputation. Bucer was intrigued and sought to learn more. He was released from his vows by a Papal dispensation in 1521. By 1523 he had adopted many of Luther’s doctrines and moved to Strasbourg- that Alsatian city where his parents were from, thus giving him the protections afforded citizens of this Imperial Free City. He would marry, still scandalous for a man in ecclesial work, but the strength of his character and ideas led to his ascendancy in the church in Strasbourg. There he would compose a confession of faith, a catechism, and a liturgy that would be adopted and slightly altered in John Calvin’s Geneva.

He was the man behind the Colloquy of Marburg that saw Luther and Zwingli come together to try and unite the different Reformation factions. Their disagreement on the Lord’s Supper would forever split Reformation churches.

His position was a middle ground between the two- Christ was truly present in a heavenly manner in earthly elements. He would write of a “sacramental union,” but none would appease either side who saw the Christ physically present in, with, and under the elements and the others seeing it as only symbols.

Bucer was able to get the parties back together in 1536 to try again with the Concord of Wittenberg, a preliminary agreement was initially accepted, and Luther and the others all communed together. But the Zwinglians back home rejected the concord. Some saw Bucer as dissembling, although he became a favorite of many moderates seeking union.

He was in secret contact with Charles V to arrange for a reunion of protestants and Catholics, but when the first colloquy was held in 1539, Bucer was embarrassed when Charles offered a little concession.

He kept attempting to draw the moderates on all sides together and was finally successful in 1541 with the Diet of Regensburg- but personalities and particularities doomed the conference- there would be various imperially decreed recesses and wars until the 1555 Peace of Augsburg legalized Lutheranism but left the question of other protestants open.

In 1549, Bucer refused to abide by an interim agreement and was made a fugitive. He fled to England on the invitation of Thomas Cranmer- he was made Regius Professor of Theology at Cambridge- during the short reign of Henry’s only son, the protestant King Edward. Bucer’s influence was limited because of his lack of English, and he would die in England in 1551. English Catholics weren’t fans- when Mary came to the throne; his body was exhumed and burned. Born in 1491, he was 60 years old.

The Last Word for today comes from the lectionary from the benediction in 2 Thessalonians.

we constantly pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling, and that by his power he may bring to fruition your every desire for goodness and your every deed prompted by faith. 12 We pray this so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 11th of November 2022, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by a man with the grace of the Alsatian white stork (this is a good thing). He is Christopher Gillespie.

The show is written and read by a man who reminds you that the idea of storks bringing babies comes from the Alsace—Dan van Voorhis.

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be ok.