that is, a lord of fleas, provided only we believe. For Jesus
Christ is the Lord, indeed, to whom be praise for evermore!
Amen. May He perfect and strengthen you and His little
Church with you. In His name farewell.

Given at my place of sojourn abroad, June 8, 1521.
(To be continued.)

BOOK REVIEW.

LUTHERAN WITNESS TRACT No. 13: Opinions on Secret Societies, collected and arranged by Wm. Dallmann. Second edition, revised. American Lutheran Publication Board, 2103-5 S. Sidney St., Pittsburg, Pa. Price per copy, 5 cts.; dozen, 50 cts.; hundred, $3.50.

This tract contains 125 opinions, 35 of preachers of various denominations, 25 of college presidents, professors, etc., 22 of editors, the remainder of statesmen. The tract is useful chiefly in meeting the charge that the "Missouri Lutherans" are alone in their opposition to secret oathbound societies of a religious character. We should not be afraid to maintain this opposition alone, in the consciousness of a higher Power being allied to our humble testimony; but we are naturally pleased to have company on this ground, and should be still more pleased if the company were still more congenial and agreed with us, especially on the great questions which still divide the Church. - We join the author in his prayer: "May these testimonies confirm us in our stand, keep back those that would enter, and draw out those that are in, such societies."

THE PRECIOUS AND SACRED WRITINGS OF MARTIN Luther. Based on the Kaiser Chronological Edition, with Reference to the Erlangen and Walch Editions. Vol. XI: Luther's Church Postil, Gospels for Epiphany, Lent, and Easter Sermons. By Prof. John Nicholas Lenker, D. D. Vol. II. Second Thousand. Lutherans in All Lands Co., Minneapolis, Minn. 1906. 16 and 398 pp. This volume arrived too late for review in our present issue, and will be discussed in our October issue.

THEOLOGICAL QUARTERLY.

VOL. X.

OCTOBER, 1906.

No. 4.

WHY DID LUTHER REFUSE ZWINGLI'S HAND OF BROTHERHOOD AT MARBURG?

The first four days of October mark the anniversary of the memorable meeting between Luther and Zwingli at Marburg. At this celebrated conference Zwingli offered the hand of Christian brotherhood and fellowship to Luther; but Luther refused it. Why did he do this? Before we proceed to answer this question, we shall do well to review the events that led up to this colloquy.

Charles V had concluded a treaty with Pope Clement VII and had solemnly pledged himself to suppress Protestantism. The German Protestants formed a defensive alliance in which the Landgrave of Hesse, Philip the Magnanimous, was anxious to have the Swiss included. Zwingli was equally anxious for this. But an obstacle was in the way the controversy between the Lutherans and Zwinglians on the Lord's Supper. Who had begun this controversial conflict? That is a question which Reformed writers usually pass over in silence, for they know that Zwingli was the author of this heated and unhappy controversy.1) It is an undeniable fact that prior to the year 1524 Zwingli and his friends were at one with Luther in teaching the real presence of Christ's body and blood in the Lord's Supper. In 1521 Oecolampadius, Zwingli's friend, called it

1) See Luther's Works, St. Louis Edition, vol. XX, col. 772; XVII, 1534, Luther's Letters, De Wette, vol. III, 43.

blasphemy to deny the real presence, and in 1523 Zwingli solemnly avowed his agreement with Luther.2)

But while Zwingli was solemnly declaring his agreement with Luther, he was secretly dissenting from him in the article of the Lord's Supper. He did not have the courage, however, to express this dissent, and thus played the part of a hypocrite. He practically pleads guilty to this charge in his famous letter to the Lutheran preacher Matthew Alberus at Reutlingen.3) This letter, which is dated November 16, 1524, contains his first public denial of the Lutheran doctrine of the Lord's Supper. Contemporaneously he defended Carlstadt's doctrine both from the pulpit and before the Zurich Council. The following month he sent copies of the so-called Alberus letter to a number of theologians in Southern Germany. In March, 1525, he published his "Commentarius de Vera et Falsa Religione" (Commentary on True and False Religion). Five months later the "Subsidium" or Supplement followed. In September, 1525, Occolampadius attacked the real presence in a tract entitled, "De genuina verborum Domini: 'Hoc est corpus meum' juxta vetustissimos auctores expositione liber" (Tract on the true exposition of the Lord's words: "This is my body," according to the most ancient authors). In February, 1526, Zwingli

sought to popularize his new doctrine in a German treatise entitled, "Ein klare Unterrichtung vom Nachtmahl Christi." About a year later, February 28, 1527, he issued his "Amica Exegesis" (Friendly Exposition), and in March, 1527, his "Fruendliche Verglimphung und Ableinung" (Friendly Criticism and Defense).

Despite their amicable titles, these writings abound in coarse, contemptuous, bitter, and truly blasphemous statements. In a letter written to Michael Stiefel, May, 1527,4) Luther

2) For documentary evidence see Ernst Solomon Cyprian's “Unterricht von kirchlicher Vereinigung," pp. 166. 183 sq.

3) St. L. Ed. XVII, 1526.

4) De Wette III, 172 sq.; St. L. Ed. XXI a, 936.