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| In the meantime, Lutheran churches in Scandinavia and many of the Baltic States, as well as the Moravians, continued to maintain the Historic Episcopate and apostolic succession, even though they had adopted Luther's anti-papal theology. | | In the meantime, Lutheran churches in Scandinavia and many of the Baltic States, as well as the Moravians, continued to maintain the Historic Episcopate and apostolic succession, even though they had adopted Luther's anti-papal theology. |
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| =='''Eucharist Controversy'''==
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| Martin Luther's views on the Eucharist, the sacrament of the Last Supper, were put to the test in October 1529 at the Marburg Colloquy, an assembly of Protestant theologians gathered by Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse, to establish doctrinal consistency in the emerging Protestant states. Agreement was achieved on most points, the exception being the nature of the Eucharist, an issue crucial to Luther.<ref name = "Herzog74" />
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| The theologians, including Zwingli, Karlstadt, Leo Jud and Œcolampadius, differed among themselves on the significance of the words of institution spoken by Jesus at the Last Supper: "This is my body which is for you", "This cup is the new covenant in my blood" (1 Corinthians 11:23–26). Whereas Luther insisted on the Real Presence of Jesus at the Eucharist, other theologians believed God to be only symbolically present: Zwingli, for example, denied Jesus's ability to be in more than one place at a time. But Luther, who affirmed the doctrine of Hypostatic Union, that Jesus is one and the same as God, was clear:
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| <blockquote>''For I do not want to deny in any way that God’s power is able to make a body be simultaneously in many places, even in a corporeal and circumscribed manner. For who wants to try to prove that God is unable to do that? Who has seen the limits of his power?''<ref><cite>LW</cite> 37:223–224.</ref></blockquote>
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| In taking the words of institution at face value, Luther saw no reason to define the mystery of the Eucharist in terms such as consubstantiation, the notion that the substance of Christ's body and blood are present alongside that of the bread and the wine, or impanation, that God was literally made bread. Although his doctrine has been described as both of those, he simply taught that the body and blood of Christ are present, essence unchanged, in, with, and under the forms of bread and wine. Luther clearly broke away from the Thomistic doctrine of transubstantiation but he never denied the real presence of Jesus in the Euchurist. He used "the analogy of the iron put into the fire whereby both fire and iron are united in the red-hot iron and yet each continues unchanged",<ref><cite>Against the Heavenly Prophets</cite> (1525) and <cite>Confession concerning Christ's Supper</cite> (1528) as cited in <cite>The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church</cite>,ed. F.L. Cross (London: Oxford University Press, 1958), 337.</ref> a process which he called the "Sacramental Union".
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| While recognising the commemorative element of "do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me", Luther also took issue with Zwingli's view that the Eucharist is merely memorial. And he disagreed that the benefit of the sacrament is conditional on good works, asserting rather that it is conditional on faith alone, laying stress on the words "given for you" and therefore on the atonement and forgiveness through the death of Jesus.<ref name = "Herzog74" />
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| Luther was convinced that God had blinded Zwingli's eyes so that he could not see the true significance of the Lord's Supper, denouncing Zwingli and his followers as "fanatics" and "devils"<ref name = "Herzog74" /> and refusing to call his opponents brethren, though he wished them peace and love.
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| Despite these disagreements on the Eucharist, the Marburg Colloquy paved the way for the signing in 1530 of the Augsburg Confession and for the formation of the Schmalkaldic League the following year by leading Protestant nobles such as Philip of Hesse, John Frederick of Saxony, and George, Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach. Nevertheless, interpretations of the Eucharist differ among Protestants to this day.
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| =='''Augsburg Confession'''== | | =='''Augsburg Confession'''== |