to 1 Cor. 11:27, where Paul says that unworthy communicants are guilty of the body and blood of
Christ, not of bread and wine. Zwingli had easy work to dispose of such an opponent.^835
Several Swabian preachers, under the lead of Brentius of Hall, replied to Oecolampadius,
who (himself a Swabian by birth) had dedicated his book to them with the request to examine and
review it. Their Syngramma Suevicum is much more important than Bugenhagen’s epistle. They
put forth the peculiar view that the word of Christ puts into bread and wine the very body and blood
of Christ; as the word of Moses imparted a hearing power to the brazen serpent; as the word of
Christ, "Peace be unto you," imparts peace; and the word, "Thy sins be forgiven," imparts pardon.
But, by denying that the body of Christ is broken by the hands, and chewed with the teeth, they
unwittingly approached the Swiss idea of a purely spiritual manducation. Oecolampadius clearly
demonstrated this inconsistency in his Anti-syngramma (1526).^836 Pirkheimer of Nuernberg, and
Billicum of Nördlingen, likewise wrote against Oecolampadius, but without adding any thing new.
The controversy reached its height in 1527 and 1528, when Zwingli and Luther came into
direct conflict. Zwingli combated Luther’s view vigorously, but respectfully, fortiter in re, suaviter
in modo, in a Latin book, under the peaceful title, "Friendly Exegesis," and sent a copy to Luther
with a letter, April 1, 1527.^837 Luther appeared nearly at the same time (early in 1527), but in a very
different tone, with a German book against Zwingli and Oecolampadius, under the title, "That the
Words of Christ: ’This is my Body,’ stand fast. Against the Fanatics (Schwarmgeister)."^838 Here
he derives the Swiss view directly from the inspiration of the Devil. "How true it is," he begins,
"that the Devil is a master of a thousand arts!^839 He proves this powerfully in the external rule of
this world by bodily lusts, tricks, sins, murder, ruin, etc., but especially, and above all measure, in
spiritual and external things which affect God’s honor and our conscience. How he can turn and
twist, and throw all sorts of obstacles in the way, to prevent men from being saved and abiding in
the Christian truth!" Luther goes on to trace the working of the Devil from the first corruptions of
the gospel by heretics, popes, and Councils, down to Carlstadt and the Zwinglians, and mentions
the Devil on every page. This is characteristic of his style of polemics against the Sacramentarians,
as well as the Papists. He refers all evil in the world to the Prince of evil. He believed in his presence
and power as much as in the omnipresence of God and the ubiquity of Christ’s body.
He dwells at length on the meaning of the words of institution: "This is my body." They
must be taken literally, unless the contrary can be proved. Every departure from the literal sense is
a device of Satan, by which, in his pride and malice, he would rob man of respect for God’s Word,
and of the benefit of the sacrament. He makes much account of the disagreement of his opponents,
and returns to it again and again, as if it were conclusive against them. Carlstadt tortures the word
Gott und Mensch. Item, Rom. 1:16, Das Evangelium ist Gottes Kraft, das ist, das Evangelium bedeut Gottes Kraft. Siehe, welch ein
greulich Wesen wollt hieraus werden."(^835) In his Responsio ad Bugenhagii Epistolam, 1525. Opera, III. 604-614. In German, Walch, XX. 648.
(^836) Walch, XX. 667; Planck, II. 281-311. Köstlin and Dorner say that the Syngramma is more Calvinistic than Lutheran.
(^837) Even Löscher admits that Zwingli treated Luther with great respect in this book. Comp. Planck, II. 470 sq.; Köstlin, II. 94 sqq.
(^838) He informed Stiefel, Jan. 1, 1527 (De Wette, !II. 148), that he was writing a book against the "sacramentarii turbatores." On March
2l, 1527 (III. 165), he informed the preacher Ursinus that he had finished it, and warned him to avoid the "Zwingliana et Oecolampadia
sententia" as the very pest, since it was "blasphema in Christi verbum et fidem." The work was translated into German by M. Judex. The
closing passages blaming Bucer for accompanying a Latin version of Luther’s Kirchenpostille and Bugenhagen’s commentary on the
Psalms with Zwinglian notes are omitted in the Wittenberg edition of Luther’s Works, 1548. Amsdorf complained of this omission, which
was traced by some to Melanchthon, by others to Rörer, the corrector of Luft’s printing establishment. See Walch, XX. 53, and Erl. ed.,
XXX. 15.
(^839) Ein Tausendkünstler, a myriad-minded trickster.