it first." He soon compared them to Absalom rebelling against his
father David, and to Judas betraying his Master. Zwingli on his side
was almost equally sure that he had discovered the truth independently
of Luther, and, while expressing approbation of his work, refused to be
called by his name. His invective was only a shade less virulent than
was that of his opponent.

The substance of the controversy was far from being the straight
alignment between reason and tradition that it has sometimes been
represented as. Both sides assumed the inerrancy of Scripture and
appealed primarily to the same biblical arguments. Luther had no
difficulty in proving that the words "hoc est corpus meum" meant that
the bread was the body, and he stated that this must be so even if
contrary to our senses. Zwingli had no difficulty in proving that the
thing itself was impossible, and therefore inferred that the biblical
words must be explained away as a figure of speech. In a long and
learned controversy neither side convinced the other, but each became
so exasperated as to believe the other possessed of the devil. In the
spring of 1529 Lutherans joined Catholics at the Diet of Spires in
refusing toleration to the Zwinglians. The division of Protestants of
course weakened them. Their leading statesman, Philip, Landgrave of
Hesse, seeing this, did his best to reconcile the leaders. For several
years he tried to get them to hold a conference, but in vain. Finally,
he succeeded in bringing together at his castle at Marburg on the Lahn,
Luther, Melanchthon, Zwingli, Oecolampadius, and a large number of
other divines. [Sidenote: Marburg colloquy October 1-3, 1529] The
discussion here only served to bring out more strongly the
irreconcilability of the two "spirits." Shortly afterwards, when the
question of a political alliance came up, the Saxon theologians drafted
a memorial stating that {110} they would rather make an agreement with
the heathen than with the "sacramentarians." [Sidenote: 1530] The
same attitude was preserved at the Diet of Augsburg, where the
Lutherans were careful to avoid all appearance of friendship with the
Zwinglians lest they should compromise their standing with the
Catholics. Zwingli and his friends were hardly less intransigeant.

[Sidenote: October 11, 1531]

When Zwingli died in battle with the Catholic cantons and when
Oecolampadius succumbed to a fever a few weeks later, Luther loudly
proclai