that a person has newly
arrived in Litium (probably Luetzen) who teaches that there are no words
of Christ as a warrant for the celebration of the Sacrament of the
Supper, and that it is to be partaken of only in a spiritual way. He
adds that God had intervened to protect the people from such heresy and
that the heretic had been imprisoned. The usual penalty for such
heresy was probably imposed. This description would well fit Johann
Buenderlin, but we can only guess that he was the opponent of the
visible Sacrament mentioned in the letter which Erasmus received in
1533.[3]

Buenderlin's religious contribution is preserved in three little books
which are now extremely rare, the central ideas of which I shall give
in condensed form and largely in my own words, though I have faithfully
endeavoured to render him fairly.[4] His style is difficult, {35}
mainly because he abounds in repetition and has not learned to write in
an orderly way. I am inclined to believe that he sometimes wrote, as
he would no doubt preach, in a prophetic, rapturous, spontaneous
fashion, hardly steering his train of thought by his intellect, but
letting it go along lines of least resistance and in a rhythmic flood
of words; his central ideas of course all the time holding the
predominant place in his utterance. He is essentially a mystic both in
experience and in the ground and basis of his conception of God and
man. This mystical feature is especially prominent in his second book
on why God became incarnate in Christ, and I shall begin my exposition
with that aspect of his thought.

God, he says, who is the eternal and only goodness, has always been
going out of Himself into forms of self-expression. His highest
expression is made in a heavenly and purely spiritual order of angelic
beings. Through these spiritual beings He objectifies Himself, mirrors
Himself, knows Himself, and becomes revealed.[5] He has also poured
Himself out in a lower order of manifestation in the visible creation
where spirit often finds itself in opposition and contrast to that
which is not spirit. The highest being in this second order is man,
who in inward essence is made in the image and likeness of God, but
binds together in one personal life both sensuous elements and divine
and spiritual elements which are always in collision and warfare with
each other. Man has full freedom of choice and can swing his will over
to either side--he can live upward towar