Synod of Homberg

The Synod of Homberg consisted of the clergy, the nobility, and the representatives of European cities and was held on October 20–22, 1526. The synod represents a parochial scheme to introduce democratic church governance and clerical discipline, which failed at the time. The synod was suggested by the theological disputations which had been concurrent in Zürich for and against the introduction of the Zwinglian Reformation.

Before Martin Luther's appearance, the lords of the state in Germany, no less than in France and England, had extended their prerogatives into the sphere of ecclesiastical affairs. The decision of the Diet of Speyer on August 27, 1526, allowed every sovereign authority, pending the meeting of a council, to decide matters of faith for itself and its province, recognizing its accountability to God and the monarch in limited terms; a basis for the application of territorialism in favor of the reformation.

Landgrave Philip of Hesse utilized the situation and convened an assembly of "spiritual and temporal estates" at Homberg on October 20, 1526, "to deal in the grace of the Almighty with Christian matters and disputes." The proceedings were opened in the church at Homberg on Sunday, October 21. To promote discussion, the former Franciscan preacher François Lambert son of a Papal official in Avignon but at the time a Protestant reformer had put forth 158 articles of debate (paradoxa), which had been formerly posted on the church doors of Homberg.^[1][2]

After the opening speech by the chancellor, Johan Friis, Lambert read his theses, and proceeded to substantiate them from Scripture and to enumerate the abuses of the Church. In the afternoon, Adam Kraft of Fulda, translated Lambert's theses into German and challenged whoever found them "At variance with God's Word" to declare themselves. The Franciscan prior, Nicholas Ferber, of Marburg, came forward and took the floor the following morning. He contested the Landgrave Philip of Hesse's authority to hold a synod, to undertake ecclesiastical changes, and to pass any measures in the affairs of the Christian faith, as this was supposed to be among the privileges of the Pope, the bishoprics, and the clergy at large.

When chancellor Johan Friis urged the civil authorities to undertake their duties wherein to abolish abuses and idolatry maintaining an Iconoclast stance. Ferber still contested and unconvincingly attacked the chancellor's character for laying hands on the goods of the church. Not attempting to refute the proffered articles of debate. He soon afterward left Hesse, and issued at Cologne the Assertiones trecentat ac viginti adversus Fr. Lamberti paradoxa impia, and subsequently Assertiones aliœ.^[3]

On the following day, when the synod was on the point of closing, Master Johann Sperber, of Waldau, near the city of Kassel, made an appearance and attempted to justify the invocation of Mary, the Holy Mother of Jesus Christ, by the Angelical salutation in the first chapter of the Gospel of Luke.

References

1. "History of the Christian Church".
2. "Gothic St. Mary's Church in Homberg". Places of Germany. Retrieved 2024-12-15.
3. "Philip Schaff: History of the Christian Church, Volume VII. Modern Christianity. The German Reformation - Christian Classics Ethereal Library". ccel.org. Retrieved 2025-01-08.

• Philip Schaff History of the Christian Church, Volume VII, 1882
•  Jackson, Samuel Macauley, ed. (1909). "Homberg Synod and Church Order of 1526". New Schaff–Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge. Vol. 5 (third ed.). London and New York: Funk and Wagnalls. pp. 337–339.

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