Synod of Homberg

Church event held in 1526

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The Synod of Homberg was a Catholic Church Synod held on October 20–22, 1526 with clergy, nobility, and representatives of various European cities attending.[1] The synod proposed to introduce democratic church governance and clerical discipline. The synod was initiated by theological disputes occurring in Zürich regarding the introduction of the Zwinglian Reformation reforms.

Governmental authorities in Germany, France, and England had extended influence in ecclesiastical affairs. The Diet of Speyer on August 27, 1526, stipulated that each sovereign authority, pending a general council, could decide matters of faith for their territory, so long as they recognized their accountability to God and their monarch. This laid the foundation for territorialism in support of the Reformation.

Landgrave Philip of Hesse seized this opportunity and convened an assembly of "spiritual and temporal estates" at Homberg on October 20, 1526, "to deal, by the grace of the Almighty, with Christian matters and disputes." The proceedings commenced in the church at Homberg on Sunday, October 21. To facilitate discussion, the former Franciscan preacher François Lambert (son of a Papal official in Avignon and, at the time, a Protestant reformer) presented 158 articles for debate (paradoxa), which were posted on the church doors of Homberg.[2][3]

After an opening speech by the chancellor, Johan Friis, Lambert read his theses, supporting them with Scripture and enumerating the abuses of the Church. In the afternoon, Adam Kraft of Fulda translated Lambert's theses into German and challenged anyone who found them "at variance with God's Word" to speak out. The Franciscan prior, Nicholas Ferber of Marburg, responded the following morning. He contested Landgrave Philip of Hesse's authority to hold a synod, enact ecclesiastical changes, or legislate on matters of Christian faith, arguing that these privileges belonged to the Pope, bishops, and the clergy.

When Chancellor Johan Friis urged the civil authorities to abolish abuses and idolatry, maintaining an iconoclastic stance, Ferber continued to contest the synod, attacking the chancellor's character for seizing church property without refuting the articles of debate. He soon left Hesse and issued Assertiones trecentat ac viginti adversus Fr. Lamberti paradoxa impia (Three hundred and twenty assertions against Brother Lambert's impious arguments) at Cologne, followed by Assertiones aliœ (Other assertions).[4]

On the synod's final day, Master Johann Sperber of Waldau, near Kassel, attempted to justify the invocation of Mary, the Holy Mother of Jesus Christ, citing the Angelical salutation from the Gospel of Luke.

## References

[edit]

1. ^ Wright, William J. (1973-10-01). "The Homberg Synod and Philip of Hesse's Plan for a New Church-State Settlement". The Sixteenth Century Journal. 4 (2): 23–46\. doi:10.2307/2539721. ISSN 0361-0160.
2. ^ "History of the Christian Church".
3. ^ "Gothic St. Mary's Church in Homberg". Places of Germany. Retrieved 2024-12-15.
4. ^ "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.

51°02′02″N 9°24′20″E﻿ / ﻿51.03389°N 9.40556°E﻿ / 51.03389; 9.40556