Martin Bucer's Assessment of the Canon of the Mass in the Era of the Religious Colloquies

Abstract

In the early part of his reforming career Martin Bucer shared Luther's and Zwingli's contempt for the Canon of the Mass. However, in the era of the religious Colloquies (1540-1546) Bucer argued that it was the practices and theological commentaries associated with the Canon—not the Canon itself—that supported the debased theology of Eucharistic sacrifice prevailing under the papacy. Bucer maintained that the genuine meaning of the Canon was to be found in the writing of the Fathers, the liturgies of the Eastern church and, indeed, in Aquinas’ Summa. Bucer seems to have hoped that the Catholics would admit communion under both kinds and abolish the private Mass in exchange for the retention of a ‘suitably interpreted’ Canon. An outline of this interpretation can be seen in Article Twenty of the Worms-Regensburg Book (1540-1541). It was further developed in Constans dejensio (1543) and De vera et falsa caenae dominicae administratione (1546) both written in the aftermath of the first Colloquy of Regensburg (1541).