Chapter 22 considers an attempt to secure some degree of rapprochement between Catholics and Protestants as rising tensions seemed to point towards an irreversible fissure within western Christianity. Aware of the significance of the divisions over the nature of justification and justifying righteousness, a group of Catholic and Protestant theologians met to discuss these at the Regensburg Colloquy (also known as the Colloquy of Regensburg) in April and May 1541. This chapter considers the positions that were represented at this Colloquy, and the outcomes of their deliberations. The importance of the Colloquy rests in part on first-hand accounts and explanations of the theological concerns about justification from each side of the debate. Although the Colloquy secured an informed and balanced way of approaching the doctrine of justification, its outcome was inconclusive, and unable to prevent a final rupture between Catholic and Protestant.

Chapter 14 explores the complex and shifting views on justification that emerged during the Reformed evangelical groups in Zurich, Strasbourg and Geneva over the period 1519 to 1560. Early Reformed theologies of justification, such as that of Zwingli, tended to reflect an Erasmian perspective, seeing justification as one of several ways of framing the transformation of the life of faith through divine grace. However, a growing awareness of the views emerging within the Wittenberg evangelical movement led to more emphasis being placed on the notion of justification, which increasingly came to be understood in a forensic manner. Bucer’s theology of justification can be seen as an important landmark in this process of transition, which is generally considered to have been completed through the theological synthesis achieved by John Calvin in Geneva, particularly in the 1559 edition of his Institutes of the Christian Religion.Calvin’s approach placed an emphasis on the importance of ‘union with Christ’ as a framework for understanding justification as a forensic category, linked with the essentially transformist notion of sanctification.

With his flight from Paris to Strassburg and arrival in Basel in January 1535, Calvin entered the sphere of the Swiss and South German Reformation.1 Geographically, the Reformed towns of the Swiss Confederation lay within this area: Zurich, Bern (with its strong influence reaching west to Lausanne and Geneva), Biel, Basel, Schaffhausen, and St. Gallen, joined by a number of South German towns such as Mülhausen, Strassburg, and Constance. These towns all experienced the Reformation as an urban Reformation, introduced by elected town councilors.2 The guilds often had significant influence. The town councilors believed themselves responsible for the construction of a Christian church in accord with the Word of God within the area covered by their political authority. Communications networks on various levels linked the towns with each other. Thus, variously constituted gatherings met regularly or as needed and, additionally, information was exchanged, the position of other towns on important questions was ascertained, and letters of recommendation for urban reformers or scholars were supplied. While the towns were conscious of their confessional bonds, each retained its full autonomy and went its own way when it came to the implementation and organization of the Reformation. The Zurich urban reformation served as a model, but as a source of inspiration not a type to be copied wholesale. Disputations often preceded the introduction of the Reformation in these towns, as had been the case in Zurich, with various Reformers from the Swiss and South German network participating.3 The Reformers’ role was to suggest how the reformation of the Christian community might be accomplished, but the political authorities rarely followed such suggestions without reservation, and discussion and conflict were the order of the day. However much they supported a reformation of Christendom, the political authorities were always concerned to retain decision-making rights, including in church affairs, in their own hands.