The Protestant Reformation, sparked by Martin Luther’s publication of The Ninety-Five Theses in 1517, has divided Western Christendom; the reformers continue to argue among themselves over dogma.
Caspar Schwenckfeld von Ossig, a German theologian, writer, and preacher who is one of the earliest promoters of the Protestant Reformation in Silesia, has his own views on the sacraments—the Heavenly Flesh doctrine–developed in close association with his humanist colleague, Valentin Crautwald.
Schwenckfeld’s highly personal religious teachings, already alienated from those of Luther over the eucharistic controversy of 1524, have also alienated Strasbourg reformer Martin Bucer.
Finally settling in Ulm, Schwenkfeld in 1541 defends his beliefs in the Great Confession on the Glory of Christ, emphasizing the differences between the positions of Luther and the late Huldreich Zwingli, especially with regard to the Eucharist, and arguing that since the nature of man is sinful, Christ's human nature must of itself be divine.
Orthodox theologians regard this latter belief as a Christological heresy.
Schwenkfeld's books are banned, and his followers, the Schwenkfeldians, or Confessors of the Glory of Christ, are persecuted.
