The Worms Book had laid the groundwork…
September 1541 CE
The Worms Book had laid the groundwork for final negotiations at the Diet of Regensburg in 1541.
Charles has created a small committee, consisting of Johannes Eck, Gropper, and Julius Pflug on the Catholic side and Melanchthon, Bucer, and Johannes Pistorius on the Protestant side.
The basis for discussion is the "Regensburg Book"—essentially the Worms Book with modifications by the papal legate, Gasparo Contarini, and other Catholic theologians.
The two sides make a promising start, reaching agreement over the issue of justification by faith, but they cannot agree on the teaching authority of the Church, the Protestants insisting it is the Bible, the Catholics the magisterium—in other words, the pope and his bishops.
Into the article on the mass and the Lord's Supper, Contarini has inserted the concept of transubstantiation, which is also unacceptable to the Protestants.
As a result, the colloquy becomes deadlocked.
To salvage some of the agreements reached, Charles and Granvelle have the Regensburg Book reprinted with additional articles in which the Protestants are allowed to present their views.
However, Luther in Wittenberg and the papal court in Rome have by this time seen the book, and they both publicly reject the article on justification by faith.
The failure of the conference is a major setback for Bucer.