The Public Confession of Johannes Bugenhagen of Pomerania: Concerning the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ

Johannes Bugenhagen (1485-1558) fulfilled a central role in the Lutheran Reformation. In addition to serving as ‘bishop’ to Martin Luther (Bugenhagen was the parish pastor of St. Mary’s Church and thus was Luther’s senior, and later served as Superintendent of Electoral Saxony), Bugenhagen was the architect of the reforms undertaken throughout northern Germany and Denmark. Bugenhagen was involved in the writing church orders for no less than nine territorial churches. He also served on the theological faculty of the University of Wittenberg. In The Public Confession of Johannes Bugenhagen of Pomerania Concerning the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ (1528), Bugenhagen contends with the ‘Sacramentarians’ who denied the Scriptural teaching of the presence of Christ’s body and blood in the Sacrament of the Altar. Bugenhagen was particularly infuriated by the efforts of the ‘Sacramentarians’ to publish a corrupted edition of one of his own works which had been altered to give the appearance that he agreed with their false doctrine. With wit and eloquence, Bugenhagen set the record straight, and left to the Church an enduring witness to the truth of God’s Word regarding the Sacrament of the Altar.