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The Synod of Homberg was a Catholic Church synod held from October 20th to October 22nd, 1526, attended by clergy, nobility, and representatives from various European cities. [1] Its primary aims were to introduce more democratic church governance and improve clerical discipline. It was called due to theological disputes about the introduction of Zwinglian Reformation reforms in Zurich at that time.
Governmental authorities in Germany, France, and England had extended influence in ecclesiastical affairs. The Diet of Speyer on August 27th, 1526, stipulated that each sovereign authority, pending a general council, could decide matters of faith for its territory, so long as it recognized its accountability to God and its monarch. This laid the foundation for territorialism in support of the Reformation.
On October 20th, 1526, Landgrave Philip of Hesse seized this opportunity by convening an assembly of "spiritual and temporal estates" at Homberg, "to deal, by the grace of the Almighty, with Christian matters and disputes." The proceedings commenced in the church at Homberg on Sunday, October 21st. To facilitate discussion, the former Franciscan preacher François Lambert (son of a Papal official in Avignon and at the time a Protestant reformer) presented 158 articles for debate (paradoxa), which were posted on the church doors of Homberg. [2] [3]
After an opening speech by the chancellor, Johan Friis, Lambert read his thesis, supporting them with Scripture and enumerating the abuses of the Church. In the afternoon, Adam Kraft of Fulda translated Lambert's theses into German and challenged anyone who found them "at variance with God's Word" to speak out. The following morning, Franciscan prior Nicholas Ferber of Marburg responded by contesting Landgrave Philip of Hesse's authority to hold a synod, enact ecclesiastical changes, or legislate on matters of Christian faith, arguing that these privileges belonged to the Pope, bishops, and the clergy.
When Friis urged the civil authorities to abolish abuses and idolatry, maintaining an iconoclastic stance, Ferber responded by contesting the synod and attacking the chancellor's character by accusing him of seizing the church's property without refuting the articles of debate. Leaving Hesse for Cologne, he issued Assertiones trecentat ac viginti adversus Fr. Lamberti paradoxa impia ("Three hundred and twenty assertions against Brother Lambert's impious arguments"), followed by Assertiones aliœ ("Other assertions"). [4]
On the synod's final day, Waldau's Master Johann Sperber cited the Gospel of Luke's Hail Mary, attempting to justify the invocation of Mary, mother of Jesus.[ citation needed ]
