![]() The critical edition of the Latin and German works does not provide complete versions of either text. Bucer's own German version, Alle Handlungen und Schriften, was published before the end of 1541. The international audience for whom the Acta were intended was expanded through a French translation by Jean Calvin and an English translation by Miles Coverdale. The rapidity of its production made numerous printing errors almost inevitable, and a corrected edition, in which Bucer revised his preface and some of his commentary, was published the following February. ![]() The first of these, the Acta colloqui, was published less than two months after the diet's adjournment. The most important portion of the volume is taken up by Bucer's two document collections. Roughly half of the volume is in Latin, reflecting the decision to publish all of the pertinent documents in one place rather than arbitrarily dividing them according to language. It contains documents related to the Regensburg Colloquy and the imperial diet that followed it in the spring and summer of 1541: drafts of revisions made to portions of the Regensburg book, Bucer's proposals for reform of the entire German church following the practices and canons of the early church, and his publication in both Latin and German of official documents from the diet, provided with his own commentary. Volume 9/2 is Augustijn's swan song, for he passed away at the beginning of this year, only a few months after the volume was published. Included in that volume is the draft of the so-called Regensburg Book, the presentation of doctrinal and ceremonial issues written in secret at Worms by Bucer and Johannes Gropper, the Catholic advisor to the archbishop-elector of Cologne, and submitted to theologians at the Regensburg Colloquy as the basis of their discussion. The first half of volume 9, edited by noted Dutch church historian Cornelis Augustijn, was published a dozen years ago and contains documents relating to the colloquies of Hagenau and Worms. They will therefore be useful not only to Bucer specialists and scholars of the Reformation narrowly defined, but to anyone interested in the broader impact of the Reformation on imperial politics, on the development of ecclesiastical institutions at the territorial level, on the redistribution of the church's wealth in the wake of the Reformation, and on the Protestant understanding of the relation between church and state. Last but not least, they provide some of the background to Bucer's involvement in the attempted Reformation of the archiepiscopal territories of Cologne. They also make available important primary sources concerning the Regensburg Colloquy and imperial diet of 1541. They are more concerned with the reform of institutional structures than with doctrine, and they address major issues such as the applicability of canon law to the new evangelical churches, the use and abuse of church property, the failure of Germany's prince-bishops to carry out their spiritual responsibilities, and the right of secular authorities to institute ecclesiastical reforms. The two most recent volumes in the critical edition of Bucer's German works contain treatises, letters, and memoranda that relate directly or indirectly to the creation of this united German church. No one worked more energetically for the establishment of a united, reformed German church than the Strasbourg reformer Martin Bucer. The process was strongly opposed by the papacy, but it had the support of both Protestants and Catholics within the empire who hoped to end the religious divisions and introduce much-needed institutional reform. ![]() Their goal was the reform of the entire German church, both Protestant and Catholic, and their efforts had major implications for not only religious but also political developments within the Holy Roman Empire. Theologians from both sides met at colloquies sponsored by the emperor at Hagenau, Worms, and Regensburg. In the years surrounding 1540, efforts to reunite the church within the Holy Roman Empire reached a high point. Martin Bucer and the Reform of the German Church ![]()
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