Editing Martin Bucer (section)

==Competing Protestant confessions (1530–1533)==
[[File:Martin Bucer by Boissard.png|thumb|{{Citation | contribution = Martin Bucer | type = portrait | title = Icones quinquaginta vivorum | language = la | first = Jean-Jacques | last = Boissard | author-link = Jean-Jacques Boissard}}]]
The extent of the theological division among the reformers became evident when the [[Holy Roman Emperor]] [[Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor|Charles V]] asked them to present their views to him in 1530 at the [[Diet of Augsburg]]. [[Philipp Melanchthon]], the main delegate from Wittenberg, quickly prepared the draft that eventually became the [[Augsburg Confession]].  The Wittenberg theologians rejected attempts by Strasbourg to adopt it without the article on the Lord's Supper. In response, Bucer wrote a new confession, the ''Confessio Tetrapolitana'' ([[Tetrapolitan Confession]]), so named because only four cities adopted it, Strasbourg and three other southern German cities, [[Konstanz]], [[Memmingen]], and [[Lindau]]. A copy of Melanchthon's draft was used as the starting point and the only major change was the wording on the article on the eucharist.{{Sfn |Eells | 1931 | pp=99–100}}{{Sfn |Greschat|2004|pp=94–5}} According to Eells, the article on the eucharist in the Tetrapolitan Confession stated, "In this sacrament his true body and true blood are truly given to eat and drink, as food for their souls, and to eternal life, that they may remain in him and he in them". The ambiguous word "truly" was not defined.{{Sfn |Eells|1931|p=100}}

Charles, however, decreed on 22 September that all reformers must reconcile with the Catholic faith, or he would use military force to suppress them. This prompted Melanchthon to call a meeting with Bucer and after lengthy discussions they agreed on nine theses, which they sent to Luther and to Strasbourg. The Strasbourg magistrates forwarded them to [[Basel]] and Zürich. Bucer met Luther in [[Coburg]] on 26–28 September. Luther still rejected Bucer's theses, but he encouraged him to continue the search for unity. Bucer then traveled to several southern German cities, including [[Ulm]], [[Isny]], Konstanz, Memmingen, and Lindau, and to the Swiss cities of Basel and Zürich. In Zurich on 12 October, he presented the articles to Zwingli, who neither opposed him nor agreed with him.{{Sfn |Eells|1931|pp=104–11}}{{Sfn |Greschat|2004|pp= 95–7}}

In February 1531, the evangelical princes and cities of the Empire set up the Protestant [[Schmalkaldic League]] to defend the reformed religion.{{Sfn | MacCulloch| 2003|p=174}}{{Sfn | Hughes | 1992|pp=55–6}}  Strasbourg's [[Jacob Sturm von Sturmeck|Jakob Sturm]] negotiated the city's inclusion on the basis of the Tetrapolitan Confession.{{Sfn |Collinson|2003|p=131}}  By this time, Bucer's relationship with Zwingli was deteriorating.  Strasbourg's political ties with the [[John Frederick I, Elector of Saxony|Elector of Saxony]], and Bucer's partial theological support of Luther, became too much for Zwingli, and on 21 February 1531, he wrote to Bucer ending their friendship. When representatives of the southern German cities convened in Ulm on 23–24 March 1532 to discuss their alliance with the Schmalkaldic League, Bucer advised them to sign the Augsburg Confession, if they were being pressured to do so. For Bucer to recommend the rival confession over his own version surprised the Swiss cities.  Luther continued his polemical attacks on Bucer, but Bucer was unperturbed: "In any case, we must seek unity and love in our relationships with everyone," he wrote, "regardless of how they behave toward us."{{Sfn |Greschat|2004|p=100}}  In April and May 1533, he again toured the southern German cities and Swiss cities. The latter remained unconvinced and did not join the Protestant alliance.{{Sfn | Greschat |2004|pp= 97–101}}