page_title: Protestant Church of Augsburg Confession of Alsace and Lorraine
section_title: Reformation in Alsace and northeastern Lorraine
hierarchical_section_title: Protestant Church of Augsburg Confession of Alsace and Lorraine / History / Reformation in Alsace and northeastern Lorraine
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Gymnase Jean-Sturm à Strasbourg
context_page_description: The Protestant Church of the Augsburg Confession of Alsace and Lorraine is a Lutheran church of public-law corporation status in France. The ambit of the EPCAAL comprises congregations in Alsace and the Lorrain Moselle department.
context_section_description: In the early 16th century Alsace and northeastern Lorraine were part of the Holy Roman Empire with the region being partitioned into many different imperial states. Most were monarchies (Duchy of Lorraine, County of Saarwerden, Landgraviate of Upper Alsace, County of Salm), but also several republics (ten free imperial cities federated in the Décapole) and portions of certain ecclesiastical principalities (prince-bishoprics of Metz, of Speyer, and of Strasbourg).
  While the prince-bishops tried to suppress any change towards the Reformation, the monarchies either adopted it or fought it, depending on the positions of their lords. The free imperial cities went through a process of discussion and conflict, winning over a majority of the burghers for the Reformation or not. The Free Imperial City of Mulhouse adopted Calvinism and joined the Swiss Confederation until the French blockade forced the city to accept French supremacy in 1795.
  In 1523 and 1524, the Free Imperial City of Strasbourg became the next state in Alsace to adopt Lutheranism. Most publishers in Strasbourg agreed to diffuse new ideas by issuing Reformers' tracts and numerous pamphlets. This allowed well-known preachers such as Matthäus Zell, a priest at the Strasbourg Cathedral, to propagate Reformatory theses to a large, enthusiastic community. In the same year theologians and exegetes including Wolfgang Capito, Caspar Hedio, and Martin Bucer, strengthened and built up the Reformatory movement amongst craftsmen and the moderately well to do of Strasbourg. In 1524, St. Aurelia, the market gardeners' parish, asked Bucer to become its pastor and preacher.
  Bucer had met Martin Luther in 1518 and adopted his ideas. He then helped implement the Reformation in the Free Imperial City of Wissembourg in Alsace, which resulted in his excommunication by George of the Palatinate, the bishop of Speyer, and his conviction as outlaw. In 1523 he found asylum in Strasbourg, where he set up Bible reading classes and later, in 1529, presented the Reformation. He received John Calvin, who had been expelled from Geneva in 1538. Bucer tried to safeguard the unity of the Church, but failed in reconciling Luther and Zwingli, or bringing Catholics and Protestants to agree at least on some points. At his urging, the city of Strasbourg granted asylum to the persecuted anabaptists. By 1525 the Reformation was gradually spreading not only into the countryside possessions of Strasbourg, but also into territories of other overlords.
  Although most capitular canons in the Great Chapter, the chapters of Strasbourg's Old St. Peter's and Young St. Peter's, like much of the traditional clergy, rejected the Reformation, the prince-bishop of Strasbourg, William III of Hohnstein, failed to satisfy the demand for change. Already before the start of the Reformation, adherents of the Bundschuh movement in Alsace had demanded the right to elect their pastors on their own.
  The Lutheran church was the state church in the Free Imperial City of Strasbourg, administered by the city government (Magistrate). The city government passed laws on preaching and appropriated the Strasbourg Cathedral for the Lutheran state church in 1524. It granted the Lutheran church the right to induct pastors in the seven parishes in the town and took the responsibility, normally attributed to deacons, of supporting the poor. In 1529 the city government, supported by a large part of the population, decided that the Holy Mass should be abolished. Violent iconoclasm spread – notably among craftsmen – destroying many religious images. The Church of Strasbourg built up its liturgical, doctrinal, and ecclesiastical structures. The church authorities instituted a bimonthly meeting of the pastors and three representatives of the Magistrate (Kirchenpfleger), in order to deal with all matters concerning teaching and doctrine.
  Later, upon more reflection, some liturgical aspects of iconographic nature as well as other previously abolished traditions of church life were reintroduced (such as the Christmas Feast Day). On the occasion of th
caption: The Gymnase Jean-Sturm in Strasbourg
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