Caspar Schwenckfeld

Caspar Schwenckfeld von Ossig was a German court adviser, theologian, writer and preacher who lived from about 1489 to 1561 and became a Protestant Reformer and spiritualist, one of the earliest promoters of the Protestant Reformation in Silesia. Schwenckfeld came to Reformation principles through Thomas Muntzer and Andreas Karlstadt, but developed his own principles and fell out with Martin Luther over the eucharistic controversy of 1524; he held his own views on the sacraments, known as the Heavenly Flesh doctrine, developed in close association with his humanist colleague Valentin Crautwald. His followers became a new sect, outlawed in Germany, whose ideas were influenced by Anabaptism in Europe and Puritanism in England, and many of his followers were persecuted in Europe and forced to convert or flee, which is why Schwenkfelder Church congregations exist in the United States today.