This formidable chasm among Protestants crystallized by mid-century into two hostile camps with names to identify them: Lutherans and the Reformed – both Protestants, but irredeemably at odds (as, formally, they still are). That was in the future, but the gulf was already wide and Martin Bucer was anxious to bridge it, encouraging a series of discussions which ultimately foundered both on Luther’s unwillingness to see other people’s points of view and Bucer’s inability to think of simply expressed ways of smoothing over theological complexities.
