2009 is a year of multiple important milestones for the history of the Reformation. One such event is the 500th anniversary of Calvin's birth which is being remembered in different ways. Another is the 450th anniversary of the Elizabethan Settlement which brought closure to the English Reformation and established an enduring Church of England, just as the Peace of Augsburg did in the Holy Roman Empire and whose 450th anniversary was celebrated four years ago.

To mark the occasion, the Faculty of Theology of Humboldt University of Berlin will hold a German-English symposium which will highlight the reciprocal relationship between the history of the Reformation in Germany and in England. It will be the first academic conference of this kind, since up until now the events in the Holy Roman Empire and in England have been handled in separate gatherings on either side of the English Channel. Although the instances of interdependence did not completely escape attention, they have remained decidedly on the edge scholarly interest. As a result, academic research into the history of the Reformation has rarely examined the interaction between events in Germany and England. This symposium, however, aims at just such a discussion.

The theme will be addressed from various angles. Papers will trace the different ways in which knowledge of and influence from the Reformation in Germany reached England. Personal relationships played a key role in this process, especially those which were strengthened through the exile of English Protestants under Mary Tudor and that of the Germans after the implementation of the Interim. The theological and liturgical influences which arose by personal contact or through written means will also be addressed. At the same time, however, the symposium will examine the manner in which such influences were handled so as to impart the differing profiles that the Reformation developed on the opposite sides of the Channel. The political dimension will be discussed, Henry VIII's negotiations with the Schmalkaldic League being especially important. Parallel events will also be examined, such as the marriage problems of Henry VIII and Philip of Hesse and their solutions as well as the consolidation of the Reformation through the Peace of Augsburg and the Elizabethan Settlement. The symposium will conclude with a leap to the present by considering the current relationship between German Protestantism and the Church of England.