Caspar Schwenckfeld (1489-1561) was yet another Catholic priest who lost his mooring during turbulent times – in this case, the Reformation era. Born in Ossig, Silesia, to noble parents, he started university in Cologne in 1505, but after two years moved on to the university at Frankfurt on the Oder. After another year or two, he became adviser to successive dukes of Leignitz, the small German state in which he found himself. Reading Luther’s works, Fr Schwenckfeld soon identified with the Reformation, but broke with Luther over the Eucharist. Rejecting his former mentor’s views on the Sacrament, he held that its reception was a purely spiritual eating of the Body of Christ.