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He made the acquaintance of many theologians who were drifting in the direction of the Reformation, among whom were Valentine Crautwald, Johann Sigismund Werner, and Fabian Eckel, and under the influence of such associations the impressions received at M�nsterberg deepened until, as he expressed it, God touched his heart, and he withdrew from the ducal court and was chosen Canon of St. John's Church in Liegnitz. Luther had now withdrawn from the Church of Rome, and his preaching attracted Schwenkfeld's attention and inspired him with a more intense zeal for the service of the Divine Master. He was at one with Luther upon the issues which the latter had raised with the Roman Catholic Church, and could no longer hold his position in St. John's Church without violence to his conscience. He therefore renounced it to become an evangelist, and, for thirty-six years, with voice and pen, exhort men to repentance and godliness. Although not by nature a controversialist, as his writings abundantly testify, Schwenkfeld soon came to differ with the great Reformer on several points, chief among which related to the Eucharist, to the efficacy of the Divine Word, to the human nature of Christ, and to baptism. Schwenkfeld rejected the doctrine of impanation or consubstantiation as well as that of transubstantiation, and held that Christ taught (Matt. xxvi. 26) that "such as this broken bread is to the body, so is my body to the soul, a true and real food, which nourishes, sanctifies, and delights the soul; and such as this wine is to the body, so, in its effects, is my blood to the soul, which it strengthens and refreshes;" and, as a corollary, that the impenitent, though he would eat of the bread of the Lord, could not eat the body of the Lord, but that the penitent believer did partake of both, not only at the sacramental altar, but elsewhere.

In respect to the second point of difference, he denied that the external word, which is committed to writing in the Scriptures,