The debate between Luther and Erasmus erupted at a critical point in the middle 1520s, just as the combinations of forces set loose by the Reformation were threatening to shatter the unity of the church and the peace of the Holy Roman Empire, which included Germany and its environs. Europe appeared to be coming apart. Earlier in the 1520s, the powerful but loosely associated coalition that had driven the Lutheran reform movement had already begun to show some signs of stress.