CONFESSION OF

See also:

• AUGSBURG
• CONFESSION OF AUGSBURG
• AUGSBURG, WAR OF THE LEAGUE OF

AUGSBURG  , the most important Protestant statement of belief drawn up at the Reformation . In summoning a diet for April 1530, Charles V. offered a fair hearing to all religious parties in the Empire . Luther, Justus Jonas, Melanchthon and Johann Bugenhagen were appointed to draw up a statement 'of the Saxon position . These " Torgau Articles " (March 1530) tell merely why Saxony had abolished certain ecclesiastical abuses . Melanchthon, however, soon found.that, owing to attacks by Johann Eck of Ingolstadt (" 404 Articles "); Saxony must state its position in doctrinal matters as well . Taking the Articles of Marburg (see MARBURG, COLLOQUY ok') and of Schwabach as the point of departure, he repudiated all connexion with heretics condemned by the ancient church . On the 11th of May he sent the draft to Luther, who approved it, adding that he himself " could not tread so softly and gently." On the 23rd of June the Confession, originally intended as the statement of Electoral Saxony alone, was discussed and signed by a number of other Protestant princes and cities, and read before the diet on the 25th of June . Articles 1-21 attempt to show that the Evangelicals had deviated from current doctrine only in order to restore the pure and original teaching of the church . In spite of significant omissions (the sole authority of scripture; rejection of transubstantiation), the Confession contains nothing contradictory to Luther's position, and in its emphasis on justification by faith alone enunciates a cardinal concept of the Evangelical churches . Articles 22-28 describe and defend the reformation of various " abuses." On the 3rd of August, shorn of much of its original bitterness, the so-called Confutatio pontificia was read; it well expresses the views approved in substance by the emperor and all the Catholic party . In answer, Melanchthon was ordered to prepare an Apology of the Confession, which the emperor refused to receive; so Melanchthon enlarged it and published the editio princeps of both Confession and Apology in 1531 . As he felt free to make slight changes, the first edition does not represent the exact text of 1530; the edition of 1533 was further improved, while that of 1540, rearranged and in part rewritten, is known as the Variata .

Dogmatic changes in this seem to have drawn forth no protest from Luther or

Brenz, so Melanchthon made fresh alterations in 1542 . Later, the Variata of 1340 became the creed of the Melanchthonians and even of the Crypto-calvinists; so the framers of the Formula of Concord, promulgated in 1580, returned to the text handed in at the Diet . By mistake they printed from a poor copy and not from the original, from which their German text varies at over 45o places . Their Latin text, that of Melanchthon's editio princeps, is more nearly accurate . The textus receplus is that of the Formula of Concord, the divergent Latin and German forms being equally binding . Acceptance of the Confession and Apology was made a condition of membership in the Schmalkalden League . The Wittenberg Concord (1536) and the Articles of Schmalkalden (1J37) reaffirmed them . The Confession was the ultimate source of much of the Thirty-nine Articles . The Religious Peace of Augsburg (1555) recognized no Protestants save adherents of the Confession; this was modified in 1648 . To-day the Invariata is of symbolical authority among Lutherans generally, while the Variata is accepted by the Reformed churches of certain parts of Germany (see Lober, pp . 79-83.) Editions of the received text: J . T .

Muller, Die symbolischen Bucher der evangelisch-lutherischen Kirche (loth ed., Gutersloh, 1907), with a valuable historical introduction by Th . Kolde; Theodor Kolde, Die Augsburgische Konfession (Gotha, 1896), (contains also the Marburg, Schwabach and Torgau Articles, the Confutatlo and the Variata of 1540) . For translations of these, as well as of Zwingli's Reckoning of his Faith, and of the Tetrapolitan Confession, see H . E . Jacobs, The Book of Concord (Philadelphia, 1882-83) . The texts submitted to the emperor, lost before 1570, are reconstructed and compared with the textus receplus by P . Tschackert, Die unveranderte Augsburgische Konfession (Leipzig, 1901) . For the genesis of the Confession, see Th . Kolde, Die alteste Redaktion der Augsburger Konfession (Gutersloh, 1906), also Kolde's article, " Augsburger Bekenntnis," in Herzog-Hauck, Realencyklopadie (3rd ed., vol. ii., Leipzig, 1897) . The standard commentary is still G . L . Plitt, Einleitung in die Augustana (Erlangen, 1867 ff.) ; compare also J .

Ficker, Die Konfutation

des Augsburgischen Bekenntnisses in ihrer ersten Gestalt (Leipzig, 1891); also A . Petzold, Die Konfutation des Vierstadtebekenntnisses (Leipzig, 1900) . On its present use see G . Lober, Die im evangelischen Deutschland geltenden Ordinationsverpflichtungen geschichtlich geordnet (Leipzig, 1905), 79 if . (W . W .