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The Augsburg Confession, also known as the "Augustana" from its Latin name, Confessio Augustana, is the primary confession of faith of the Lutheran Church. The Augsburg Confession is, by its catholic nature (meaning "universal" in its application to Lutheran churches), normative to all Lutheran Churches everywhere and in all times. It is also one of the most important documents of the Lutheran reformation. The Augsburg Confession was written in both German and Latin, and was presented by a number of German rulers and free-cities at the Diet of Augsburg on June 25, 1530. The Holy Roman Emperor Charles V had called on the Princes and Free Territories in Germany to explain their religious convictions in an attempt to restore religious and political unity in the Holy Roman Empire, and rally support against the Turkish invasion. It is the fourth document contained in the Lutheran Book of Concord.
Felix Mendelssohn's 5^th Symphony (actually his 2^nd Symphony in order of composition) was composed to celebrate the 300th anniversary of the Augsburg Confession and thus bears the title The Reformation Symphony. The Symphony, however, was not commissioned for the celebrations, because of either the composer's Jewish origins, or because of the inappropriateness of a symphony for the celebrations. Instead, Eduard Grell's work for four men's voices a capella was commissioned.

Background

On January 21, 1530, the Emperor Charles V issued letters from Bologna, inviting the German diet to meet in Augsburg April 8, for the purpose of discussing and deciding various important questions. Although the writ of invitation was couched in very peaceful language, it was received with suspicion by some of the Protestants. The far-seeing Landgrave of Hesse hesitated to attend the diet, but the Elector John of Saxony, who received the writ March 11, on March 14 directed Luther, Jonas, Bugenhagen, and Melanchthon to meet in Torgau, where he was, and present a summary of the Lutheran faith, to be laid before the emperor at the diet.

This summary has received the name of the "Torgau Articles". On April 3 the elector and reformers started from Torgau and reached Coburg on April 23. There Luther was left behind. The rest reached Augsburg May 2. On the journey Melanchthon worked on an "apology", using the Torgau articles, and sent his draft to Luther at Coburg on May 11, who approved it. Several alterations were suggested to Melanchthon in his conferences with Jonas, the Saxon chancellor Bruck, the conciliatory Christopher von Stadion, bishop of Augsburg, and the imperial secretary Alfonso Valdez.

On June 23 the final form of the text was adopted in the presence of the Elector John of Saxony, the Landgrave Philip of Hesse, the Margrave George of Brandenburg, the Dukes Ernest and Francis of Luneburg, the representatives of Nuremberg and Reutlingen, and other counselors, besides twelve theologians. After the reading the confession was signed by the Elector John of Saxony, Margrave George of Brandenburg, Duke Ernest of Luneburg, the Landgrave Philip of Hesse, the Prince Wolfgang of Anhalt, the representatives of Nuremberg and Reutlingen, and probably also by the electoral prince John Frederick and Duke Francis of Luneburg.

During the diet the cities of Weißenburg in Bayern, Heilbronn, Kempten, and Windesheim also expressed their concurrence with the confession. The emperor had ordered the confession to be presented to him at the next session, June 24; but when the Protestant princes asked that it be read in public, their petition was refused, and efforts were made to prevent the public reading of the document altogether. The Protestant princes, however, declared that they would not part with the confession until its reading should be allowed. The 25th was then fixed for the day of its presentation. In order to exclude the people, the little chapel of the episcopal palace was appointed in place of the spacious city hall, where the meetings of the diet were held. The two Saxon chancellors Bruck and Beyer, the one with the Latin copy, the other with the German, stepped into the middle of the assembly, and against the wish of the emperor the German text was read. The reading lasted two hours and was so distinct that every word could be heard outside. The reading being over, the copies were handed to the emperor. The German he gave to the imperial chancellor, the Elector of Mainz, the Latin he took away. Neither of the copies is now extant.

The first official publication (Editio princeps) was edited by Philipp Melanchthon, a professor at the University of Wittenberg and close friend of Martin Luther.

In 1540, Melanchthon produced a revised edition, the Variata, which was signed by John Calvin. Many Lutheran churches specify in their official documents that they subscribe to the "Unaltered Augsburg Confession", as opposed to the Variata.

The Unaltered Augsburg Confession is the primary confessional document of the Lutheran faith and is part of The Book of Concord.

The preface of the Augsburg Confession shows that the entire document is addressed to the Emperor Charles V in compliance with his summons (January 21, 1530^[1]) of all rulers and representatives of the estates of the Holy Roman Empire to Augsburg for an imperial diet. The Lutherans pledge themselves to follow the emperor's directive to present a statement of their beliefs and confer with estates who disagree with them with the goal of achieving consensus in faith.

The 28 Articles

In twenty-eight articles, 21 dealing with what was believed to be universally valid and 7 dealing with issues about which the Lutherans were willing to dialogue, the Lutheran princes and representatives of "free cities" attending the Diet of Augsburg set forward what they believed, taught, and confessed in positive (theses) and negative (antitheses) statements.

—GOD: Lutherans believe in the Triune God and reject ancient and modern heresies concerning God.
—ORIGINAL SIN: Lutherans believe in the total depravity of the human being before regeneration.
—THE SON OF GOD JESUS CHRIST: Lutherans believe in the "personal union" of the two natures in the Person of Jesus Christ. They believe that he alone atones for all human sin.
—JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH: Lutherans believe that the penitent sinner is saved by grace through faith alone.
—THE OFFICE OF PREACHING: Lutherans believe that to see to it that the gospel of Jesus Christ is proclaimed throughout the world, Christ has established his office of the holy ministry.
—THE NEW OBEDIENCE: Lutherans believe that good deeds of Christians are the fruits of faith and salvation, not a price paid for them.
—THE CHURCH: Lutherans believe that there is one holy Christian Church, and it is found wherever the gospel is preached in its truth and purity and the sacraments are administered according to the gospel.
—WHAT THE CHURCH IS: Lutherans believe that hypocrites are not true members of the one holy Christian Church
—BAPTISM
—THE LORD'S SUPPER
—CONFESSION AND ABSOLUTION
—REPENTANCE
—THE USE of THE SACRAMENTS
—ECCLESIASTICAL ORDER: Lutherans only allow those who are "rightly called" (rite vocatus)^[2] to occupy and exercise the public office of preaching.
—CHURCH REGULATIONS
—SECULAR GOVERNMENT
—THE RETURN OF JESUS CHRIST ON THE LAST DAY
—THE FREEDOM OF THE WILL
—THE CAUSE OF SIN: Lutherans believe that God is not the cause of sin but the devil is.
—FAITH AND GOOD WORKS
—PRAYER TO THE SAINTS: Lutherans believe that saints and holy people of the Old Testament are to be imitated as to their lives of faith, but they assert that there is no biblical mandate to invoke (call upon) them in prayer.
—BOTH "KINDS" IN THE LORD'S SUPPER: The Lutherans give communicants the consecrated bread and wine, not just the wine only
—CLERICAL MARRIAGE: The Lutherans permit their clergy to marry
—THE MASS: The Lutherans believe that the liturgy of Holy Communion must be purged of language that speaks of Holy Communion as a sacrifice that the church offers to God.
—CONFESSION OF SINS: Lutherans believe that a penitent should not be required to confess every sin in order to be absolved of it. The penitent when absolved receives full forgiveness of his sins.
—DISTINCTION OF FOODS: Lutherans believe that certain foods should not be singled out as sinful to be eaten
—MONASTIC VOWS: Lutherans reject the abuses of monasticism and the inviolability of monastic vows.
—THE AUTHORITY OF BISHOPS: Lutherans believe that a bishop's only authority is to exercise the office of the holy ministry: they are not temporal rulers by divine right.

Conclusion

"That in doctrine and ceremonies nothingg has been received on our part against Scripture or the Church Catholic." Signatures of several secular leaders steelers suck in Saxony.

References

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Jackson, Samuel Macauley, ed. (1914). New Schaff–Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge (third ed.). London and New York: Funk and Wagnalls. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)

^ F. Bente, Historical Introductions to the Symbolical Books of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Triglot Concordia (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1921), 15
^ Some Lutheran teachers translate rite vocatus as "rightly ordained": Arthur Carl Piepkorn: "…the word rite in rite vocatus implies in the normal terminology of the 16th century a formal ordination as something over and above a mere calling. Both vocatio (“calling”) and ordinatio ("ordination") are extensively used in this period to describe the whole process of election and ordination" (Arthur Carl Piepkorn, "The Sacred Ministry and Holy Ordination in the Symbolical Books of the Lutheran Church," in Michael P. Plekon and William S. Wiecher, eds., The Church: Selected Writings of Arthur Carl Piepkorn, (Delhi, NY: American Lutheran Publicity Bureau Books, 1993), 62, quoted by John A. Frahm, "The church, Pastors, and a Confessional Lutheran Ministerium," unpublished paper, p. 3, retrieved 12-30-08

External links

The Augsburg Confession (1530) in Latin with a parallel English translation and with notes on the differences in the 1540 edition (Articles I - VII); from Philip Schaff's Creeds of the Evangelical Protestant Churches at the Christian Classics Ethereal Library
Augsburg Confession (1530), including articles XXII - XXVIII
The Roman Confutation (1530), in an English translation, compares each articles of the confession to Catholic beliefs.
An Orthodox Response - Summary of Orthodox Patriarch Jeremias II's letter of 15 May 1576, in which he compares each article of the confession to Orthodox Christian beliefs.
The Roman Catholic Reception of the Augsburg Confession by Robert Kress (JSTOR)

[1] F. Bente, Historical Introductions to the Symbolical Books of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Triglot Concordia (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1921), 15

[2] Some Lutheran teachers translate rite vocatus as "rightly ordained": Arthur Carl Piepkorn: "…the word rite in rite vocatus implies in the normal terminology of the 16th century a formal ordination as something over and above a mere calling. Both vocatio (“calling”) and ordinatio ("ordination") are extensively used in this period to describe the whole process of election and ordination" (Arthur Carl Piepkorn, "The Sacred Ministry and Holy Ordination in the Symbolical Books of the Lutheran Church," in Michael P. Plekon and William S. Wiecher, eds., The Church: Selected Writings of Arthur Carl Piepkorn, (Delhi, NY: American Lutheran Publicity Bureau Books, 1993), 62, quoted by John A. Frahm, "The church, Pastors, and a Confessional Lutheran Ministerium," unpublished paper, p. 3, retrieved 12-30-08

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 ===Conclusion===
-"That in doctrine and ceremonies nothingg has been received on our part against Scripture or the Church Catholic." Signatures of several secular leaders in Saxony.
+"That in doctrine and ceremonies nothingg has been received on our part against Scripture or the Church Catholic." Signatures of several secular leaders steelers suck in Saxony.
 ==See also==