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How do you defend a reforming church before an emperor who wants the religious quarrel settled?
In The Augsburg Confession, Philipp Melanchthon sets out the faith of the Lutheran princes and city councils before Charles V. The emperor wants peace in his lands. Melanchthon must explain what the reforming churches teach and why they reject the charge of rebellion against the true church. Martin Luther, unable to attend under an imperial ban, approves the text from a distance.
The document moves through twenty-eight articles in a formal, orderly style. The first twenty-one explain its teachings, beginning with beliefs Catholics and Lutherans share. They address faith, good works, the church, and the sacraments. The final seven turn to practices the reformers say need correction, giving reasons for the changes they defend.
What you’ll discover
- A shared starting point Discover how the opening articles establish common ground before addressing the teachings that divide.
- Faith and good works Examine the teaching that people are made right with God by faith, not their own merits.
- A definition of church Consider an account of the church centered on the gospel and the sacraments.
- Practices under scrutiny Read the reformers’ reasons for correcting seven practices they identify as abuses.
- Conviction before an emperor Follow a statement that explains reform while defending its place within the true church.
Who will love it
For readers who love Reformation history and theology, and anyone who wants to read a founding text of the Lutheran churches in its own words.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A statement written for an emperor
- Begin from the creed all share
- People are made right by faith alone
- The church is where the gospel is taught
- Seven abuses the reformers wanted mended
- What followed after Augsburg
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Confesión de Augsburgo
by Philipp Melanchthon · 1531
Melanchthon sets out the reformers' faith before an emperor seeking peace in a divided empire.
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In short
The Augsburg Confession is the statement of faith that Lutheran princes and city councils laid before the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, in June 1530. Philipp Melanchthon, a scholar of Greek and a colleague of Martin Luther at Wittenberg, wrote it.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A statement written for an emperor
The Diet of Augsburg met in 1530, and Charles V came to it after years of absence from Germany. He faced two problems at once. The Ottoman armies pressed on the eastern border, and his German territories were splitting over religion. He needed his princes united, so he asked the reforming party to explain their beliefs.
Melanchthon had been drafting statements for some time, and he reworked earlier material from Saxony and Luther's own writings. Luther stayed at Coburg because the Edict of Worms of 1521 had declared him an outlaw. He read the draft and found it acceptable, though he remarked that he could not tread so softly himself. Melanchthon was by temperament a peacemaker, and the tone of the text shows it.
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What is the Augsburg Confession about?
It is a statement of faith presented in 1530 by Lutheran rulers to Emperor Charles V. It sets out what the reformers taught, especially justification by faith, and lists practices they had changed in their churches.
Who wrote the Augsburg Confession?
Philipp Melanchthon wrote it. Martin Luther could not attend the Diet because he was under imperial ban, but he read the draft at Coburg and approved it, so it carries his support.
Why is the Augsburg Confession important?
It became the founding document of the Lutheran churches. It also shaped later Protestant statements and remains a key text in dialogue between Lutherans and Catholics, particularly on salvation and the nature of the church.
The author
Philipp Melanchthon
1497–1560 · German Protestant reformer and theologian
Philipp Melanchthon was a German religious reformer born in Bretten in 1497. He became a professor at the University of Wittenberg in 1518 and lived there until his death in 1560. He wrote Loci communes, published in 1521, and prepared the Augsburg Confession, presented in 1530.
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