The Augsburg Confession

The emperor Charles V summoned the estates of the empire to Augsburg to deliberate on defence against the Turks and on the division in religion, and asked them to submit their opinions on the second matter in German and Latin. The Lutheran princes answered with a statement of what was taught in their lands (Augsburg Confession Preface 1–8). Martin Luther was not at the diet (Luther, Letters, to Justus Jonas, 9 July 1530). The text was drawn up by Philip Melanchthon (Luther, Letters, to Nicholas Hausmann, 6 July 1530). In May Luther had read what he calls “Philip’s Apology” and told the elector John of Saxony that he was delighted with it and could not himself have worded it “so softly and sweetly” (Luther, Letters, to the elector John, 15 May 1530).

On Saturday 25 June 1530 the confession was presented to the emperor (Melanchthon, Letters, to Luther, 27 June 1530 (no. 744)). Luther, passing on what Justus Jonas had written to him, says that it was read by Dr Christian Beyer before the emperor and the princes and bishops of the empire (Luther, Letters, to Nicholas Hausmann, 6 July 1530). It carries the names of the elector John of Saxony, six other princes and the cities of Nuremberg and Reutlingen (Augsburg Confession Conclusion 8–17).

The first twenty-one articles set out teaching. Article 4 says that people “cannot be justified before God by their own strength, merits, or works, but are freely justified for Christ’s sake, through faith”, when they believe that they are received into favour and that their sins are forgiven for Christ’s sake; “this faith God imputes for righteousness in His sight” (Augsburg Confession IV). Article 7 calls the church the congregation of saints in which the Gospel is rightly taught and the sacraments are rightly administered (Augsburg Confession VII). Article 10 teaches that the body and blood of Christ are truly present in the Lord’s Supper and are distributed to those who eat it (Augsburg Confession X). The signers add that this teaching varies in nothing from Scripture, from the catholic church or from the church of Rome as known from its writers, and that the disagreement is about certain abuses (Augsburg Confession XXI 5–6). Seven further articles defend changes made in their churches, among them communion in both kinds and the marriage of priests (Augsburg Confession XXII–XXVIII).

The emperor referred the confession to learned men of several nations, and their reply, the Confutation, is dated 3 August 1530 in the edition cited (Confutation heading and preamble). On article 4 it agrees that no one can merit eternal life by his own powers without grace, and it holds it contrary to Scripture to deny that works done with the help of grace are meritorious, though of themselves, it says, our works have no merit and it is God’s grace that makes them worthy of eternal life (Confutation on article IV). It rejects the ascription of justification to faith alone (Confutation on article VI). Melanchthon relates that the emperor demanded assent to the Confutation and did not receive the defence, the Apology, which the princes offered in return (Apology of the Augsburg Confession Preface 1–8).

The Lutheran princes and cities who published the Book of Concord in 1580 declared that they held to the confession presented in 1530 and to no other (Book of Concord, Preface 16). The Peace of Augsburg forbade the emperor and the estates to make war on any estate of the empire on account of the Augsburg Confession (Peace of Augsburg § 15). The Joint Declaration confirmed in 1999 recalls that doctrinal condemnations on justification were put forward both in the Lutheran confessions and by the Council of Trent, and states that they do not apply to the teaching of either church as presented in it (Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification 1, 41); see Lutherans and Catholics Agree on Justification.