# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1884_S15
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

of the Ev. Luth. Synodical Conference of North America. 1884. 15

1530 Luther was a Calvinist. In saying so, however, they present him as one of the worst deceivers of land and people. For Luther afterwards still calls his book "De servo arbitrio" his best book and sets only his Catechism beside it as his dearest writings. All the others might perish, if only these were preserved. And our opponents say: Beware of the book on the bondage of the will! Is it not dreadful that such people still want to be Lutherans? Here they have unmasked themselves as enemies of the Lutheran Church, in that they have made Luther a heretic. Do but read the following passages from the Formula of Concord: "As also Dr. Luther treated of this matter in the book de servo arbitrio, that is, of the captive will of man, written against Erasmus, and carried out and maintained this matter well and thoroughly, and afterwards repeated and explained it in the magnificent exposition of the first book of Moses, and especially on the 26th chapter, inasmuch as there he also, as to some other peculiar disputations introduced by Erasmus on the side, such as de absoluta necessitate etc., has preserved in the best and most diligent manner how he meant and understood this, against all misunderstanding and perversion, to which we also hereby refer and direct others (Ea hic repetita esse volumus et, ut diligenter legantur, omnes hortamur: in German: 'This we wish to have repeated here, and exhort everyone that it be diligently read')." (Repetition. Article II. p. 599.)

And in Article VII of the Formula of Concord we read: "Dr. Luther also, who understood the true proper meaning of the Augsburg Confession before others, and steadfastly to his end remained with it and defended it, not long before his death, in his last Confession, repeated his faith concerning this article with great zeal in the following words, where he writes thus: 'I reckon them all in one lump, that is, as Sacramentarians and enthusiasts, as they also are, who will not believe that the Lord's bread in the Supper is his true natural body, which the godless man or Judas receives orally just as well as St. Peter and all the saints: whoever, I say, will not believe this, let him leave me alone and hope for no fellowship with me; there is nothing else to be got out of it.' From these declarations every understanding person who loves truth and peace, but especially from Luther's declaration, as the foremost teacher of the Augsburg Confession, can without doubt perceive what the true meaning and understanding of the Augsburg Confession in this article" (of the Holy Supper) "has always been." (Repetition. Article VII. p. 653.)

Note well here that the Formula of Concord says: Luther had the true proper meaning of the Augsburg Confession before others