# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1848 05 24_S167
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

which drove him to do damage to the truth he had recognized. For at that time, in his own personal conviction, he still agreed with the Wittenberg Concord, to which he still confessed in 1540 in a testament that he composed with his own hand during an illness at Weimar, after having shortly before repeatedly expressed his agreement with it in public letters. At first, then, he certainly intended only to substitute milder words for the earlier ones, and to remove the offense which the Swiss took at the contrary doctrine directed against them, in order thereby to further the work of union. But it was precisely by this presumptuous arbitrariness that he committed a great wrong against the church, for which reason the Evangelicals had good cause to complain of his high-handed dealing with a public and universal confession of faith, and soon enough decided error also concealed itself behind the supposed improvements. Indeed! In the end the altered Augsburg Confession became the common banner of all Calvinists, Crypto-Calvinists, and Philippists, under which they threatened to overthrow the Lutheran church, first secretly, then openly, until the Lord put their attempts to shame, especially also through the salutary work of the Formula of Concord. From that time on, the unaltered Augsburg Confession alone held validity in the Lutheran church.

Far be it from us, however, to wish to condemn Melanchthon on account of that wrong. We hope that he recognized his fault before his end and asked God's forgiveness for it. Thus in 1558, two years before his death, he confessed that he stood by "the Confession delivered to the Emperor at Augsburg, A.D. 1530," by which he himself designated the altered Confession as a mere private undertaking. But may his stumbling be a warning to us, that we hold all the more faithfully and conscientiously to the treasure of truth entrusted to us by grace.

The Apologete further says: "The Jesuits, too, made excellent use of this circumstance to their own advantage, and continually reproached the Lutherans: 'You have no certain faith, for you alter your Confession from time to time.' For this reason in particular the Lutheran princes were dissatisfied with the altered Confession." This reproach was, to be sure, often made against the Protestants by the Papists, and it also opened their eyes to Melanchthon's high-handed proceeding, since, as is well known, enemies discover our faults more easily than we ourselves do. But that the Lutheran princes should have been dissatisfied with the altered Augsburg Confession "for this reason in particular" — namely, out of mere wounded vanity — is a slanderous assertion. It was, rather, on their part conscientious faithfulness to the confession. The matter, in fact, stood as follows:

After Melanchthon had at first, according to his habit, improved only a few points of expression, he ventured to alter the actual content of the confession itself in a few places. This began from 1540 onward. For at the colloquy held between the Lutherans and the Papists at Worms, the Augsburg Confession was to serve as the basis of the discussion. Melanchthon now managed things, without consulting the estates, Luther, or the other theologians, so that the altered Augsburg Confession was submitted in the name of the imperial estates. Meanwhile the papal disputants, Eck in particular, soon noticed it and publicly called attention to it. The same thing happened the following year at the Regensburg colloquy, where matters went so far that the other Lutheran theologians and statesmen declared, in the name of their princes, to the presiding officer Granvella, that they stood by the copy that had been presented to Emperor Charles V in 1530. Indeed, they compelled Melanchthon to retract the most important alteration in the article on the Holy Supper and to subscribe publicly that he shared the unanimous confession of the whole church regarding the true presence of the body of Christ in the Holy Supper, and that he rejected the contrary doctrine.

In particular, the pious Elector John Frederick of Saxony protested decisively against the alteration of the Augsburg Confession. He had his old chancellor Brück earnestly remonstrate with Melanchthon as to how he could have presumed to alter the Augsburg Confession in some points without the knowledge and consent of the Elector and the other estates — from which, in the Elector's judgment, he should in fairness have refrained, since the Confession belonged chiefly to the Elector and the other estates.

Nevertheless, Melanchthon continued to have the Augsburg Confession printed in its altered form at all times. Yet whenever anything of this became known, the princes gave voice to their displeasure over it. How, then, was it possible for Melanchthon always to do so unhindered? We have seen that the princes did not fail to give faithful warning. They did not think of forceful measures, since the Lutheran church at that time enjoyed a glorious freedom. Besides, Melanchthon stood in such high regard that many, dazzled by it, kept silent. Others, who did not exercise the necessary prudence, did more harm to the good cause. The princes and estates, moreover, at that time cared little about the printing of the Augsburg Confession, because they knew that what mattered chiefly was the original that had been handed to the Emperor. Not until the year 1580 did they have it printed under their own authority.

It is false when the Apologete says of the altered Augsburg Confession: "Probably Luther did not like it either, yet he never spoke out publicly against it." Whoever has even a superficial acquaintance with Luther's character knows that such twisting and glossing of the plain truths of Holy Scripture was always an abomination to him. In addition, both Rorarius, a confidant of Luther's, and the old chancellor Brück testify to his dissatisfaction with Melanchthon's proceedings. Schlüsselburg, in his De signis Sacramentariorum, claims to have certain word that Luther had some sheets brought to him from the printing house and grew indignant over them. But Luther also directly reproved Melanchthon for his high-handedness. "Philip," he said, "the book is not yours, but the confession of the church; therefore you have no authority to alter it so often."

It is true that Luther did not speak out publicly against the alteration of the Augsburg Confession, but at that time it had not yet caused public offense — that happened only later. Melanchthon regarded the printing of the Augsburg Confession as a private matter, and Luther reproved him for it privately. What more should he have done? It was not his fault that Melanchthon did not listen to him. Besides, this fell within Luther's last six years, when he was often ill and occupied with countless important matters.

In conclusion the Apologete says: "In the year 1561 the Lutheran princes held a meeting at Naumburg, at which a preface to the altered Confession was drawn up, but was not signed by all. In this preface it is noted that the altered edition is somewhat clearer and more detailed than the original." Since the brevity of this account might lead the unbiased reader to erroneous conjectures, we add the following.

The Protestants were continually reproached by the Papists for their disunity and their deviation from the true Augsburg Confession. To remedy this, they held, at the instigation of Elector Augustus of Saxony, the well-known Diet of Naumburg in 1561. After the various copies of the Augsburg Confession had been compared with one another, they chose the Wittenberg edition of the unaltered Augsburg Confession of the year 1531, which was to be signed by all. So far all went well; but thereupon the two chancellors Ehem and Cracovius, two secret Calvinists, proposed a preface, which was to be newly placed before the Augsburg Confession and delivered to the Emperor, in which they stated that all the estates who had signed (thus including the Palatinate) had hitherto tolerated no other doctrine than that which was grounded in Holy Scripture and confessed in the Augsburg Confession, and that the disunity charged against them did not exist at all. The Palatinate, too, was ready to sign all of this.

Against this, however, Duke John Frederick of Saxony protested both orally and in writing. "He could not, with a good conscience, sign the preface, nor could he acknowledge the Palatinate, a protector of the Calvinists, as a partner in the Augsburg Confession. This would only cloak the error and render the sense of the Augsburg Confession uncertain. It would be better, rather, expressly to name the church's defects, and also to make mention of the Smalcald Articles." When his protest did not prevail, the duke returned home with his retinue.

After his departure, the Calvinist-minded party brought it about that not only did the words the duke had objected to remain standing in the preface, but it was also expressly added that Melanchthon's altered Confession had been repeated somewhat "more splendidly and fully, and also expounded and enlarged on the ground of Holy Scripture; that they would by no means depart from it" — indeed, it was even called the improved Confession. The article on the Holy Supper was worded very ambiguously.

Meanwhile the duke's protest did not stand alone; for many absent princes as well, namely the Lower Saxon estates and all the well-disposed theologians, refused to sign that preface. It also soon afterward collapsed of itself.

May the Apologete in future make it his duty, in his communications about the Lutheran church, to observe the strictest love of truth, and hold only to pure sources. Hermann Fick.

* Elector Frederick III of the Palatinate had already gone over from the Lutheran to the Reformed church in 1559.