Fathers

A Candid Inquiry into the Controversies among Evangelicals · §106

§.III: Historians of every party affirm that Luther sketched and Melanchthon finished what Augsburg presented

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§. III. Christians of every party, and anyone who knows the history of the Augsburg Confession, will own this description as true.

The Confession itself says it is a complex of the chief articles of Christian faith — through the twenty-one articles of its first part, set beside Holy Scripture, the adequate principle of faith.

No less clearly, through the seven heads of Abuses in its second part, it shows that this complex stands chiefly against the papal side, once those heads are compared with papal confessions and catechisms.

Luther first sketched that complex more roughly in seventeen articles; Melanchthon then worked it out more carefully and signed it more distinctly. Even in that shape Luther approved it, as did Brenz, Jonas, Schnepf, and Spalatin among other theologians.

In the name of those estates, at the place, time, and manner remembered — after their hands had signed it — it was shown to the Emperor, blasted by his public decree, yet defended and confirmed by them, and the next year published in both the Latin and the German in which it had been exhibited.

So say with one mouth, and with pens agreed from every side, all who have set out to write the Confession's history and narrate these facts — a company Baclerus begins to number, though the list is not yet full, in his Memorial of sixteenth-century affairs, pages 405–406.

Latin

§. III. Descriptionem hanc Augustanae Confessionis veram agnoverint cuicunque etiam Sectae addicti, Historiaeque Augustanae Confessionis gnari Christiani: Nam Articulorum Fidei Christianae praecipuorum Complexum, Augustanam Confessionem esse, ipsamet loquitur, per Articulos suos XXI. Partis suae prioris, cum Scriptura Sacra, fidei principio adaequato, collatos; idque non minus, ac Complexum hunc Pontificiis cumprimis oppositum esse, eadem, per Abusuum Partis suae posterioris Capita 7., clarissimè edisserit, si Capita haec cum Pontificiis Confessionibus & Catechismis comparentur. À Luthero verò Complexum illum delineatum primò, Articulisque XVII. rudius conceptum, ac postmodum à Melanchthone diligentius elaboratum distinctiùs consignatum, quanquam & sic quoque à Luthero pariter atque aliis nonnullis Theologis, Brentio, Jona, Snepfio, Spalatino approbatum, nomine Statuum dictorum, memoratis locô, tempore, modoque (postquam ab his subsignatus manibus esset) Caesari exhibitum, ab hoc publico Decreto explosum, ab istis tamen defensum, confirmatum, quin & in publicam lucem, lingvâ tàm Latinâ, quàm Germanicâ, in quibus exhibitus fuerat, Anno sequenti, editum esse, uno omnes ore & consentientibus undequaque calamis afferunt, quotquot Augustanae Confessionis Historiam adornare, resque has facti exponere aggressi sunt, quorum numerum, etsi nondum omnino plenum, Baclerus init, Lib. Memoriali de rebus Seculi XVI. p. m. 405. & 406.

About this text

Samuel Strimesius — Prefatio through Controversiae Post Lutherum Controv. III-XIII + XV Tolerantia, Hexades Annotationum Prooemium and Annotatio I through Decem Theses / Francus plus Annotatio II §.I-§.VI and Annotatio III §.I–§.VII (through Cassellanum 1661) from Ingenua in Controversias Evangelicorum (Frankfurt an der Oder, 1708). Honest partial; Prefatio silence reasons, Annotatio III §.VIII+ fruits / §.IX+, Hexades theses body, deeper Controversiae / Part II remain.

English follows the locked 1708 Francofurti ad Viadrum Latin of Prefatio §I–II, Crimina defenses through III, Part I Protheoria through Controversiae Obices/Historia/Varii gradus, Formula Discord/Disparitas, Ulterius confirmatur / Classes / Formula protest / triplex differentia, Coena Domini Controversiae Priores through Precariae Hypotheses (Controv. print pp. 34–40), Controversiae Post Lutherum Natae Controv. III–XV tip (providence through De Tolerantia mutua; Controv. print pp. 40–78), Hexades Annotationum Prooemium H.I–§.III (Hexades print pp. 1–4 / PDF ~182–185), and Annotatio I De Augustana Confessione §.I–§.VIII tip (Hexades print pp. 5–24+ / PDF ~186–205+), reconstructed from Google Books PDF page images (ONB copy, id 3epYAAAAcAAJ) with pdftotext as check. No modern English was copied. Sister Halle digitization of Ingenua in Arminianismum (DOI 10.25673/65287) remains Anubis-blocked — skipped; Controversias only. Prefatio silence reasons, Annotatio I §.IX+, Hexades theses body beyond §.VIII, and remainder of Controversiae / folio remain.

Witnesses

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