Fathers

A Candid Inquiry into the Controversies among Evangelicals · §116

§.VII: To brand the Variata corrupt injures the Confession and Melanchthon; variation is essential or only accidental

Click or tap any sentence to jump there. The side buttons skip a paragraph.

§. VII. Those who cry that the Variata is corrupt and depraved — not the same as the original Augsburg Confession, but utterly another — do injury both to the Confession itself and to Melanchthon, its near-chief theological author, in his day the phoenix and easy prince of Germany's theologians and learned men.

For that variation is either essential, and is said to strike the foundation of faith — and then Philip, together with the changed Confession, is charged with heresy — or it is only accidental, and then it plainly agrees with the original in the things themselves, as Mentzer puts it, and is therefore the same confession.

Johann Schmid's answer to Bellarmine, which we already cited in §. V., fits here; and we add what he subjoins:

If change of words, diction, and phrases took away the Confession itself, the Apostles' Creed would long ago have been done for — the monuments show church doctors set it out in one wording and another (pp. 77 end and 88).

Above all, the imperial Estates themselves drew no line between the two Confessions, but counted both one and the same (Anhang of the Ausführliche Behauptung, pp. 43–52).

Inept, too, are those who deny the Variata the name Augsburg because it was not shown at Augsburg — Mentzer's corollary (Prolegomena n. 9, p. 8), with a crowd of followers: Schmid (p. 12), Calov (p. 8), and others.

As if nothing not exhibited at Augsburg could bear an Augustan name; or as if the Augsburg Confession pointed more to the city where it was made than to the matters and articles of which it consists.

(I say it does not mark the city MORE than the articles — without denying it could take its name from that city and should still do so hereafter, even if, as we most heavily grieve has begun, that imperial city should shrink toward the shape of a village.)

Or as if the Confession published at Wittenberg in 1531, and not a few other altered prints that everyone owns suffered various change, ceased to be Augsburg even for those who scorn Philip's Variata — merely because they were not shown at Augsburg.

Latin

§. VII. Ut proinde tam in Augustanam Confessionem ipsam, quàm in ejus praecipuum propemodum ex Theologis Auctorem, Theologorum pariter atque omnium Eruditorum Germanorum suô tempore Phoenicem faciléque Principem, optimum Melanchthonem, injurii sint qui Variatam Editionem, ceu corruptam & depravatam, cum August. Confess. primigenia haudquaquam eandem, sed ab hac prorsus aliam, clamitant. Nam Variatio isthaec vel Essentialis est, & in Fidei Fundamentum impingere dicitur, & tùm Philippus, unà cum Confessione mutata, Haereseos infimulatur; vel Accidentalis, & tùm cum primigenia in ipsis rebus planè congruit, ut loquitur Mentzerus, eóque cum ista eadem. Quâ ratione huc quadrat responsio Joh. Schmidii, Bellarmino regesta, & §. V. à nobis allata, cui adjicimus, quae idem Auctor subnectit: Quodsi, inquit, Verborum, Dictionum & Phrasium Mutatio & Variatio ipsam Confessionem tolleret, jam dudum de Symbolo Apostolico actum fuisset, quòd aliâ atque aliâ verborum serie ab aliis Ecclesiae Doctoribus propositum fuisse, monumenta testantur pag. 77. in fine & pag. 88. Praesertim, quandô ipsi Status Imperii inter duas dictas Confessiones neutiquam discriminarunt, sed utramque unam eandemque reputarunt, vid. Der Anhang der ausführlichen Behauptung à p. 43. ad 52. Inepti verò habendi, qui Variatam, proptereà Augustanam esse negant, quod Augustae exhibita non fuit, porismatizante sic Mentzero: Quae Confessio Augusta exhibita non fuit, Augustanam eam dici non deberi. Proleg. n. 9. p. m. 8. etiam asseclas híc nactô, quàm plurimos, Schmidium, locô citatô pag. 12. Calovium, l. c. p. 8. aliosque. Quasi verò, nihil, quòd Augustae exhibitum non est, Augustanum dici non possit; Vel Augustana Confessio, locum Civitatemque magis, in qua facta est, quam res & Articulos, ex quibus constat, denotet respiciatve; (Dico, Confessionem August. non MAGIS Civitatem in qua facta est, quàm Articulos, ex quibus constat, denotare atque respicere, ut non negem, à Civitate ista denominari potuisse, etiam denominandam in posterum fore, licèt forte contingat, ut [quod fieri coepisse gravissimè dolemus] civitas haec Imperialis ad pagi cujusdam formam redigatur.); Vel Wittenbergae Anno 1531. in lucem edita Confessio aliaeque haud paucae mutatae, mutationemque variam, omnium Confessione, passae, non iis ipsis ampliùs Augustanae sint, qui à Philippo variatam aspernantur ac aversantur, eò, quòd Augustae non exhibitae sunt.

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

This is an AI-assisted study translation. Source fidelity and completeness have not been independently certified. Open Latin on each section (or the Latin source witness link) for the source text. This is not a complete critical edition.