AUGSBURG, CONFESSION OF, the most important Protestant statement of belief drawn up at the Reformation, presented in Latin and German to the emperor Charles V. at the Diet of Augsburg, June 25,153o. It was compiled by Melancthon, but based on articles previously drawn up by Luther, and in par ticular on those presented by him at the Marburg conference (see MARBURC, COLLOQUY OF) ; Melancthon being in constant corre spondence with Luther while compiling the Confession. It has become the classical statement of Lutheran doctrine, and is in effect the official creed of the Lutheran Churches. The 21 articles of its first part state the main doctrines held by Lutherans: (a) in common with Roman Catholicism, the doctrine of the creeds of the Catholic Church; (b) in common with Augustine and his followers, against Pelagianism and Donatism (qq.v.) ; (c) in opposition to Roman Catholicism, affirming justification by faith and the exclusive mediatorship of Christ ; also on the Church, the ministry, and rites; (d) in opposition to Anabaptism, on the mean ing and administration of sacraments, on confession, and on the millennium. The seven articles of the second part condemn what Luther and his followers believed to be the chief Roman abuses: (I) withholding the cup; (2) compulsory celibacy of the clergy; (3) the Mass a sacrifice; (4) compulsory confession; (5) festivals and fasts; (6) monastic vows; (7) secular authority exercised by bishops.
See Hastings, Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, art. "Con fessions," § 13, "Confessions in the Lutheran Churches"; Lindsay, History of the Reformation, vol. i., bk. ii., ch. v.; Beard, The Ref ormation in Relation to Modern Thought and Knowledge; Herzog Hauck, Realencyklopadie, art. "Augsburger Bekenntniss," with refer ences to Continental writers. On the history of the text of the Confession, see Muller, Die symbolischen Bucher der evangelisch lutherischen Kirche (1907). The text presented at the Diet is known as the Invariata, and the edition revised by Melancthon and issued in 1 540 as the Variata—the former being authoritative for Lutheranism.