MODERN CONFESSIONS OF FAITH I. New Motives and Forms.—The form of the confessions of the modern period cannot be understood without glancing back for a moment at the middle ages. From the condemnation of Pelagius onwards the western Church reached numerous doctrinal decisions of its own. They have, in part universal validity (e.g., the dogma of Transubstantiation), in part particular validity (the theology of universities and orders). This increasing body of obligatory doctrine was indeed in part embodied in particular obligations (e.g., the oaths in the universities), but formally these obligations were legal in character. The expansion of existing confessions or the formulation of new ones did not take place. The obligatory doctrine had therefore to be collected from a large and not precisely limited series of single doctrinal decisions. Thus side by side with the great extension of obligatory doctrine there is, oddly enough, a standstill in confessional formulation.
Three elements in this development have been important for the confessional formulation of the modern period : (I) The connection of obligatory doctrine with the taking of oaths. Ex amples from the Roman Church : Professio fidei Tridentinae 1564 and tie oath of the Doctores in s. scriptura 191o; from the Lutheran Church : the Wittenberg doctor's oath (probably of 1532) ; from the Church of England the oath in conformity with the Test Act of 1673. (2) The formulation of obligatory doctrine in separate articles. Any Reformation confession will serve as an example, and so too the Tridentine decrees. (3) The detailed elaboration of the separate points of theological doctrine. Yet where these mediaeval elements alone are present the peculiar character of the confession, as a comprehensive whole exhaustive of its kind, is lacking. The inducement for this first arose through the Reformation and the consequent contrast between the newly formed Churches and the Roman Church. Here were contrasts involving the whole system. Here too the conscious return to the sources of obligatory doctrine (scripture alone in the newly formed Churches, scripture and tradition in the Roman Church), and the reflexion upon the points of doctrine fundamental for the whole system, were a determining incentive to confessional formulation.
The new confessions which now arose had to be much lengthier than those of the ancient Church, in the face of both the develop ment of a systematic and scientific theology and of the elaboration of the doctrinal details of the contrasting positions. Hence the primitive form of an expanded and explicated baptismal con fession was insufficiently subdivided to yield the appropriate divisions. Luther attempted to revive it in his personal confession (Works, Weimar ed. xxvi., 500-9), but then himself adopted another course. Thus new forms of the confession arise: 1. Articles of Confession.—In form this is the stringing to gether of a larger or smaller number of articles, which deal either with doctrine alone or with both doctrine and ceremonial to gether. In the genuine articles of confession they together attempt to present a conspectus of scriptural doctrine and scrip tural rites in sharp contrast with all that is anti-scriptural. This aim of providing a comprehensive system makes the articles of confession a true confession. Where articles of confession deal only with single questions, they are a real confession only when they are understood as expanding existing confessions.
II. The Catechism.—This is the exposition of definite things which concern every layman, like the Decalogue, the Apostles' Creed, the Lord's Prayer, and also the sacramental words of Baptism and the Eucharist. It endeavours to further the educa tion of the laity in the confession of the Church and is therefore consciously confined to what is simple and universally intelligible. It had in the i6th and i 7th centuries in fact the significance which the expanded baptismal confessions possessed in the early eastern Church.
Common to both forms is the exclusion of merely academic questions. They limit themselves to what is essential and impor tant according to the new Reformation conceptions of pure evangelical doctrine and faith. Although, however, each is in its own way a complete whole, they are not, either separately or together, the complete basis of the new order. They are that rather in connection with the orders of service. The division between the orders of service and the articles of confession was originally indefinite. There is therefore in the orders of service of the continent something really corresponding to the fact that the Church of England regards as the foundation of its new order not the Thirty-Nine Articles alone but also its Book of Common Prayer.
In this account, however, the Church liturgies and rites will not be dealt with. Moreover little need be said of the Roman Church, for it did little in the way of credal formulation. The Tridentine decrees learned certainly from the Reformation prac tice of embodying the whole system and excluding the purely academic ; yet in general they follow the older type of doctrinal decision. The same holds true of the Vatican Decree. The Cate chismus Romanus of 1566, important as a standard of instruc tion, follows certainly the new form of the confession; it is a counterpart to Luther's larger Catechism.
Of the Eastern Church it will suffice to mention, that in 1642 it adopted in opposition to the ideas of the Reformation its Con f essio orthodoxa.
2. The Lutheran Churches.—(i.) The Augsburg Confession ( Con f essio Augustana), read before the emperor in the Augsburg Diet in the name of the majority of the Evangelical deputies and presented in writing (Latin and German) on June 25, 153o, has become the common confession uniting the Lutheran Churches— not indeed in exactly the form presented to the Emperor, but in a form differing little from it (the Latin text that of the editio princeps of 1531). It bears the subsidiary title of the "Invariata" (unaltered) in contrast to the materially altered form of 1 S4o, the so-called "Variata," which is not recognized by the Lutheran Churches. The C. Augustana owes its great importance to the possibility, along with the Wittenberg Concord of 1536, of unit ing the German Evangelical deputies, and to the imperial recog nition which depended upon this. Till the dissolution of the old Romano-Germanic Empire the existence of the Evangelical Churches depended, formally and legally, upon the C. Augustana. Except that since 1648 the reformed German Churches which accepted only the "Variata" expressly shared this legal protection.
The earlier history of the C. Augustana goes back to the year 1525 and has recently had light thrown upon it by H. v. Schubert and Gussman. Of direct importance for its first part (Faith and Doctrine) are the so-called Schwabach Articles, and the Marburg Articles giving an abbreviated form of them, both of 1529 and for the latter the so-called Torgau Articles of April 153o, composed by the theologians of the EIectorate of Saxony together and in part by Luther himself. The work of composing a common Evangelical Confession out of these materials fell to Melanchthon. He achieved it by moderating as far as possible the contrast with the ancient Church, e.g., the articles on the Pope and Purgatory are omitted. The opposition to the dogma of transubstantiation is similarly dropped in article i o ; the teaching about the invisible Church is removed; even the Evan gelical doctrine of Justification finds only brief expression, re quiring explanation. Hence the C. Augustana, though always highly honoured, very soon no longer sufficed for the growing Lutheran Churches as an expression of their confession and it was supplemented by other confessions.
Contents: I. Faith and Doctrine. i God (Trinity) ; 2 Original Sin ; 3 The Son of God (Incarnation and Redemption) ; 4 Justification; 5 Preaching ; 6 The new obedience ; 7 and 8 Church ; 9 Baptism ; so The Lord's Supper; II Confession; 12 Penance; 13 Use of the Sacraments; 14 Church Government ; 15 Liturgies; 16 Civil Govern ment ; 17 Christ's Return to Judgement ; i8 Free Will; ig The Cause of Sin; 20 Faith and Good Works; 21 Worship of Saints. II. Abuses (with reference to both forms of the Sacrament, the Marriage of Priests, the Mass, Distinction of Meats, Monastic Vows, Authority of Bishops ; in all seven articles) .
For the understanding of the C. Augustana it is necessary, owing to the brevity of its formulations, first to refer to the Schwabach articles and secondly to consider the Apology for the C. Augustana of September 1S3o. The Apology is a defence of Melanchthon's, directed against the Confutatio Pontificia in which the Emperor in August 153o declared the C. Augustana refuted, and it soon attained the authority of a confession.
(ii.) Next to the C. Augustana the most important German Lutheran confession is the Schmalkaldic Articles, composed by Luther himself. When pope Paul III. summoned the council to Mantua in June 1536, the C. Augustana did not at first appear suited to discussion. So Luther in conjunction with Elector John Frederick wrote for it what were later called the Schmalkaldic Articles (Dec. 1S36). They were subscribed by the Wittenberg theologians, and were to have been made the common confession of all Evangelical deputies and theologians at the session at Schmalkalden (Feb. 1S37). Melanchthon, furthered by an illness of Luther's, prevented this, and secured that both his own writings (C. Augustana and Apology) together with an explanatory tract on the papacy should be selected as the official confession. The theologians present only subscribed Luther's articles privately. Luther then issued his articles in 1538 as his personal confession, which were to rank also as his witness after his death. Owing to their content they very soon became the official confession of all the German Lutheran Churches.
The Schmalkaldic Articles are the jewel among the Lutheran confessions. Even their construction is lucidly clear. The first part contains the fundamental tenets of the ancient Church, which are common to the newly formed Churches and to the Roman Church (Trinity and Christology). The second part introduces the great issues connected with the doctrine of redemption, round which the strife turned and on which no compromise was possible: justifica tion by faith only and the rejection of the sacrifice of the mass, monastic vows, and papal authority. The third part contains the particular theological problems in which the consequences of the fundamental issue find expression, and on which learned discussion is possible. For Lutheran Christians the Schmalkaldic Articles are still to-day the point of departure in every exploration of relations with the Roman Church. They will therefore still possess considerable importance in the movement for reunion. At the same time it is in them, more than in any other German Refor mation confession, that the pathos of confession in the early Christian sense is most evident. In Luther's manuscript they bear the motto : hic satis est doctrinae pro vita aeterna.
(iii.) The large and the small Catechisms, both issued by Luther in 1529, cannot be considered in detail here. Suffice it to mention that the German Lutheran Church reckons them also among its confessions, and that the small Catechism became of special importance in this respect in the i 9th century.
(iv.) In addition to these confessions, which won their way everywhere in German Lutheranism, a number of other writings, which cannot here be enumerated, attained the rank of con fessions, mostly for a time only, but some also permanently. The sifting and collection of these writings in Books of Con fession (Corpora doctrinae) was influenced by the disputes which rent the German Evangelical Churches of ter the "Interim" of 1S48, being concerned with the differences between Melanchthon's and Luther's theology. The great majority of the German Churches learned during these conflicts consciously to feel as Lutherans. In Corpora doctrinae collected by them since 1563 in opposition to a Corpus doctrinae representing purely Melanch thon's position, the writings mentioned under (i.) and (ii.) won their way as confessions. The variety of the centres from which these books of confession arose, on the one side, and the need for an end of disputes, on the other, led to the "Book of Con cord" of 158o, which contains, in addition to the classic creeds of antiquity and the confessions mentioned in (i.) to (iii.) above, the "Formula of Concord" completed in 1577. Although a few Lutheran districts, especially in North-west Germany, did not accept the Formula of Concord and the Book of Concord, the two became the characteristic confession of the Lutheran Church. The divergence of the remaining Corpora doctrinae, apart from the failure of the Formula of Concord itself, is of little importance.
This Formula of Concord is the most extensive confessional document of Lutheranism. It deals with a series of twelve con troversial points of doctrine in a twofold form, in an "Abstract" (Epitome) and in a "Fundamental exposition" (Solida declaratio). It has become of decisive importance for the course of Lutheran theology for two reasons : (a) through its acceptance of the doctrine of ubiquity (the doctrine of the omnipresence of the risen Christ according to his manhood), and (b) through its mediation between the doctrines of Predestination of Melanch thon and Luther (the sole-efficacy of grace is clearly maintained, but predestination nevertheless made milder).
(v.) Lutheranism outside Germany formed its own confessions as need arose (C. Hafnica in Denmark, 1530), but sooner or later reached confessional union with German Lutheranism by the adoption of the German Lutheran confessions. In Denmark and Norway under the influence of Christian V. (167o-95) only the C. Augustana and the smaller Catechism, apart from the early Christian creeds, became confessions; but in Sweden the C. Augustana in 1593 and the whole Book of Concord in 1686. American Lutheranism is at one with the strictest German. Lu theranism therefore is, even formally, confessionally very well defined, and national differences play a small part ; the C. Augus tana and the smaller Catechism at least are of world wide validity.
Zwingli's Fidei ratio ad Carolum quintum of 153o is a well defined theological system of so markedly individual a character that it is not adapted to be the confession of a Church. Of all the pre-Calvinist confessions only one is important, the Con f essio Helvetica prior, originating early in 1536 in a general consulta tion of all the Evangelical Swiss Cantons. It possesses two features characteristic of most of the later non-Lutheran "Reformed" con fessions. First it contains extensive explanations about Holy Scripture as the only source of doctrine, and secondly it has a separate article on the doctrine of Predestination.
Two writings of Calvin must be mentioned among the "Re formed" confessions. A. The Geneva Catechism, composed prob ably in 1541, printed in 1545. It has never been an official confession of a "Reformed" Church, but yet has in practice been one of the most formative influences in "Reformed" doctrine. The duty of man is to give glory to God ; but true worship of God embraces four things: (a) to believe in him, (b) to obey him, (c) to call upon him, (d) to recognise him as the source of all good. Therein is contained the underlying idea and division of the Catechism, except that the four points, where more precisely developed, are divided into two parts, the Word of God and Sacra ments. Calvin arranged the two parts of the Catechism as a com plete whole, but the whole is not a system of doctrine, but has a practical religious purpose. B. The Confessio Gallicana of the fundamental confession of the French "Reformed" Church, which was accepted at the national synod in Paris in 1559, some what expanded at La Rochelle in 1571, and is based, according to recent research, upon Calvin's own draft. In 1603 a national synod attempted to add to article 31 a supplement which ex plained that the Pope was Antichrist ; the Catholic government prevented it. Owing to the destruction of the public Evangelical Church in France (1685), the C. Gallicana fell out of use in the "Church of the Wilderness," and it did not regain its old position in the 19th century. So to-day it is only an honoured historical document, the pattern of many other "Reformed" confessions. What is valuable in it, apart from its lucid, systematic, construc tion and its clear language, which make it the best outline of Calvin's theology, is the full development of all the elements of the doctrines of Justification and of the Church.
Contents. I General Idea of God ; 2 Revelation ; 3-6 Holy Scripture; 7 Trinity ; 8 and 9 Creation and Providence; io and II Original Sin; 12 Double Predestination; 13-17 Christ's Person and Work; 18-24 Justification by Faith Only ; 25-33 Church and Word of God; 34-38 Sacraments; 39 and 4o Secular Authority. (Arts. I-9=Institutio Bk. I.; Arts. Io-17=Bk. II.; Arts. 13-24=Bk. III.; Arts. 25-4o=Bk. IV.) Of the remaining reformed confessions the Heidelberg Cate chism, composed by Olevianus and Ursinus, and adopted by the Palatinate synod at Heidelberg in 1563, is still very distinctive. It arranges the material of the Catechism in a systematic whole of three parts (Questions 3-I I Of man's sin and misery, Questions 12-85 Of man's redemption, Questions 86-127 Thankfulness) . This arrangement shows that older German Reformation theology has had great influence ; it is not Calvinism that is the formative principle, Predestination is not dealt with expressly. Of all the "Reformed" confessions of the continent the Heidelberg Cate chism is to-day the most living and operative; a fact accounted for by the penetrating simplicity of its formulation.
There are two interpretations of the Thirty-Nine Articles, an older which expounds them in the sense of the theologians whose work they are, and a newer which understands them from the standpoint of the development of the Church of England towards a strictly catholic position. The older, as the more origi nal and in fact historical, must be represented here. According to it the Thirty-Nine Articles are a true and exhaustive expres sion of the Reformation ideas of the i6th century. Judged accord ing to the articles on Predestination and Sacraments, they belong with the Calvinist confessions, except that they are much milder in expression. In the other articles they reproduce excellently the common convictions of Lutherans and "Reformed" in close asso ciation with the language of the German Reformers. The doctrine of Justification is rendered in Lutheran phrasing. The opposition to the Roman Church is altogether more clearly and definitely ex pressed than in the C. Augustana. The peculiar spirit of the English Reformation betrays itself, apart from the references to the Books of Homilies, particularly clearly in article 37, which denies chief government in the Church to the Pope, and ascribes it to the King's Majesty of England.