AUGSBURG. CONFESSION OF. The most important confession of faith in the Lutheran Church, called in Latin " C,onfessio Augustan." In order to compose religious differences, Charles V. summoned a Diet of the States of the German Empire to meet at Augsburg in 1530. The Elector, John of Saxony, in view of this meeting, commissioned the Wittenberg theologians to draft articles of faith and present them to him at Torgau. In the execution of their task, these made use of articles which had been drawn up in Latin and German at Swabach and Marburg shortly before. The articles laid before the Elector at Torgau were in turn used by Philipp Melanchthon (A.D. 1497-1560), when, with the help of other theologians, he framed the Confession of Augsburg, which in Latin and German was presented to the Emperor on the 25th of June, 1530. It was intended to be a con ciliatory statement of the beliefs of the Lutheran Pro testants drawn up in such a way as to show as little divergence as possible from Catholic views. The Con fession consists of two divisions. The first contains twenty-one articles of faith; the second consists of seven declarations or protests against abuses in the Roman Catholic Church. The twenty-one articles deal with the following matters : 1. God and the Trinity; 2. Original Sin; 3. The Son of God, the Incarnation, the Atonement, the Descent to Hell, the Ascension, the Second Coming; 4. Justification by Faith; 5. The Ministration of the Word and the Sacraments; 6. Obedience to God; 7. The One Church, its unity of doctrine and sacraments; 8. The Church, Its Sacraments effective, even when administered by evil persons; 9. Baptism and the need of Infant Baptism; 10. The Lord's Supper, and the real presence of the Body and Blood of Christ; 11. Confession, its
private use allowed; 12. Penance, contrition to be accom panied by good works; 13. The Use of the Sacraments, need of faith in their promises; 14. Cburch Government, duly appointed ministers; 15. Church Order, universal observance of Church Ceremonies; 16. Secular Govern ment, legitimate authority of civil magistrates; 17. Christ's Second Coming to judgment; 18. Free-will and the Holy Spirit; 19. The cause of Sin, not in God; 20. Faith and Good Works, and the merit of Christ's sacrifice; 21. The Merits of the Saints as objects of imitation. The declarations against abuses deal with the following matters : 1. Withholding the Cup from the laity; 2. Compulsory Celibacy of the Clergy; 3. The Say ing of Masses for money; 4. The Enumeration of sins in Auricular Confession; 5. Distinctions of Meat in Fasting; 6. Irrevocable Conventual Vows; 7. The Authority of Bishops, its growth and secular use. The Confession was too Protestant to please the Catholics, and too Catholic to please the Anabaptists and Swiss Reformers; but it was accepted by the Lutherans. Melanchthon afterwards thought himself at liberty to make certain changes, and in 1540, with the idea of re conciling Calvinists and Lutherans, he published a new edition in Latin (Oonfessio Variata). The Orthodox Lutherans would not accept these alterations, and the " C,onfessio invariata " became their standard. Both forms of the Confession, however, came to be recognised by the Reformed Churches of Germany. See the edition of the Confession by Th. Kolde (1896); also Brockbaus; J. H. Blunt: Chambers' Encycl.