718 THE GERMAN REFORMATION. A.D. 1517 To 1580.
interpretation of the Augsburg Confession, by the author himself.
The Apology, though not signed by the Lutheran princes at Augsburg, was recognized first in 1532, at a convent in Schweinfurt, as a public confession ; it was signed by Lutheran divines at Smalcald, 1537; it was used at the religious conference at Worms, 1540, and embodied in the various editions of the Confession, and at last in the Book of Concord, 1580. |
The text of the Apology has, like that of the Confession, gone through various transformations, which are used by Bossuet and other Romanists as proofs of the changeableness of Protestantism. The original draught made at Augsburg has no authority, as it was based on fragmentary notes of . Camerarius and others who heard the Confutation read on the 8d of August.! The first Latin edition was much enlarged and improved; the German translation was prepared by Justus Jonas, assisted by Melanchthon, but differs widely from the Latin.2, Both were published together with the Augsburg Confession in October, 15381. Changes were made in subsequent editions, both of the Latin original and the German translation, especially in the edition of 1540. Hence there is an Apologia invariata and an Apologia variata, as well as a Confessio invariata and a Confessio variata. The Book of Concord took both texts from the first edition.
§ 121. The Tetrapolitan Confession.
J. Editions. The Latin text was first printed at Strassburg (Argentoratum), A.D. 1581, Sept. (21 leaves); then in the Corpus et Syntagma Confess. (1612 and 1654); in Aveusti’s Corpus libr. symb. (1827), p. 327 sqq.; and in NIEMEYER’S Collect. Confess. (1840), p. 740-770; comp. Proleg., p. LXXXIII.
1 Corp. Ref., XX VII. 267 sqq. Melanchthon himself did not hear it.
3 Tbid., 379 sqq.; XXVIII. 1 sqq.
8 See on the different editions the ‘‘ Corp. Ref.,’? XX VI. 697 sqq. and XXVII. 379 sqq.; the Latin text of 1531, p. 419 sqq.; the German trans- lation with the variations of ed. II. (1533), ed. III. and IV. (1540), ed. V. (1550), ed. VI. (1556), in vol. XXVIII. 37-326.
§ 121. THE TETRAPOLITAN CONFESSION. 119
The German text appeared first at Strassburg, Aug. 1531 (together with the Apology, 72 leaves); then again, 1579, ed. by JouHn STURM, but was suppressed by the magistrate, 1580; at Zweibriicken, 1604; in Brcxk’s Symbol. Bicher, vol. I., p. 401 sq.; in BOcKEL’s Bekenntniss- Schriften der evang. reform. Kirche (1847), p. 363 sq.
II. Gorrt. WERNSDORFF: Historia Confessionis Tetrapolitane, Wittenb. 1694, ed. 1V. 1721. SCHELHORN: Amenitates litter., Tom. VI., Francf. 1727. J. H. Fews: Dissert. de varia Confess. Tetrapolitane fortuna presertim in civitate Lindaviensi, Gotting. 1755. PLANCK: Geschichte des protest. Lehrbegriffs, vol. I1I., Part I. (second ed. 1796), pp. 68-94. J. W. ROHRICH: Geschichte der evangel. Kirche des Elsasses. Strassburg, 1855, 3 vols. J. W. Baum: Capito und Butzer (Elberf. 1860), p. 466 sqq. and 595. ScuarF: Creeds, I. 524-529.
The Tetrapolitan Confession, also called the Strassburg and the Swabian Confession, is the oldest confession of the Reformed Church in Germany, and represented the faith of four imperial cities, Strassburg, Constance, Memmingen, and Lindau, which at that time sympathized with Zwingli and the Swiss, rather than Luther, on the doctrine of the sacraments.
It was prepared in great haste, during the sessions of the Diet of Augsburg, by Bucer, with the aid of Capito and Hedio, in the name of those four cities (hence the name) which were excluded by the Lutherans from their political and theological conferences, and from the Protestant League. They would greatly have preferred to unite with them, and to sign the Augsburg Confession, with the exception of the tenth article on the eucharist, but were forbidden. The Landgrave Philip of Hesse was the only one who, from a broad, statesmanlike view of the critical situation, favored a solid union of the Protestants against the common foe, but in vain. :
Hence, after the Lutherans had presented their Confession June 25, and Zwingli his own July 8, the four cities handed theirs, July 11, to the Emperor in German and Latin. It was received very ungraciously, and not allowed to be read before the Diet; but a confutation full of misrepresentations was prepared by Faber, Eck, and Cochleus, and read Oct. 24