[436] So Dr. W. Hoffmann, late Court Chaplain of the Emperor of Germany (Deutschland Einst und Jetzt im Lichte des Reiches Gottes, Berlin, 1868, pp. 476 sqq. and 512 sqq.); Consistorialrath Leop. Schultze (Die Augsb. Confession als Gesammtlbekenntniss unserer evang. Landeskirche, Bremen, 1869); to some extent also Prof. Zöckler (l.c. p. 330), who proposes that the Augsburg Confession be made, not indeed the Union Symbol, but the Confederation Symbol of German Evangelical Christendom.
[437] See the details in Weber, Köllner, and Bindseil.
[438] Corp. Reform. Vol. XXVI. p. 205.
[439] The Latin text of the Book of Concord is substantially from Melanchthon's quarto edition of 1531, and was supposed to correspond entirely with an imaginary Latin manuscript in Mayence. The German text purports to be a true copy of the original manuscript in Mayence, but is derived from a secondary source, viz., the printed text in the Corpus Brandenburgicum, 1572, which, again, was based upon a carelessly written copy of the Confession before its final revision. Chancellor Pfaff, of Tübingen, first discovered at Mayence that the original German copy was lost long ago, and he published, in 1730, what was regarded as a true copy of the original; but he was fiercely assailed by Adami, Feuerlin, and others, and his discovery traced to a Jesuitical lie. In 1781 Georg Gottlieb Weber, chief pastor at Weimar, was allowed to make a thorough search in the archives of Mayence, and found to his surprise that the copy shown him as the original was the printed German octavo edition of 1540, bearing on the title-page the words 'Wittenberg, M.D.X.L.' He published the results of his patient investigation in his Kritische Geschichte der Augsb. Confession aus archival. Nachrichten, Frankf. a. M. 1783-4, 2 vols.
[440] The various readings in Bindseil's edition, in the Corpus Reformatorum, cover as much space as the text itself.
[441] Comp. the concluding words: 'Si quid in hoc confessione desiderabitur, parati sumus latiorem informationem, Deo volente, juxta Scripturas exhibere.'
[442] Under the title: 'Confessio Fidei | exhibita invictiss. Imp. Carolo V. | Cæsaris Aug. in Comiciis | Augustæ, | Anno | M.D.X.X.X. | Addita est Apologia Confessionis. | Beide, Deutsch | und Latinisch. | Ps. 119. | Et loquebar de testimoniis tuis in conspectu Regum, et non confundebar. | Witebergæ.' (In 4). At the end: 'Impressum per Georgiam Rhau. | M.D.X.X.X.I.' This is the title of the copy in the royal library at Dresden, which Melanchthon gave to Luther, with the words, in his own handwriting (below the title): 'D. Doctari Martino. Et rogo ut legat et emendet.' See Corp. Ref. Vol. XXVI. p. 235. Bindseil (pp. 246 sqq.) shows that the Confession was already printed (but not issued) in November, 1530, and that the whole volume, with the Apology, was finished in April or May, 1531. Some copies of the printed Confession seem to have reached Augsburg before the close of the Diet.
[443] He wrote to Joachim Camerarius, June 26 (a day after the delivery at Augsburg): 'Ego mutabam et refingebam pleraque quotidie, plura etiam mulaturus, si nostri sumphradmones [counselors] permisissent.' Corp. Ref. II. p. 140. Kaiser has shown that Melanchthon made a number of changes in the first edition--Beitrag zu einer Kritischen Literär-Geschichte der Melanchthonischen Original-Ausgabe der lat. und deutsch. Augsb. Conf. und Apologie, Nürnberg, 1830. Comp. Köllner, l.c. I. p. 340, and Corp. Ref. Vol. XXVI. pp. 251 sqq.
[444] Luther, who took similar liberty with the Smalcald Articles, expresses no judgment, in his writings, on these variations; but he must have known of them, and tolerated them as unessential, even those of 1540, which appeared six years before his death. The sayings attributed to him on this subject by both parties are apocryphal, at all events unreliable, viz., the word of censure: 'Philippe, Philippe, ihr thut nicht recht, dass ihr Augustanam Confessionem so oft ändert; denn es ist nicht euer, sondern der Kirchen Buch;' and the word of indirect approval (1546): 'Lieber Philipp, ich muss es bekennen, der Sache vom Abendmahl ist viel zu viel gethan' (the matter of the Lord's Supper has been much overdone). The latter utterance, however, which Luther is reported to have made shortly before his death, has received a high degree of probability by the discovery of the testimony of Pastor Hardenberg, of Bremen (1547-1550), who publicly and solemnly declared to have heard it, together with another living witness (Canon Herbert von Langen, at Bremen), from Melanchthon's own lips. See Erlanger Reform. Kirchenzeitung for 1853, No. 40. The first Lutheran divine who publicly censured and condemned the Variata was Flacius, at the colloquy of Weimar, 1560. He was followed by Mörlin, Stössel, Wigand, Chytræus, Heshusius, and others.
[445] Under the title (as given in Corp. Reform. l.c. p. 243): 'Confessio | Fidei exhibita | invictiss. imp. Carolo | V. Cæsari Aug. in Comiciis | Augustæ. | Anno. M.D.X.X.X. Addita et Apologia Confessionis diligenter recognita. | Psalmo CXIX. | Vitebergæ, 1540.' The words diligenter recognita (in the German edition, mit vleis emendirt) openly indicate the changes.
[446] The best text of the Variata, with the variations of later editions, is given in Corp. Reform. Vol. XXVI. pp. 349 sqq.; the history in Köllner, I. pp. 235-267, and the books there quoted; also in Zöckler, l.c. pp. 35 sqq. In Vol. II. of this Symb. Library the principal changes are noted in foot-notes under the text of the Confession.
[447] In Art. 4, 5, 6, 18, 20, 21, of Part First, and the order of the first five articles in Part Second.
[448] In Art. 4, 5, 10, 18, 20.
[449] Zöckler, l.c. p. 38, thinks that the Calvinistic view would require credentibus instead of vescentibus. This would be true, if the original distribuantur had been retained, and not exchanged for the more indefinite exhibeantur. He admits, however, that the tenth article is 'calvinisirend' and 'bucerianisirend' in the sense of the Wittenberg Concordia of 1536, whereby Bucer, with Melanchthon's express co-operation, and the subsequent consent of Calvin, endeavored to unite the Lutherans and the Swiss.
[450] The German text of 1530 (1531) differs from the Latin, and is even stronger: 'Vom Abendmahl des Herrn wird also gelehret, dass wahrer Leib (the true body) und Blut Christi wahrhaftiglich (corresponding to the vere in the Latin text) unter (der) gestalt (under the form) des Brots und Weins im Abendmahl gegenwärtig sei, und da ausgetheilt und genommen wird (distributed and received). Derhalben wird auch die Gegenlehr verworfen.'
[451] See Weber, l.c. II. pp. 214-336; Köllner, l.c. pp. 248 sqq.
[452] Instrum. Pacis Osnabr. Art. VII. § 1: 'Unanimi quoque . . . consensu placuit, ut quicquid publica hæc transactio, in eaque decisio gravaminum ceteris Calholicis, et Augustanæ Conf. Addictis statibus et subditis tribuunt, it etiam iis, qui inter illos Reformati vocantur, competere debeat.' Quoted by Jacobson in art. Westf. Friede, in Herzog's Real-Encycl. XVIII. p. 24. Nevertheless, some interpreted this decree as including only such of the Reformed as subscribed the Invariata. All other Christians are expressly excluded by the Treaty; and yet the Popes have always, though vainly, protested in the strongest terms (damnamus, reprobamus, cassamus, annullamus, vacuamus) even against this partial concession to the principle of religious freedom; taking the ground that Papists alone have a legal right to exist on German soil. See Gieseler, Lehrbuch der K. G. III. I. p. 431 sq.
[453] An attempt was made in the Bavarian Palatinate, in 1853, through the influence of Dr. Ebrard, to raise the Variata to the dignity of a symbolical book, but it proved abortive.