THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
The Lutheran Church acknowledges the three ecumenical creeds (the Apostles', the Nicene, and the Athanasian), which it holds in common with other orthodox churches, and, besides, six specific confessions which separate it from other churches. These are: (1) The Augsburg Confes-
2. Creed sion (see Augsburg Confession and and its Apology), drawn up by Melanch- Theology. thon and presented to the Augsburg Diet in 1530, afterward altered by the author in the tenth article, on the Lord's Supper, 1540. This is the fundamental and most widely accepted confession of this church; some branches accept no other as binding. (2) The Apology of the Augsburg Confession, also by Melanchthon (1530). (3) and (4) Two catechisms of Luther (1529), a Larger and a Smaller (see Catechisms; Luther's Two Catechisms); the latter, for children and catechumens, is, next to Luther's German Version of the Bible (see Bible Versions, B, VII., § 3), his most useful and best-known work. (5) The Schmalkald Articles (q.v.) by Luther (1529; strongly antipapal). (6) The Formula of Concord (q.v.), prepared by six Lutheran divines for the settlement of the Melanchthonian or synergistic controversy (see Synergism), the Crypto- Calvinistic controversy (see Philippists), and other doctrinaf disputes which agitated the Lutheran Church after the death of Luther and Melanchthon. These nine symbolical books, including the three ecumenical creedsJ were officially published by order of Elector ^Augustus of Saxony, in Latin and German, under the title Concordia (Leipsic and Dresden, 1580; best editions, outside the editio princeps, by J. G. Walch, Jena, 1750, and J. F. Muller, 6th ed., 1886; best Eng. transl. by H. E. Jacobs, The Book of Concord, Philadelphia, 1893).
Two tendencies have always been in evidence in the Lutheran Church in its relation to the Reformed or Calvinistic Churches — one rigid and exclusive, which is represented by the Formula of Concord, the Lutheran scholastics of the seventeenth century, and the " New Lutheran " school 3. Relation in Germany; the other moderate and
to the conciliatory, represented by the al- Reformed tered Augsburg Confession of 1540, by
Church. Melanchthon in his later period after the death of Luther, Calixtus, John Arndt, Spener, Francke, Mosheim, the Swabian Lutherans, and those moderate Lutheran divines who sympathize with the Union and regard the differences between the two confessions as unessential and insufficient to justify separation and exclusion from communion at the Lord's table. [The Lutheran Church is, next to the Church of England, the most conservative of the Protestant denominations, and retains many usages and ceremonies of the Middle Ages which the more radical zeal of Zwingli, Calvin ,~ and Knox threw overboard as unscriptural corruptions. tThe strict Lutheran creed differs from the Reformed or Calvinistic in four points (as detailed in the semi-symbolical Saxon Visitation Articles of 1592), viz.: (1) Baptismal regeneration, and the ordinary necessity of baptism for salvation, (2) The real presence of Christ's
body and blood " in, with, and under " the bread and wine during the sacramental fruition, usually called by English writers Consubstantiation (q.v.), in distinction from the Roman Catholic Transubstantiation (q.v.); but the term is not used in the Lutheran symbols and is rejected by the Lutheran divines, as well as the term " Impanation " (q.v.). Body and blood are not mixed with nor locally included in, but sacramentally and mysteriously united with, the elements. (3) The Communicatio Idiomatum (q.v.) in the doctrine of Christ's person, whereby the attributes of the divine nature are attributed to his human nature, so that Ubiquity (q.v.), or conditional omnipresence, is ascribed to the body of Christ, enabling it to be really and truly, though not locally and carnally, present wherever the communion is celebrated. (4) The universal vocation of all men to salvation, with the possibility of a total and final fall from grace; yet the Formula of Concord teaches at the same time (with Luther, De servo arbitrio) the total depravity and slavery of the human will, and an unconditional predestination of the elect to everlasting life. It is therefore a great mistake to identify the Lutheran system with the later Arminian theory. Melanchthon's synergism may be said to have anticipated Arminianism, but it was condemned by the_Formula of Concordf.
The foundation oFthe ritual of the Lutheran Church was laid in Luther's work Von ordenung gottes dienst ynn der gemeyne (Wittenberg, 1523), and his Latin and German missals (1523, 1526). It was his intention to retain all that was good in the service of the Roman Catholic
4. Ritual Church, while discarding all unevanand gelical doctrines and practisesj Thus,
Worship, in his Latin and German litanies, which were in use in 1529 at Wittenberg, he made certain corrections and additions. The Lutheran Church uses a liturgy. The first complete form, or Agenda, was that of the Duchy of Prussia, 1525 (see Agenda for a history of Lutheran liturgy). There is no authoritative form for the whole Church.; A movement was set, on foot in 1817 by Frederick William III. of Prussia to introduce a uniform Agenda, but it created intense excitement and caused the Old-Lutheran secession (see below, II.). The various states of Germany have their own forms, which_differ, however, only in minor particulars. IHLuther introduced the use of the vernacular into the public services, restored preaching to its proper place, and insisted upon the participation of the congregation in the services, declaring " common prayer exceedingly useful and healthful." He rejected auricular confession | as practised and required in the Roman Catholic Church, but advocated private and voluntary confession., This practise has been mostly given up. The rite' of exorcism, which the Reformed Churches abandoned, was retained and recommended by Luther and Melanchthon. Hesshusius, in 1583, was the first to propose its omission, and it ha^_£ince fallen into disuse in the Lutheran Church. The popular use of hymns was introduced by Luther, who was himself an enthusiastic singer, and by his own hymns became the