Augsburg Confession (1530): The Lutheran Statement of Faith

The Augsburg Confession is the founding statement of faith of the Lutheran churches. Written mainly by Philip Melanchthon, it was read aloud before Emperor Charles V at the Diet of Augsburg on 25 June 1530 on behalf of the evangelical princes and cities of the Holy Roman Empire. Its aim was to show that their teaching was faithful to Scripture and the early Church; instead it became the defining creed of a separate church.

Background

Since the Diet of Worms in 1521, Martin Luther had been an outlaw of the Empire, but many princes and cities had adopted his reforms. Charles V had spent most of the 1520s fighting France and the Ottomans. In 1529 the evangelical estates protested against the Diet of Speyer’s restrictions, and their attempt to unite with the Swiss reformers failed at the Marburg Colloquy.

In January 1530 Charles summoned an imperial diet to Augsburg. His summons promised to hear every side’s opinion in a spirit of goodwill in order to restore religious unity, and to organise resistance to the Ottoman threat after the siege of Vienna in 1529.

Writing the confession

The Elector John of Saxony asked his theologians to prepare a defence of the changes made in his lands. Melanchthon drew on earlier texts, including the Schwabach Articles of 1529 and the Torgau Articles of 1530. At Augsburg he turned them into a confession for all the evangelical estates, softening its tone so as to stress what they shared with Catholic tradition.

Luther, under the imperial ban, could not attend. He stayed at Coburg Castle, at the southern edge of Saxon territory, from April to October 1530, writing letters and reviewing drafts. He approved the text, though he remarked in a letter that he himself could not have written so gently and cautiously.

Presentation on 25 June 1530

Charles V arrived in Augsburg on 15 June. On the afternoon of 25 June, in the chapter room of the bishop’s palace, the Saxon chancellor Christian Beyer read the German text aloud for about two hours. German and Latin copies were then handed to the emperor.

The confession was signed by Elector John of Saxony and his son John Frederick, Margrave George of Brandenburg-Ansbach, Dukes Ernest and Francis of Brunswick-Lüneburg, Landgrave Philip of Hesse and Prince Wolfgang of Anhalt, together with the imperial cities of Nuremberg and Reutlingen. Other cities joined later.

Contents

The confession has 28 articles. The first 21 summarise doctrine: God and the Trinity, original sin, the Son of God, justification by faith, the ministry, the Church, baptism, the Lord’s Supper, confession, repentance and good works. Article 4 states that people are justified before God not by their own merits but freely, for Christ’s sake, through faith.

Articles 22 to 28 defend reforms of practice: giving communion in both bread and wine to the laity, permitting priests to marry, changes to the Mass, confession, fasting rules, monastic vows, and limits on the power of bishops. Article 10 affirmed Christ’s real presence in the Lord’s Supper, clearly separating the Lutherans from the Swiss reformers.

Catholic response

Charles V asked a group of Catholic theologians, including Johann Eck, to reply. Their Confutation was read on 3 August 1530 and the emperor declared the Lutheran position refuted. Melanchthon answered with the Apology of the Augsburg Confession, which the emperor refused to accept.

The diet’s final decree, issued on 19 November 1530, gave the Protestants until 15 April 1531 to return to the Catholic faith. In response, they formed the Schmalkaldic League, a defensive alliance, in February 1531.

Timeline

• 1530, 21 January: Charles V summons the Diet of Augsburg.
• 1530, April: Luther settles at Coburg Castle.
• 1530, 15 June: Charles V arrives in Augsburg.
• 1530, 25 June: The Augsburg Confession is read before the emperor.
• 1530, 3 August: The Catholic Confutation is read.
• 1530, 19 November: The diet’s decree orders the Protestants to submit.
• 1531, 27 February: The Schmalkaldic League is formally concluded.
• 1555, 25 September: The Peace of Augsburg recognises the confession’s adherents.

Legacy

The Peace of Augsburg of 1555 gave legal recognition in the Empire only to Catholics and to adherents of the Augsburg Confession, making the document a legal as well as a religious text. In 1580 it was included in the Book of Concord, the collection of Lutheran confessions.

Melanchthon later revised it, and his altered edition of 1540, the Variata, became the subject of lasting disputes among Lutherans. The unaltered version of 1530 remains the standard confession of Lutheran churches, which number tens of millions of members worldwide. Its anniversary on 25 June is still marked in many Lutheran churches.

Why it matters

The Augsburg Confession gave the Lutheran movement a clear public identity and a common creed. Intended as a bridge to reconciliation with the Catholic Church, it instead became the charter of a separate confession, shaping the religious map and the law of the Holy Roman Empire.