and to stir them up against the magistrate; that he had caused greater devastation among them than
the Turks, Tartars, and Huns; that he had turned the churches and convents founded by the
Habsburgers (the Emperor’s ancestors) into temples of Venus and Bacchus; and that he now
completed his criminal career by daring to appear before the Emperor with such an impudent piece
of writing.
The Lutherans (with the exception of Philip of Hesse) were scarcely less indignant, and
much more anxious to conciliate the Catholics than to appear in league with Zwinglians and
Anabaptists. They felt especially offended that the Swiss Reformer took strong ground against the
corporal presence, and incidentally alluded to them as persons who "were looking back to the
flesh-pots of Egypt." Melanchthon judged him insane.
Zwingli, having had no time to consult with his confederates, offered the Confession in his
own name, and submitted it to the judgment of the whole church of Christ, under the guidance of
the Word of God and the Holy Spirit.
In the first sections he declares, as clearly as and even more explicitly than the Lutheran
Confession, his faith in the orthodox doctrines of the Trinity and the Person of Christ, as laid down
in the Nicene and Athanasian Creeds (which are expressly named). He teaches the election by free
grace, the sole and sufficient satisfaction by Christ, and justification by faith, in opposition to all
human mediators and meritorious works. He distinguishes between the internal or invisible, and
the external or visible, church. The former is the company of the elect believers and their children,
and is the bride of Christ; the latter embraces all nominal Christians and their children, and is
beautifully described in the parable of the ten virgins, of whom five were foolish. The word "church"
may also designate a single congregation, as the church in Rome, in Augsburg, in Leyden. The true
church can never err in the foundation of faith. Purgatory he rejects as an injurious fiction, which
sets Christ’s merits at naught. On original sin, the salvation of unbaptized infants, and the sacraments,
he departs much farther from the traditional theology than the Lutherans. He goes into a lengthy
argument against the corporal presence in the eucharist. On the other hand, however, he protests
against being confounded with the Anabaptists, and rejects their views on infant baptism, civil
offices, the sleep of the soul, and universal salvation.
The document is frank and bold, yet dignified and courteous, and concludes thus: "Hinder
not, ye children of men, the spread and growth of the Word of God. Ye can not forbid the grass to
grow. Ye must see that this plant is richly blessed from heaven. Consider not your own wishes, but
the demands of the age concerning the free course of the gospel. Take these words kindly, and
show by your deeds that you are children of God."
§ 123. Luther at the Coburg.
Luther’s Letters from Coburg, April 18 to Oct. 4, 1530, in De Wette, IV. 1–182. Melanchthon’s
Letters to Luther from Augsburg, in the second volume of the "Corpus Reform."
Zitzlaff (Archidiaconus in Wittenberg): Luther auf der Koburg, Wittenberg, 1882 (175 pages).
Köstlin, M. L., II. 198 sqq.