followed by the signatures of seven princes and two magistrates. Several manuscript copies omit
both preface and epilogue, as not properly belonging to the Confession.
Space forbids us to discuss the questions of the text, and the important variations of the
Unaltered Confession of 1530, and the Altered Confession of 1540, which embodies the last
improvements of its author, but has only a semi-official character and weight within the Lutheran
Church.^970
§ 120. The Roman Confutation and the Protestant Apology.
I. Corpus Reformatorum (Melanchthonis Opera), ed. by Bretschneider and Bindseil, vol. XXVII.
(1859), 646 columns, and vol. XXVIII. 1–326. These volumes contain the Confutatio
Confessionis Augustanae, and the two editions of Melanchthon’s Apologia Conf. Aug., in Latin
and German, with Prolegomena and critical apparatus. The best and most complete edition.
There are few separate editions of the Apology, but it Is incorporated in all editions of the
Lutheran Symbols; see Lit. in § 119. The Latin text of the Confutatio was first published by A.
Fabricius Leodius in Harmonia Confess. Augustanae, 1573; the German, by C. G. Müller, 1808,
from a copy of the original in the archives of Mainz, which Weber had previously inspected
(Krit. gesch. der Augsb. Conf., II. 439 sqq.).
II. K. Kieser (R. Cath.). Die Augsburger Confession und ihre Widerlegung, Regensburg, 1845.
Hugo Lämmer: Die vor-tridentinisch-katholische Theologie des Reformations-Zeitalters, Berlin,
1858, pp. 33–46. By the same: De Confessonis Augustanae Confutatione Pontificia, in Neidner’s
"Zeitschrift für Hist. Theol.," 1858. (Lämmer, a Lutheran, soon afterwards joined the Roman
Church, and was ordained a priest, 1859, and appointed missionarius apostolicus, 1861.) G.
Plitt (Luth.):Die Apologie der Augustana geschichtlich erklärt, Erlangen, 1873. Schaff: Creeds,
etc., I. 243. The history and literature of the Apology are usually combined with that of the
Confession, as in J. G. Walch, Feuerlin-Riederer, and Köllner.
The Roman "Catholic Confutation," so called, of the Augsburg Confession, was prepared in
Augsburg by order of the Emperor Charles, by the most eminent Roman divines of Germany, and
bitterest opponents of Luther, especially Drs. Eck, Faber, Cochlaeus, in Latin and German.^971 The
final revision, as translated into German, was publicly read before the Emperor and the Diet, in the
chapel of the episcopal palace, Aug. 3, and adopted as the expression of the views of the majority.
The document follows the order of the Augsburg Confession. It approves eighteen doctrinal
articles of the first part, either in full or with some restrictions and qualifications. Even the fourth
article, on justification, escapes censure, and Pelagianism is strongly condemned.^972 The tenth
article, on the Lord’s Supper, is likewise approved as far as it goes, provided only that the presence
(^970) See on these questions Schaff, Creeds, I. 237 sqq., and especially Köllner, Symbolik der luth. Kirche, p. 236 sqq. and 267 sqq.
(^971) The full title is Catholica et quasi-extemporanea Responsio Pontificia seu Confutatio Augustanae Confessionis. The first draught
was verbose and bitter ("verbosior et acrior"); the second, third, fourth, and fifth were briefer and milder.
(^972) The first draught, however, had a lengthy attack upon Luther’s sola fide.