The Conservative Reformation and Its Theology - Saint Mary ...

Augsburg Confession as “the first in time" among our symbols. Twelve
pages after, he corrects himself by mentioning that the Two Catechisms
were published in 1529, a year before the Augsburg Confession. Dr.
Shedd says appreciatively: "The general tone and spirit of the first creed of
the Reformation is a union of firmness and mildness. The characteristics of
Luther and Melanchthon, the two minds most concerned in its formation,
are harmoniously blended in it."
The origin of the Augsburg Confession.
In Dr. Shedd's interesting volumes, we naturally look with most
interest for that which bears upon our own Church. His remarks upon the
origin, character and supposed imperfections of the Augsburg Confession,
may require some examination. Dr. Shedd speaks of the Augsburg
Confession as a public and received Confession of the common faith of the
Protestant Church. Taking the word "Protestant" in its original and strictly
historical sense, this is true, but it is not, nor was it ever the received
Confession of all whom we now call "Protestants." Two counter
Confessions, Zwingli and the Tetrapolitan, were prepared for the Diet of
Augsburg. There are some defects too in Dr. Shedd's statement of the
origin of the Confession. He says: "The process began with a commission
from John, Prince of Saxony, given in March, 1530, to his favorite
theologians, Luther, Justus Jonas, Bugenhagen, and Melanchthon, to
prepare a series of succinct and comprehensive articles to be discussed and
defended as the Protestant form of doctrine." Dr. Shedd's statement in this
sentence is defective, for it does not furnish the reason of this commission,
and it seems inaccurate in making this commission the beginning of the
process which was completed in the laying of the Confession before the
Diet of Augsburg. The ultimate ground-work of the Augsburg Confession
is the Fifteen Articles of Marburg, which were the result of the conference
between the Zwinglians and Lutherans, October, 1529. These are more
closely related to the Seventeen Articles of Schwabach than the
Schwabach Articles are to the Augsburg Confession. The real immediate
beginning of the process was in the summons of the Diet by the Emperor
Charles V., dated January, 1530, in which he stated as one of