From the Diet of Worms to the Augsburg Confession - James Aitken Wylie

was the culmination of the movement on German
soil. It was the proudest hour of the Lutheran
Church. To this point the labors of Luther and of
the forces that operated around him had tended,
and now that it was reached, the crown was put
upon the theological development. The Augsburg
Confession was not a perfectly accurate statement
of Scripture truth by any means, but as a first
attempt, made before the Reformation had
completed its second decade, it was a marvellous
effort, and has not been cast into the shade by even
the noblest of those Confessions which have since
followed it, and for which it so largely helped to
prepare the way. When this Confession was laid on
the imperial table, the movement had no longer
Luther as its sole or chief embodiment. The
Reformation now stood before the world in a body
of Articles, drawn from the Bible, and
comprehensively embracing those principles which
God has made known as a basis of justice and
order to nations, and the means of renewal and
eternal life to individuals; and whatever might
become of Luther, though he were this moment to
be offered as a martyr, or, which was possible but
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