Apology of the Augsburg Confession

The Apology of the Augsburg Confession (Abbreviation: AC; Latin Apologia Confessionis Augustanæ ) is the Apology of the Augsburg Confession (CA ) against the objections brought forward in the Confutatio Augustana arguments of the Catholics. In charge was Philipp Melanchthon, but with noticeable influence of Martin Luther.

The AC should be presented to the Emperor Charles V at the Diet of Augsburg originally, but was rejected by the latter. Their first release was the end of April 1531.

The AC was officially declared in 1537 on the Schmalkaldic Convention on the confession of the Protestants.

History

The roots of the AC are the so-called Augsburg Apology to the emperor Charles V. should be passed to the Diet of Augsburg on 22 September 1530 but this was rejected by the latter. The Apology of the Augsburg had the Confutatio only on the basis of transcripts of knowledge, which were made during the reading of the Confutation of the Augsburg Diet of Protestant theologians.

This Augsburg Apology of Melanchthon was extended until January 1531 so-called " preliminary " in which he could also consider a written copy of the Confutation. However, it came to reject this preliminary draft by Melanchthon.

The lines of argument in both the Augsburg Apology and the " preliminary draft " were incorporated into the fourth edition, which was the end of April 1531 published by Georg Rhau as a double issue with the CA.

This was followed in September, the so-called octavo edition, which was revised v. a content in the justification articles. You should in 1584 the fourth edition of the Lutheran Book of Concord displace the grounds that they would offer the more primitive text and stand closer to the Lutheran doctrine.

Content

AC how the CA 28, the same items, which are, however, handled in much more detail. Especially the articles that deal with the doctrine of justification (Art. 4, 12, 20 ), were grown considerably in scope: they make up almost half of the total AC from.

The AC was by Melanchthon with a certain cynicism as disputatio brevis ( " short argument " ) refers to what it is not 300 printed pages, of course. They can rather be described as " theological treatise " or "comment".

The AC is contrary to the assumptions hardly the issues raised in the Confutatio arguments, but they developed a doctrine of justification in contrast to the younger scholastics such as Gabriel Biel, who are attacked as the main enemy. Her tone is very aggressive, the opponents are denounced as ungodly and the fanatics and also explicitly condemned. The own position is represented frequently as the no argument Needing, understandable and clear teaching.