Tetrapolitan Confession

The Confessio Tetrapolitana ( Four cities Confession ) is one of the first Reformed confessions and had a great importance in the division of the Christian churches.

The Confessio Tetrapolitana was made for the Diet of Augsburg in 1530 to present the Upper German Protestant position. The Upper German imperial cities of Strasbourg, Memmingen, Lindau and Konstanz had refused to consent to the Augsburg Confession by Philipp Melanchthon because of the Lutheran doctrine of the Eucharist, and instead submitted the written by Martin Bucer and Wolfgang Capito Confessio Tetrapolitana.

The Confessio Tetrapolitana is similar to the Augsburg Confession. Theologically, it holds a mediating position between Martin Luther and the Swiss reformer Ulrich Zwingli, who presented a private confession with Fidei ratio ad Carolum imperatorem especially in the sacraments. The Confessio Tetrapolitana particularly emphasizes the importance of Scripture as the sole source of evangelical doctrine. The differences to the Lutheran Confessions relate not only to the rejection of the doctrine of the sacraments images and the importance of good works as a service to others for the faith. But also from the Zwinglian doctrine that sees only a memorial of the Lord's Supper, it differs by not completely reject the Real Presence of Christ in the Supper, but raises it to a spiritual level.

The Confessio Tetrapolitana was not publicly read. In order not to lose the connection to the Lutheran estates and to be included in the Smalcald League, raised Strasbourg in 1532 next to the Confessio Tetrapolitana the Augsburg Confession of faith standard.