The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Confession of Faith, by Various

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Title: The Confession of Faith
Which Was Submitted to His Imperial Majesty Charles V At
the Diet of Augsburg in the Year 1530 by Philip Melanchthon,
1497-1560

Author: Various

Release Date: June 29, 2008 [EBook #275]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CONFESSION OF FAITH ***

Produced by Allen Mulvey

THE AUGSBURG CONFESSION

The Confession of Faith:
Which Was Submitted to His Imperial Majesty Charles V
At the Diet of Augsburg in the Year 1530
by Philip Melanchthon, 1497-1560

PREFACE TO THE EMPEROR CHARLES V.

Most Invincible Emperor, Caesar Augustus, Most Clement Lord: Inasmuch as
Your Imperial Majesty has summoned a Diet of the Empire here at Augsburg
to deliberate concerning measures against the Turk, that most atrocious,
hereditary, and ancient enemy of the Christian name and religion, in
what way, namely, effectually to withstand his furor and assaults
by strong and lasting military provision; and then also concerning
dissensions in the matter of our holy religion and Christian Faith, that
in this matter of religion the opinions and judgments of the parties
might be heard in each other's presence; and considered and weighed
among ourselves in mutual charity, leniency, and kindness, in order
that, after the removal and correction of such things as have been
treated and understood in a different manner in the writings on either
side, these matters may be settled and brought back to one simple truth
and Christian concord, that for the future one pure and true religion
may be embraced and maintained by us, that as we all are under one
Christ and do battle under Him, so we may be able also to live in unity
and concord in the one Christian Church.

And inasmuch as we, the undersigned Elector and Princes, with others
joined with us, have been called to the aforesaid Diet the same as the
other Electors, Princes, and Estates, in obedient compliance with the
Imperial mandate, we have promptly come to Augsburg, and--what we do not
mean to say as boasting--we were amon