lusively that they had abandoned the _Augsburg
Confession_ to the adherents of which alone the provisions of the
Augsburg Peace of 1555 applied. At the same time they embraced the
opportunity to spread false reports concerning all manner of heresies
that were tolerated in the Lutheran churches. This roused the Lutheran
princes, who according to the Augsburg Peace Treaty were responsible to
the Empire for the religious conditions within their territories, to
bend all their energies toward healing the breach and restoring
religious unity within their churches. Efforts to this effect were made
especially at Frankfort-on-the-Main, 1558, and at Naumburg, 1561. But
instead of promoting peace among the Lutherans also these conventions of
the princes merely poured oil into the flames by adding new subjects of
dissension, increasing the general distrust, and confirming the
conviction that Luther's doctrine of the Lord's Supper was in danger
indeed. For, instead of insisting on a clear confession of the truth and
an unequivocal rejection of error, the princes endeavored to establish
peace by ignoring, veiling, and compromising the differences.

At Frankfort, Otto Henry of the Palatinate, Augustus of Saxony, Joachim
of Brandenburg, Wolfgang of Zweibruecken, Christopher of Wuerttemberg,
and Philip of Hesse discussed the religious situation and, on March 18,
1558, signed the so-called _Frankfort Recess_ (Agreement), in which they
again solemnly pledged their adherence to the Holy Scriptures, the
Ecumenical Symbols, the _Augsburg Confession_ of 1530, and its
_Apology_. (_C. R._ 9, 494.) In the _Recess_ the princes stated that the
existing dissensions encouraged the Romanists to proceed against the
Lutherans, who, the princes declared, were not disagreed in their
confession. In four articles the controverted questions concerning
justification, good works, the Lord's Supper, and the adiaphora were
dealt with, but in vague and ambiguous terms, the articles being based
on Melanchthon's anti-Flacian opinion of March 4, 1558. (499ff.; 462ff.)

When the _Frankfort Recess_ was submitted for subscription to the
estates who had not been present at Frankfort, it failed to receive the
expected approval. It was criticized by the theologians of Anhalt,
Henneberg, Mecklenburg, Pomerania, the Lower Saxon cities, and
Regensburg. The strongest opposition, however, came from Ducal Saxony,
where Flacius attacked the _Recess_ in two books. The first was