itz, and before its publication also submitted to other
theologians for their approval, this guardedly written _Apology_, also
called the Erfurt Book, gained considerable authority and influence.

The Preface of this Erfurt Book enumerates, besides the Christian
Admonition of Ursinus and the Neustadt theologians, the following
writings published against the _Formula of Concord_: 1. _Opinion and
Apology_ (_Bedencken und Apologie_) of Some Anhalt Theologians; 2.
_Defense_ (_Verantwortung_) of the Bremen Preachers; Christian Irenaeus
on Original Sin; _Nova Novorum_ ("ein famos Libell"); other libelli,
satyrae et pasquilli; _Calumniae et Scurrilia Convitia of Brother Nass_
(_Bruder Nass_); and the history of the _Augsburg Confession_ by
Ambrosius Wolf, in which the author asserts that from the beginning the
doctrine of Zwingli and Calvin predominated in all Protestant churches.
The theologians of Neustadt, Bremen, and Anhalt replied to the Erfurt
Apology; which, in turn, called forth counter-replies from the
Lutherans. Beza wrote: _Refutation of the Dogma Concerning the
Fictitious Omnipresence of the Flesh of Christ_. In 1607 Hospinian
published his _Concordia Discors_," [tr. note: sic on punctuation] to
which Hutter replied in his _Concordia Concors_. The papal detractors of
the _Formula_ were led by the Jesuit Cardinal Bellarmin, who in 1589
published his _Judgment of the Book of Concord_.

292. Modern Strictures on Formula of Concord.

Down to the present day the _Formula of Concord_ has been assailed
particularly by unionistic and Reformed opponents of true Lutheranism.
Schaff criticizes: "Religion was confounded with theology, piety with
orthodoxy, and orthodoxy with an exclusive confessionalism." (1, 259.)
However, the subjects treated in the _Formula_ are the most vital
doctrines of the Christian religion: concerning sin and grace, the
person and work of Christ, justification and faith, the means of grace,
--truths without which neither Christian theology nor Christian religion
can remain; "Here, then," says Schmauk, "is the one symbol of the ages
which treats almost exclusively of Christ--of His work, His presence,
His person. Here is the Christ-symbol of the Lutheran Church. One might
almost say that the _Formula of Concord_ is a developed witness of
Luther's explanation of the Second and Third Articles of the Apostles'
Creed, meeting the modern errors of Protestantism, those cropping up
from the sixteenth to the