By 1530, when a summit conference of Reformation convened in Augsburg to draw up a common statement of faith, leadership of the movement had begun to pass out of Luther's hands. The reformer was still an outlaw and unable to attend. The task of presenting Lutheranism fell to a young professor of Greek at Wittenberg — Philip Melanchthon. The young scholar drafted the Augsburg Confession signed by Lutheran princes and theologians.

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Once Luther had passed from the scene, a period of bitter theological warfare occurred within Protestantism. There was controversy over such matters as the difference between justification and sanctification; what doctrine was essential or nonessential; faith and works; and the nature of the real presence at the eucharist.

This is the period when Lutheranism developed — something which Luther foresaw and condemned. The Book of Concord, which sets out what we now understand as theranism, was published in 1580. It included Melanchthon's Augsburg Confession and Augsburg Apology; Luthers's two Catechisms and the Schmalkald Articles (drawn up in 1537); and the Formula of Concord. Some of the Lutheran theologians drove large numbers of people over to the Calvinist church through their dogmatism. The Calvinists in Germany adopted the Heidelberg Confession as their statement of faith.

The tragic Thirty Years' War perpetuated political strife in Germany in the seventeenth century, until

On Luther's death, Philip Melanchthon (1497-1560) took over the theological leadership of the movement he had begun. Melanchthon taught Greek, first in Tubingen, then at the University of Wittenberg. There in 1518 he met Luther, changing Melanchthon from a humanist into a theologian and reformer. Gifted for logical consistency and wide knowledge of history, Melanchthon's influence on Protestantism was in certain ways even greater than Luther's.

Melanchthon publicly supported Luther at the Leipzig Disputation (1519). When Luther was away from Wittenberg, Philip represented and defended him. In 1521, he wrote the Commonplaces (Loci Communes), the first book which described the teachings of the Reformation. He also contributed to Luther's German translation of the Bible.

At Marbur (1529) Melanchthon opposed Zwingli. He claimed that the service of holy communion was more than a memorial. Melancththon was responsible for the Augsburg Confession (1530), which remains the chief statement of faith