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.
[tags]Augsburg-Confession, BlogRodent, church-history, ChurchRodent, history, Lutheranism, Philip, Reformation[/tags]
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
After 1530, when Emperor Charles V attempted to quench the growing Lutheran heresy, the Lutheran princes banded together in 1532 in the Schmalking League, and between 1546 and 1555 a sporadic war was waged, eventually culminating in the compromise in 1555, the Peace of Augsburg, which allowed each prince to decide the religion of his subjects, forbade all sects of Protestantism other than Lutheranism, and ordered all Catholic bishops to give up their property if they turned Lutheran.
[tags]BlogRodent, Charles-V, church-history, ChurchRodent, history, Lutheranism, Peace-of-Augsburg, Protestantism[/tags]
After 1530, the emperor, Charles V, made clear his intention to crush the growing heresy initiated by Martin Luther. In defense, the Lutheran princes banded together in 1531 in the Schmalkald League, and between 1546 and 1555 a sporadic civil war raged. The combatants reached a compromise in the Peace of Augsburg (1555), which allowed each prince to decide the religion of his subjects, forbade all sects of Protestantism other than Lutheranism, and ordered all Catholic bishops to give up their property if they turned Lutheran.
[tags]BlogRodent, Charles-V, church-history, ChurchRodent, history, Lutheranism, Martin-Luther, Peace-of-Augsburg, Protestantism, Schmalkald-League[/tags]
