Everything about Formula Of Concord totally explained
Formula of Concord (
1577) (
Latin:
Formula concordiae, "
Harmony Concord", also the "
Bergic Book") is an authoritative
Lutheran statement of faith (called a confession,
creed, or "symbol") that, in its two parts (
Epitome and
Solid Declaration), makes up the final section of the
Lutheran Corpus Doctrinae or
Body of Doctrine, known as the
Book of Concord (most references to these texts are to the original edition of
1580). The
Epitome is a brief and concise presentation of the
Formula's twelve articles; the
Solid Declaration a detailed exposition. Approved doctrine is presented in "theses"; rejected doctrine in "antitheses." As the original document was written in
German, a
Latin translation was prepared for the
Latin edition of the
Book of Concord published in
1584.
Significance and composition
The promulgation and subscription of this document was a major factor in the unification and preservation of
Lutheranism. It was instigated at the behest of the Elector August of Saxony, and it was the joint work of a group of
Lutheran theologians and churchmen of the latter
sixteenth century, who met from
April 9 to
June 7,
1576 in Torgau, the seat of government for Electoral Saxony at the time:
Jakob Andreä (
1528–
1590),
Martin Chemnitz (
1522–
1586),
Nikolaus Selnecker (
1528–
1592), David Chytraeus (
1531–
1600),
Andreas Musculus (
1514–
1581), Christoph Körner (
1518–
1594), Caspar Heyderich, Paul Crell (
1532–
1579), Maximilian Mörlin (
1516–
1584), Wolfgang Harder, Daniel Gräser, Nicholas Jagenteufel, Johannes Cornicaelius, John Schütz, Martin Mirus (
1532–
1593), Georg Listenius, and Peter Glaser; and a smaller set of this group (Andreä, Chemnitz, Selnecker, Chytraeus, Musculus, and Körner) a year later in Bergen Abbey, near
Magdeburg, both from March 1–14, and in May,
1577. The most important formulators of the Formula of Concord were Jakob Andreä and Martin Chemnitz.
Having before them two earlier documents (the
Swabian-Saxon Concord, drafted by Andreae in 1574 and the so called
Maulbron Formula of 1576) the first group of theologians produced the
Torgau Book. Andreä condensed this into what would become known as the
Epitome, the first part of the
Formula of Concord. Its title as found in the 1576 first printing ran as follows:
[A] Brief Summary of the articles which, controverted among the theologians of the Augsburg Confession for many years, were settled in a Christian manner at Torgau in the month of June, 1576, by the theologians which there met and subscribed.
Over the eleven months since the
Torgau Book had been published, suggested emendations were sent to Andreä and Chemnitz, and further revision was deemed necessary, so the second group (Andreä, Chemnitz, Selnecker, Chytraeus, Musculus, and Körner) revised the
Torgau Book into its final form, known as the
Bergic Book, or the
Solid Declaration of the
Formula of Concord. (Depending on the translation, the
Solid Declaration is also known as the
Thorough Declaration of the
Formula of Concord.) It was presented to Elector August of Saxony on
May 28,
1577. Subsequently it was signed (subscribed to) by three electors of the
Holy Roman Empire, twenty dukes and princes, twenty-four counts, four barons, thirty-five free imperial cities, and over 8,000 pastors. These constituted two-thirds of the
Lutheran Church in
Germany at the time. Every clergyman in electoral Saxony had to either subscribe or write his objections with respect to the Formula of Concord. A rhyme was circulated [atthe time]: "Write, dear Lord, write, that you might remain at the parish."
The
Formula of Concord wasn't accepted by Lutherans in Hesse, Zweibrücken, Anhalt, Pommeranian (Land), Holstein, Denmark, Sweden, Nürnberg, Strassburg, and Magdeburg, and the government of
Queen Elizabeth I of England lobbied in its German embassies to prevent acceptance of it among the German estates.
Articles of the Formula of Concord
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