Luther said: "I rejoice beyond measure that I lived to see the hour in which Christ was publicly glorified by such great confessors of His, in so great an assembly, through this in every respect most beautiful Confession. And the word has been fulfilled [Ps. 119, 46]: 'I will speak of Thy testimonies also before kings;' and the other word will also be fulfilled: 'I was not confounded.' For, 'Whosoever confesses Me before men' (so speaks He who lies not), 'him will I also confess before My Father which is in heaven.'" (16, 915; E. 8, 83.) July 9 Luther wrote to Jonas "Christ was loudly proclaimed by means of the public and glorious Confession (publica et gloriosa confessione) and confessed in the open (am Lichte) and in their [the Papists'] faces, so that they cannot boast that we fled, had been afraid, or had concealed our faith. I only regret that I was not able to be present when this splendid Confession was made (in hac pulchra confessione)." (St. L. 16, 928; E. 8, 94.)
On the same day, July 9, Luther wrote to the Elector: "I know and consider well that our Lord Christ Himself comforts the heart of Your Electoral Grace better than I or any one else is able to do. This is shown, too, and proved before our eyes by the facts, for the opponents think that they made a shrewd move by having His Imperial Majesty prohibit preaching. But the poor deluded people do not see that, through the written Confession presented to them, more has been preached than otherwise perhaps ten preachers could have done. Is it not keen wisdom and great wit that Magister Eisleben and others must keep silence? But in lieu thereof the Elector of Saxony, together with other princes and lords, arises with the written Confession and preaches freely before His Imperial Majesty and the entire realm, under their noses so that they must hear and cannot gainsay. I think that thus the order prohibiting preaching was a success indeed. They will not permit their servants to hear the ministers, but must themselves hear something far worse (as they regard it) from such great lords, and keep their peace. Indeed, Christ is not silent at the Diet; and though they be furious, still they must hear more by listening to the Confession than they would have heard in a year from the preachers. Thus is fulfilled what Paul says: God's Word will nevertheless have free course. If it is prohibited in the pulpit, it must be heard in the palaces. If poor preachers dare not speak it, then mighty princes and lords proclaim it. In brief, if everything keeps silence, the very stones will cry out, says Christ Himself." (16, 815.) September 15, at the close of the Diet, Luther wrote to Melanchthon: "You have confessed Christ, offered peace, obeyed the Emperor, endured reproach, been sated with slander, and have not recompensed evil for evil; in sum you have performed the holy work of God, as becomes saints, in a worthy manner. … I shall canonize you (canonizabo vos) as faithful members of Christ." (16, 2319; E. 8, 259.)
27. Manuscripts and Editions of Augustana
As far as the text of the Augsburg Confession is concerned, both of the original manuscripts are lost to us. Evidently they have become a prey to Romish rage and enmity. Eck was given permission to examine the German copy in 1540, and possibly at that time already it was not returned to Mainz. It may have been taken to Trent for the discussions at the Council, and thence carried to Rome. The Latin original was deposited in the Imperial Archives at Brussels, where it was seen and perused by Lindanus in 1562. February 18, 1569, however, Philip II instructed Duke Alva to bring the manuscript to Spain, lest the Protestants "regard it as a Koran," and in order that "such a damned work might forever be destroyed; porque se hunda para siempre tan malvada obra." The keeper of the Brussels archives himself testifies that the manuscript was delivered to Alva. There is, however, no lack of other manuscripts of the Augsburg Confession. Up to the present time no less than 39 have been found. Of these, five German and four Latin copies contain also the signatures. The five German copies are in verbal agreement almost throughout, and therefore probably offer the text as read and presented at Augsburg.
The printing of the Confession had been expressly prohibited by the Emperor. June 26 Melanchthon wrote to Veit Dietrich: "Our Confession has been presented to the Emperor. He ordered that it be not printed. You will therefore see that it is not made public." (C. R. 2, 142.) However, even during the sessions of the Diet a number of printed editions six in German and one in Latin, were issued by irresponsible parties. But since these were full of errors, and since, furthermore, the Romanists asserted with increasing boldness and challenge that the Confession of the Lutherans had been refuted, by the Roman Confutation, from the Scriptures and the Fathers, Melanchthon, in 1530, had a correct edition printed, which was issued, together with the Apology, in May, 1531. This quarto edition ("Beide, Deutsch Und Lateinisch Ps. 119") is regarded as the editio princeps.
For years this edition was also considered the authentic edition of the Augsburg Confession. Its Latin text was embodied 1584 in the Book of Concord as the textus receptus. But when attention was drawn to the changes in the German text of this edition (also the Latin text had been subjected to minor alterations), the Mainz Manuscript was substituted in the German Book of Concord, as its Preface explains. (14.) This manuscript, however contains no original signatures and was erroneously considered the identical document presented to the Emperor, of which it was probably but a copy. In his Introduction to the Symbolical Books, J. T. Mueller expresses the following opinion concerning the Mainz Manuscript: "To say the least, one cannot deny that its text, as a rule, agrees with that of the best manuscripts, and that its mistakes can easily be corrected according to them and the editio princeps, so that we have no reason to surrender the text received by the Church and to accept another in place thereof, of which we cannot prove either that it is any closer to the original." (78.) Tschackert, who devoted much study to the manuscripts of the Augsburg Confession, writes: "The Saxon theologians acted in good faith, and the Mainz copy is still certainly better than Melanchthon's original imprint [the editio princeps] yet, when compared with the complete and – because synchronous with the originally presented copy – reliable manuscripts of the signers of the Confession, the Mainz Manuscript proves to be defective in quite a number of places." (L.c. 621 f.)
However, even Tschackert's minute comparison shows that the Mainz Manuscript deviates from the original presented to the Emperor only in unimportant and purely formal points. For example, in sec. 20 of the Preface the words: "Papst das Generalkonzilium zu halten nicht geweigert, so waere E. K. M. gnaediges Erbieten, zu fordern und zu handeln, dass der" are omitted. Art. 27 sec. 48 we are to read: "dass die erdichteten geistlichen Orden Staende sind christlicher Vollkommenheit" instead of: "dass die erdichteten geistlichen Ordensstaende sind christliche Vollkommenheit." Art. 27, sec. 61 reads, "die Uebermass der Werke," instead of, "die Uebermasswerke," by the way, an excellent expression, which should again be given currency in the German. The conclusion of sec. 2 has "Leichpredigten" instead of "Beipredigten." According to the manuscripts, also the Mainz Manuscript, the correct reading of sec. 12 of the Preface is as follows: "Wo aber bei unsern Herrn, Freunden und besonders den Kurfuersten, Fuersten und Staenden des andern Teils die Handlung dermassen, wie E. K. M. Ausschreiben vermag (bequeme Handlung unter uns selbst in Lieb und Guetigkeit) nicht verfangen noch erspriesslich sein wollte" etc. The words, "bequeme Handlung unter uns selbst in Lieb' und Guetigkeit," are quoted from the imperial proclamation. (Foerstemann, 7, 378; Plitt, 2, 12.)
Originally only the last seven articles concerning the abuses had separate titles, the doctrinal articles being merely numbered, as in the Marburg and Schwabach Articles, which Melanchthon had before him at Augsburg. (Luther, Weimar 30, 3, 86. 160.) Nor are the present captions of the doctrinal articles found in the original German and Latin editions of the Book of Concord, Article XX forming a solitary exception; for in the German (in the Latin Concordia, too, it bears no title) it is superscribed: "Vom Glauben und guten Werken, Of Faith and Good Works." This is probably due to the fact that Article XX was taken from the so-called Torgau Articles and, with its superscription there, placed among the doctrinal articles. In the German edition of 1580 the word "Schluss" is omitted where the Latin has "Epilogus."
As to the translations, even before the Confession was presented to the Emperor, it had been rendered into French. (This translation was published by Foerstemann, 1, 357.) The Emperor had it translated for his own use into both Italian and French. (C. R. 2, 155; Luther, St. L.,