CONCORD, FORMULA AND BOOK OF

The fragmentation of the Lutheran movement after the death of Martin Luther, the disastrous defeat of the Lutheran estates of the Holy Roman Empire in the Schmalkaldic War (1546–47), and the imposition of the Augsburg Interim (1548) on many of the Lutheran territories threatened the Lutheran movement with extinction (see interims). Although the Convention of Passau (1552) and the Peace of augsburg (1555) saved the Lutheran movement politically, theological reunification proceeded more slowly. Initial efforts at reunion through the authority of the princes foundered on the bitter opposition of the Gnesiolutherans, led by Matthias flacius (Vlačić) Illyricus, and the extremist disciples of Philipp melanchthon, the Philippists (see gnesiolutheranism; philippism; crypto-calvinism).

Gradually a group of moderates—among them James Andreae (1528–90), Martin chemnitz, Nicholas Selneccer (1530–92), and David Chytraeus—took over the theological leadership of the Lutheran movement. Their efforts at reunion received generous financial support from the Lutheran princes. Andreae rewrote six sermons on Lutheran reunion into the "Swabian Concordia" (1573), which Chemnitz reworked into the "Swabian-[Lower-]Saxon Concordia" (1575). A combination of the latter document with the "Maulbronn Formula" (1576) produced the "Torgau Book" (1576), which was submitted to the Lutheran churches throughout the Empire for criticism. The critiques were incorporated in a final draft—the Formula of Concord, Formula Concordíae (1577)—produced at Bergen Abbey (hence the name "Bergic Book") by the four theologians named above, and Andrew Musculus (1514–81) and Christopher Cornerus (1518–94).

The Formula of Concord consists of a condensation, called the Epitome, prepared by Andreae, and of the Solid Declaration; each is divided into a preface, an introductory article, ten numbered articles on the controverted issues (original sin, free will, the righteousness of faith, good works, the distinction between the law and the gospel, the "third use" of the divine law, the Holy Communion, the person of Christ, His descent into hell, ecclesiastical ceremonies), an 11th article on predestination, and a 12th, which disavows the anabaptists, sch wenckfelders, and "New Arians and Anti-trinitarians." The Formula was conceived of not as a new symbol, but as an authoritative interpretation of the Augsburg Confession of 1530. The final document received general, although not universal, endorsement in Lutheran circles. A carefully formulated preface (1580), signed by three electors, two prince-bishops, four margraves, a palsgrave, 13 dukes, 24 counts, four barons, and 35 imperial cities, was added.

The Book of Concord (Concordia ), in which the Formula with its preface is the largest individual document, was formally published on June 25, 1580, the 50th anniversary of the presentation of the augsburg confes sion. It contains, in addition to the Formula, the three Catholic Creeds (Apostles', Niceno-Constantinopolitan, and Athanasian), the Augsburg Confession (1530), the Apology of the Augsburg Confession (1531), Luther's Schmalkald Articles (1536–38), Melanchthon's Treatise on the Authority and Primacy of the Pope (1537), and Luther's Large and Small Catechisms (1529). An appended "Catalog of Testimonies" provides documentation, chiefly in the form of citations from Eastern and Western theologians from the second through the 14th centuries, in support of the Formula's Christology and its doctrine on the Sacrament of the Altar. The official Latin translation of the German 1580 edition came out in 1584. Before the end of the 16th century the Book of Concord had been translated into French, Wendish, Czech, Greek, Spanish, and Magyar. It is the most complete collection of Lutheran symbolical books and the most authoritative expression of the mind of the Lutheran Church. In the history of Lutheran theology, its publication ushers in the era of classic Lutheran orthodoxy (1580–1713). In 1584 an elaborate four-part Apology of the Book of Concord against its Reformed and Gnesiolutheran critics came out over the signatures of Chemnitz, Selneccer, and Timothy Kirchner (1533–87).

Bibliography: h. lietzmann, ed., Die Bekenntnisschriften der evangelisch-lutherischen Kirche, 5th ed. e. wolf (Göttingen 1963), critical Lat. and Ger. text; Eng. t. g. tappert, ed. and tr., The Book of Concord (Philadelphia 1959). w. d. allbeck, Studies in the Lutheran Confessions (Philadelphia 1952). j. l. neve, Introduction to the Symbolical Books of the Lutheran Church (2d ed. Columbus, Ohio 1926; repr. 1956). v. vajta and h. weissgerber, eds., The Church and the Confessions (Philadelphia 1963). e. schlink, Theology of the Lutheran Confessions, tr. p. f. koehneke and h. j. a. bouman (Philadelphia 1961). f. e. mayer, The Religious Bodies of America, ed. a. c. piepkorn (4th ed. St. Louis 1961) 139–182.

[a. c. piepkorn]