Diet of Augsburg
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The diets of Augsburg were the meetings of the
The Diet of 1518
An
The
Proceedings
Emperor Charles V could not bring himself to openly discuss the matters of religious dispute and cause for division throughout Europe so he often stayed away from the sessions of the Diet. Instead he sent his younger brother Ferdinand I to have authority over discussions.
The Diet was organized into three separate colleges: Prince-electors, ecclesiastical and secular sovereigns, and imperial cities. However, unlike other diets, the Diet did not possess fixed rules or methods to conduct. Tradition for the Diet of Augsburg began to emerge in the 1530s and the sessions were to be conducted under these guidelines. Either the emperor or the estates organized day-to-day business of the diet and the proposito functioned as the agenda for the Diet but could be easily altered by the convention.
The business of the Diet was conducted on three levels; the committees, the colleges, and the plenary session. The plenary sessions or colleges created the committees; this level was staffed by members and/or experts of the Diet. The committees would prepare material that would be discussed by colleges and once acted upon, the issue entered the plenary session stage, however this was only ceremonial during the Diet of Augsburg.
The issue would continue to be discussed independently then collectively by the College of Electors and College of Sovereigns. Once they were able to confer on a decision the College of Cities would be informed. If they also agreed to the decision this would become a final decision and passed to the Emperor. If the Emperor approved this recommendation he could adopt it but if there were any issues or concerns he would send it back and the process would start again.
The Diet of 1530 and the Augsburg Confession
The 1530 Imperial Diet of Augsburg was requested by Emperor Charles V to decide on three issues: first, the defense of the Empire against the
Background
The
In 1529, however, the emperor signed a successful peace treaty with France. After these successes, Charles aimed to assert his control over what he saw as German religious heresies.[6][page needed] At the Diet of Speyer, the Edict of Worms was affirmed, resulting in the Protestation at Speyer enacted by the Lutheran princes.
Creation
The Augsburg Confession was intended “to be an expression of the faith of the universal Church, and thus a basis for a reconciliation between the Lutheran Reformers and the Roman Church.” It had been prepared by
The Confession was presented to the emperor on 25 June. During the Diet, Melanchthon withstood a variety of attacks while formulating the text. According to Joachim Camerarius, his first biographer, he “did not bend the truth to win favor or meet objections; at the same time he avoided unnecessary conflict”. Camerarius also mentions that during the diet, Melanchthon cried when hearing his work during this intense time of negotiations.
There has been a long dispute regarding the Augsburg Confession and what type of confession it truly is. One suggestion is that it is a political and theological confession, which established the Protestant church. A second view is that it is a catholic confession that dispensed with minor teachings such as penance. During the 16th century the tensions and relationship that existed between the Emperor, the Pope, the German Princes and the Protestants were quite complex. The confessions of the early centuries of the church were evoked by the Protestant Reformation and of the tensions that existed in the Church. The confession represented Protestant beliefs during the time of intense political and religious pressures. The Confession did discuss the basis and role of the papal authority in the Church “but it was decided not to incorporate a statement of the Lutheran position on the papacy in the confession in order to avoid upsetting Charles V and running the risk that he might simply refuse to negotiate with the Lutheran part at the Diet”.
Martin Luther’s contribution
At the time of the Diet of Augsburg, Martin Luther was an outlaw of the Empire and as a result was unable to be present at the Diet. Staying at the Veste Coburg, he made himself present through a variety of publications including the composition of Admonition to All the Clergy Assembled at Augsburg. Five hundred copies were quickly sold and circulated around during the Diet. A member of the Saxon group, Justus Jonas wrote that Luther’s work seemed inspired while “rebuking the haughtiness of the higher clergy, forcefully asserting ‘the article on necessity,’ and reducing the opponents to silence”.
Further, Luther’s impact was evident in August 1530 with the increased resistance of the Protestants to demands for concessions in the later stages of negotiations. Luther was able to read Melanchthon’s confession at an early stage, and admitted that he could have never written it in such a finely-argued way. He did later note that there “was no article on purgatory and no unmasking of the papal Antichrist”. During mid-July 1530 Luther was reported as having told a number of friends that he had no expectation that the Diet would lead to any sort of agreement between the two sides.
The General Synod of the Lutheran church accepted the twenty-one doctrinal articles with the Abuses altered.
Augsburg Interim
Following the Diet of Augsburg in 1530 was the
After his victory over the Schmalkaldic League, Charles V convened the Diet of 1547/48 (geharnischter Reichstag - 'harnessed diet', due to its tense atmosphere, very close to outright hostility), where the Augsburg Interim was proclaimed. This attempt to give Catholicism the priority was rejected by many princes, though, and a resolution of the confessional tensions was only achieved at the session in 1555, where the Peace of Augsburg was concluded. The treaty acknowledged the Augsburg Confession and codified the cuius regio, eius religio principle, which gave each prince the power to decide the religion of his subjects.
The decrees of the Council of Trent were acknowledged by the Catholic princes of Germany at the Diet of Augsburg held in 1566.
Notes
- ^ Bainton, Roland. Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1950), Chapter V, pp. 90-91, online
- ^ "Luther meets with Cajetan at Augsburg". Reformation 500 – Concordia Seminary, St. Louis. 11 January 2012. Archived from the original on 19 August 2017. Retrieved 28 March 2016.
- ^ "The Acts and Monuments of the Church – Martin Luther". exclassics.com. Retrieved 28 March 2016.
- ^ Bainton, Roland. Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1950), Chapter V, p. 96, online
- ^ Gottfried G. Krodel, "Law, Order, and the Almighty Taler: The Empire in Action at the 1530 Diet of Augsburg." Sixteenth Century Journal (1982): 75–106 online.
- ^ Macdonald, Stewart (2000), Charles V: Ruler, Dynast and Defender of the Faith, 1500–58.
References
- Randell, Keith (2000), Luther and the German Reformation 1517–55 (2nd ed.), p. 97.
- Kolb, Robert A. (1980), "German Lutheran Interpretations of the Diet of Augsburg to 1577", Sixteenth Century Journal, 11 (3): 47, S2CID 165742605
- Krodel, Gottfried G. (1982), "Law, Order, and the Almighty Taler: The Empire in Action at the 1530 Diet of Augsburg", The Sixteenth Century Journal, 13 (2): 75–106, S2CID 159862627
- Paulson, Steven D. (2014), "What Kind of Confession Is the Augsburg Confession?", Neue Zeitschrift für Systematische Theologie und Religionsphilosophie, 56 (1): 12–34, S2CID 170315824
- Rausch, Thomas P. (1981), "The Augsburg Confession Yesterday and Today", Irish Theological Quarterly, 48 (1–2): 93–106, S2CID 170262073
- Rupp, Gordon (1980), "Foundation Documents of the Faith: IV. the Augsburg Confession, 1530", The Expository Times, 91 (4): 99–101, S2CID 169211023
- Spitz, Lewis (1980), "The Augsburg Confession: 450 Years of History", The Sixteenth Century Journal, 11 (3): 3–9, S2CID 165853425
- Schmucker, S. S. (Samuel Simon) (1846), Elements of Popular Theology; with Occasional Reference to the Doctrines of the Reformation, as Avowed before the Diet of Augsburg in MDXXX, United States
- Wicks, Jared (1980), "Abuses Under Indictment at the Diet of Augsburg 1530", Theological Studies, 41 (2): 253, S2CID 170421433