Augsburg Confession Variata

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Philipp Melanchthon made a several changes during the years to the original Augsburg Confession of 1530. Most of these changes were about the language of the confession. In 1540 and 1542 he however rewrote some parts of the confession in order to make peace with calvinists. John Calvin himself signed the 1540 version of the confession. The most important difference was in the theology of real presence. The Unaltered Augsburg Confession states: 'Concerning the Lord's Supper, they teach that the body and blood of Christ are truly present, and are distributed (communicated) to those that eat in the Lord's Supper. And they disapprove of those that teach otherwise.'

Altered Augsburg Confession states: 'Concerning the Lord's Supper, they teach that with bread and wine are truly exhibited the body and blood of Christ to those that eat in the Lord's Supper.'

Lutheran churches often specify that they agree to the Unaltered Augsburg Confession as opposed to the altered version

• The Augsburg Confession (1530) in Latin with a parallel English translation and with notes on the differences in the 1540 edition; from Philip Schaff's Creeds of the Evangelical Protestant Churches at the Christian Classics Ethereal Library

Based on material from http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Augsburg_Confession which is licensed under the GFDL.