Confessio Tetrapolitana

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The Confessio Tetrapolitana (Four Cities Confession) is one of the first Reformed confessions .

The Confessio Tetrapolitana was made for the Augsburg Reichstag in 1530 to present the Upper German Protestant position. The Upper German imperial cities of Strasbourg , Memmingen , Lindau and Constance had refused to approve the Confessio Augustana by Philipp Melanchthon because of the Lutheran doctrine of the Lord's Supper and instead presented the Confessio Tetrapolitana written by Martin Bucer and Wolfgang Capito .

The Confessio Tetrapolitana is divided into 23 articles and has a similar structure to the Confessio Augustana. Theologically she holds a mediating position in the doctrine of the sacraments between Martin Luther and the Swiss reformer Ulrich Zwingli , who presented his own confession with Fidei ratio ad Carolum imperatorem . The Confessio Tetrapolitana particularly emphasizes the importance of writing as the sole source of evangelical teaching. The differences to the Lutheran creed concern not only the doctrine of the sacraments but also the rejection of images and the importance of good works as a service to one's neighbor for the faith. But it also deviates from the compelling doctrine, which sees only a commemorative celebration in the Lord's Supper, in that it does not completely reject the real presence of Christ in the Lord's Supper, but elevates it to a spiritual level.

The Confessio Tetrapolitana was presented to the Imperial Vice Chancellor on July 9, 1530 in Latin and German, but was not read out to the public. In order not to lose contact with the Lutheran estates and to be admitted to the Schmalkaldic League , Strasbourg signed the Confessio Tetrapolitana and the Confessio Augustana in 1532.

expenditure

  • EF Karl Müller (Ed.): The Confessions of the Reformed Church . Leipzig, 1903 (reprinted Zurich 1987), pp. 55-78.
  • Friedrich Braun (Ed.): Confessio Tetrapolitana. The Swabian four-city confession 1530. A side piece to the Augsburg confession . Memmingen 1930.
  • Robert Stupperich (Ed.): Martin Bucers Deutsche Schriften Vol. 3: Confessio Tetrapolitana and the writings of the year 1531 . Gütersloh 1969, pp. 13-185 (and other sources).

literature

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