Читать книгу Historical Introductions to the Symbolical Books of the Evangelical Lutheran Church - Bente Friedrich - Страница 54

Owing to the fact that Melanchthon, immediately after the presentation of the Apology, resolved to revise and recast it, the original draft was forced into the background. It remained unknown for a long time and was published for the first time forty-seven years after the Diet. Chytraeus embodied it in his Historia Augustanae Confessionis, 1578, with the caption, "Prima Delineatio Caesari Carolo Die 22. Septembris Oblata, sed Non Recepta– The First Draft which was Offered to Emperor Charles on September 22, but Not Accepted." The German and Latin texts are found in Corp. Ref. 27, 275ff. and 322. Following is the Latin title: "Apologia Confessionis, 1530. Ps. 119: Principes persecuti sunt me gratis." The German title runs: "Antwort der Widerlegung auf unser Bekenntnis uebergeben." (245. 378.) Plitt says of the original Apology: "It was well qualified to be presented to the Emperor, and, in form also, far surpassed the Confutation of the Papists. Still the Evangelical Church suffered no harm when the Emperor declined to accept it. The opportunity for revision which was thus offered and fully exploited by Melanchthon, who was never able to satisfy himself, resulted in a great improvement. The Apology as it appeared the following year is much riper, sharper in its rebuttal, and stronger in its argumentation." (88.)

The draft of the Apology presented at Augsburg concluded as follows: "If the Confutation had been forwarded to us for inspection we would perhaps have been able to give a more adequate answer on these and additional points." (C. R. 27, 378.) When, therefore, the Emperor had refused to accept it, Melanchthon determined to revise, reenforce, and augment the document. September 23 he left Augsburg in the company of the Elector; and already while en route he began the work. In his History of the Augsburg Confession, 1730, Salig remarks: "Still the loss of the first copy [of the Apology] does not seem to be so great, since we now possess the Apology in a more carefully elaborated form. For while the Diet was still in session, and also after the theologians had returned home, Melanchthon was constantly engaged upon it, casting it into an entirely different mold, and making it much more extensive than it was before. When the theologians had returned to Saxony from the Diet, Melanchthon, in Spalatin's house at Altenburg, even worked at it on Sunday, so that Luther plucked the pen from his hand, saying that on this day he must rest from such work." (1, 377.) However, since the first draft was presented to the Emperor on September 22, and Melanchthon, together with the Elector, left Augsburg on the following day, it is evident that he could not have busied himself very much with the revision of the Apology at Augsburg. And that Luther, in the Altenburg incident, should have put especial stress on the Sunday, for this neither Salig nor those who follow him (e. g., Schaff, Creeds, 1, 243) offer any evidence. In his Seventeen Sermons on the Life of Luther, Mathesius gives the following version of the incident: "When Luther, returning home with his companions from Coburg, was visiting Spalatin, and Philip, constantly engrossed in thoughts concerning the Apology, was writing during the meal, he arose and took the pen away from him [saying]: 'God can be honored not alone by work, but also by rest and recreation; for that reason He has given the Third Commandment and commanded the Sabbath.'" (243.) This report of Mathesius certainly offers no ground for a Puritanic explanation of the incident in Spalatin's home.

Originally Melanchthon does not seem to have contemplated a revision on a very large scale. In the Preface, which was printed first, he merely remarks that he made "some additions" (quaedam adieci) to the Apology drawn up at Augsburg. (101.) Evidently, at the time when he wrote this, he had no estimate of the proportions the work, which grew under his hands, would finally assume. Before long also he obtained a complete copy of the Confutation. It was probably sent to him from Nuernberg, whose delegate had been able to send a copy home on August 28, 1530. (Kolde, 37.) Says Melanchthon in the Preface to the Apology: "I have recently seen the Confutation, and have noticed how cunningly and slanderously it was written, so that on some points it could deceive even the cautious." (101.) Eck clamored that the Confutation "had gotten into Melanchthon's hands in a furtive and fraudulent manner, furtim et fraudulenter ad manus Melanchthonis eandem pervenisse." (Koellner, 426.) The possession of the document enabled Melanchthon to deal in a reliable manner with all questions involved, and spurred him on to do most careful and thorough work.