The Naumburg Conference of 1561

The Naumburg Conference of 1561

7]And, indeed, after these deliberations our predecessors, of godly and excellent memory, together with some of us, assembled at Naumburg in Thuringia. On that occasion we took in hand the Augsburg Confession, offered to the Emperor Charles V in the great assembly of the Empire at Augsburg in the year 1530, and mentioned by us several times previously, and to that godly confession, built upon solid testimonies of the truth, which cannot be shaken, and is expressed in the Word of God, we all subscribed with one mind. In this way, of course, we meant to provide for the interests of posterity, and to enable and urge them, as far as we could, to avoid false doctrines conflicting with God’s Word. This we did also with the design that, both with his Imperial Majesty, our most clement lord, and also universally among all, there might be a permanent testimony that it has never been our intention to wish to defend or spread any new and strange dogma, but that we desired, God aiding us, to constantly support and retain the truth which we professed at Augsburg in the year 1530. We were also led to entertain a not uncertain hope that in this way not only those who oppose the pure evangelical doctrine would abstain from fabricated charges and accusations, but also other good and well-disposed men would be attracted by this renewed and repeated confession of ours, and, with greater zeal and care, would seek and investigate the truth of the heavenly doctrine, which alone is our guide to salvation, and, out of regard for the salvation of the soul and their eternal happiness, would assent to it, all further controversies and disputations being rejected.