Martin Luther, Auf das Schreien etlicher Papisten, Coburg 1530 (Landesbibliothek Coburg, Rara / 56,155)

According to the title page, this work was published in 1530 in Wittenberg. The printer is not named. However, the title frame, including the print mark with the bear, is the same as the one used on the last page by Hans Beer for the interpretation of the 117th Psalm, which an annotation claims to have been published at Coburg.

The script is an illuminating example of Luther’s problems with unauthorised publications. As he explained in the foreword, he had written – independently of the Augsburg Diet in 1530 – together with other seventeen authors, the so-called “Schwabach Articles”. These articles had been published under his name but without his involvement, under the pretence that he intended to contribute them to the diet. Since his opponents had already appeared on the scene by this indiscretion, Luther was forced to bring his confessional articles to the public.

Thus, early versions of the Augsburg Confession (“Confessio Augustana”), with which Luther had wrestled jointly with the electoral Saxon delegation to the diet, above all Philip Melanchthon (1497–1560), on the Veste Coburg (Coburg Fortress) became known at an inopportune moment. In this respect, this publication provides an intimate insight into the genesis of the “Confessio Augustana”, including the adversities associated with it.

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