A statement before the imperial diet
In 1530 Charles V summoned the imperial diet at Augsburg amid religious division and pressure from war with the Ottomans. Princes and cities supporting reform submitted a statement of faith, chiefly drafted by Philipp Melanchthon. Luther remained at Coburg and participated through correspondence. The German text was read before the emperor on 25 June.
The preface presents the submission as part of a common effort to resolve disagreements and preserve Christian unity. Its conciliatory language reflects the political setting in which the reformers had to explain their churches to the emperor and imperial estates.
How the twenty-eight articles are organized
The first twenty-one articles state matters of faith; seven further articles discuss practices the reformers regarded as abuses. The confession affirms the Trinity. Article IV explains justification through faith in Christ rather than personal merit, while Article VI insists that faith should produce good works without making those works the price of salvation.
The text describes the church through the preaching of the gospel and administration of the sacraments. Article X affirms Christ's real presence in the Lord's Supper, a position not shared by every reforming group. Later articles defend communion in both kinds and clerical marriage. Article XXIV expressly denies that the Mass has simply been abolished.
Responses, revisions and confessional identity
A Catholic response followed in August 1530, and Melanchthon answered it in the Apology of the Augsburg Confession. The diet ended without religious reconciliation. In 1531 reforming princes and cities formed the Schmalkaldic League for mutual defence.
Melanchthon continued revising the confession; his 1540 version is generally called the Variata. Differences between versions later mattered in church disputes. Adherence to the Augsburg Confession also became a way of identifying the participating churches and imperial estates, giving a document written for one assembly a lasting institutional role.