The ''Magdeburg Confession'' (officially, the ''Confession, Instruction, and Admonition of the pastors and preachers of the Christian congregations of Magdeburg'') was a

Lutheran Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestantism that emerged under the work of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German friar and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practices of the Catholic Church launched ...

statement of faith. It was written by nine pastors of the city of

Magdeburg Magdeburg (; ) is the Capital city, capital of the Germany, German States of Germany, state Saxony-Anhalt. The city is on the Elbe river. Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor, Otto I, the first Holy Roman Emperor and founder of the Archbishopric of Mag ...

in 1550 in response to the

Augsburg Interim The Augsburg Interim (full formal title: ''Declaration of His Roman Imperial Majesty on the Observance of Religion Within the Holy Empire Until the Decision of the General Council'') was an imperial decree ordered on 15 May 1548 at the 1548 Die ...

and the imposition of

Roman Catholicism The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

. The Confession explains why the leaders of the city refused to obey the imperial law, and were prepared to resist its implementation with force if necessary. The Magdeburg Confession calls for resistance to political tyranny, and argues that the " subordinate powers" in a state, faced with the situation where the "supreme power" is working to destroy true religion, may go further than non-cooperation with the supreme power and assist the faithful to resist. Carter Lindberg calls it "the first Protestant religious justification of the right of defense against unjust higher authorities."

John Witte the Oregon State Beavers John August Witte (January 29, 1933 – March 17, 1993) was an American professional football tackle who played one season with the Saskatchewan Roughriders of the Western Interprovincial Football Union (WIFU). He ...

notes that

Theodore Beza Theodore Beza (; or ''de Besze''; 24 June 1519 – 13 October 1605) was a French Calvinist Protestant theologian, reformer and scholar who played an important role in the Protestant Reformation. He was a disciple of John Calvin and lived most ...

saw the Magdeburg Confession as an example of how to respond to political abuse of tyranny, and that it was a "major distillation of the most advanced Lutheran resistance theories of the day, which the Calvinist tradition absorbed."

References

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External links

The Magdeburg Confession
– a site maintained by the American pastor Matthew Trewhella – advertises a modern translation (from the original Latin) by Matthew Colvin, published via Amazon Createspace. 1550 works Reformation in Germany History of Magdeburg Christian statements of faith