The Tetrapolitan Confession (, ), also called the Strasbourg Confession or Swabian Confession, was an early

Protestant Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes Justification (theology), justification of sinners Sola fide, through faith alone, the teaching that Salvation in Christianity, salvation comes by unmerited Grace in Christianity, divin ...

confession of faith drawn up by Martin Bucer and Wolfgang Capito and presented to the Emperor Charles V at the Diet of Augsburg on 9 July 1530 on behalf of the four south German cities of Konstanz, Lindau,

Memmingen Memmingen (; Swabian German, Swabian: ''Memmenge'') is a town in Swabia (Bavaria), Swabia, Bavaria, Germany. It is the economic, educational and administrative centre of the Danube-Iller region. To the west the town is flanked by the Iller, the ...

and

Strasbourg Strasbourg ( , ; ; ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est Regions of France, region of Geography of France, eastern France, in the historic region of Alsace. It is the prefecture of the Bas-Rhin Departmen ...

. (The name "Tetrapolitan" means "of the four cities".) The confession was based on an early draft of the Augsburg Confession to which Bucer and Capito had secretly obtained access, but amended in the direction of Zwinglianism. Its purpose was to prevent a schism within Protestantism. It is the oldest confession of the Reformed tradition produced in Germany. Bucer and Capito were called to the Diet of Augsburg by the envoys of Strasbourg, who were aware that Philipp Melanchthon was working on a Saxon Confession that would represent the

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 ...

position. The north Germans (Lutherans) and the south Germans and Swiss had been divided in opinion since 1524 on the subject of the Lord's Supper, with the Lutherans supporting sacramental union (the physical presence of Christ's body in the sacrament) and the Zwinglians

memorialism Memorialism is the belief held by some Christian denominations that the elements of sacramental bread, bread and sacramental wine, wine (or grape juice) in the Eucharist (more often referred to as "the Eucharist#Lord's Supper, Lord's Supper" by ...

(the sacrament as a spiritual memorial only). This division had reached its high point in the Marburg Colloquy between Zwingli and Luther in 1529. The original version of the confession contained the claim, probably authored by Capito, that "Christ the Lord is truly in the Supper and gives his true body truly to eat and his blood truly to drink, but especially to the spirit, through faith". The last clause was meant to express a Zwinglian emphasis on the spiritual nature of the sacrament. Even this was offensive to the Lutherans and at the insistence of Jakob Sturm and Matthis Pfarrer, the Strasbourg envoys, was watered down further. The confession consists of 23 chapters. The first chapter states that nothing should be taught except that which is explicitly stated in Scripture, a statement that is not found in the Augsburg Confession. For political reasons, the confession was abandoned in practice within a year of its adoption, when the four cities joined the Schmalkaldic League. In 1536, the theologians of Strasbourg signed the Wittenberg Concord that brought the Lutheran and Reformed churches into alignment. Formally, the Tetrapolitan Confession remained the confession of Strasbourg until 1598. Girolamo Zanchi and Conrad Hubert both appealed to it, but after the 1560s it was regarded as little more than a generic statement of Protestantism. Bucer, however, stayed true to his confession and recited it even on his deathbed.

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{{Authority control 1530 documents Reformed confessions of faith Huldrych Zwingli 16th-century Reformed Christianity 16th-century Christian texts