Melanchthon had admirably performed the work assigned him in the
making up of the Confession, and on the 25th day of June, 1530, the
document, duly signed, was read aloud to the emperor in the hearing of
many.
The effect of it upon the assembly was indescribable. Many of the
prejudices and false notions against the Reformers were effectually
dissipated. The enemies of the Reformation felt that they had solemn
realities to deal with which they had never imagined. Others said that
this was a more effectual preaching than that which had been
suppressed. "Christ is in the Diet," said Justus Jonas, "and he does
not keep silence. God's Word cannot be bound." In a word, the world
now had added to it one of its greatest treasures--the renowned and
imperishable AUGSBURG CONFESSION.
Luther was eager for tidings of what transpired at the Diet. And when
the Confession came, as signed and delivered, he wrote: "I thrill with
joy that I have lived to see the hour in which Christ is preached by
so many confessors to an assembly so illustrious in a form so
beautiful."
Even Reformed authors, from Calvin down, have cheerfully added their
testimony to the worth and excellence of this magnificent
Confession--the first since the Athanasian Creed. A late writer of
this class says of it that "it best exhibits the prevailing genius of
the German Reformation, and will ever be cherished as one of the
noblest monuments of faith from the pentecostal period of
Protestantism.
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