Only after repeated revisions in which Campegius and the imperial
counselors Valdes and Granvella took part was an agreement reached
regarding the form of the Confutation. July 30 the Emperor received the
fourth revision and on August 1 he presented it to the bishops, princes,
and estates for their opinion. There still remained offensive passages
which had to be eliminated. A fifth revision was necessary before the
approval of the Emperor and the estates was forthcoming. A Prolog and an
Epilog were added according to which the Confutation is drawn up in the
name of the Emperor. Thus the original volume was boiled down to a
comparatively small document. But to speak with Kolde, even in its final
form the Confutation is "still rather an accusation against the
Evangelicals, and an effort to retain all the medieval church customs
than a refutation of the Augustana." (34.) August 6 Jonas wrote to
Luther: "The chaplain [John Henkel] of Queen Maria informed us that they
had five times changed their Confutation, casting and recasting, minting
and reminting it, and still there finally was produced nothing but an
uncouth and confused conglomeration and a hodgepodge, as when a cook
pours different soups into one pot. At first they patched together an
enormous volume, as Faber is known to be a verbose compiler; the book
grew by reason of the multitude of its lies and scurrilities. However,
at the first revision the Emperor eliminated the third part of the book,
so that barely twelve or sixteen folios remained, which were read." (St.
L. 21a, 1539.)
On August 3, 1530, in the same hall in which the Augsburg Confession had
been submitted thirty-eight days before, in the presence of all the
estates of the empire, the Augustanae Confessionis Responsio,
immediately called Confutatio Pontificia by the Protestants, was read in
the German language by Alexander Schweiss, the Imperial Secretary.
However, the reading, too, proved to be a discreditable affair. Owing to
the great haste in which the German copy had been prepared, an entire
portion had been omitted; the result was that the conclusion of Article
24 as well as Articles 25 and 26 were not presented. Furthermore,
Schweiss, overlooking the lines of erasure, read a part which had been
stricken, containing a very bold deliverance on the sacrifice of the
Mass, in which they labored to prove from the Hebrew, Greek, and Latin
that the word _facite_ in the institution of the Sacrament was
synonymous with "sacrifice." (Kolde, 34.) August 6, 1530, Jonas wrote to
Luther: The opponents presented their Confutation to the Emperor on July
30, and on the 3d of August it was read in the presence of the Emperor
and the estates, together with a Prolog and an Epilog of the Emperor.
"The reading also consumed two entire hours, but with an incredible
aversion, weariness, and disgust on the part of some of the more
sensible hearers, who complained that they were almost driven out by
this utterly cold, threadbare songlet (_cantilena_), being extremely
chagrined that the ears of the Emperor should be molested with such a
lengthy array of worthless things masquerading under the name of
Catholic doctrines." (St. L. 21a, 1539.) August 4 Brenz wrote to
Isemann: "The Emperor maintains neutrality; for he slept both when the
Augustana and when the Confutation was read. _Imperator neutralem sese
gerit; nam cum nostra confessio legeretur obdormivit; rursus cum
adversariorum responsio legeretur, iterum obdormivit in media negotii
actione_." (_C. R._ 2, 245.)
The Confutation was neither published, nor was a copy of it delivered to
the Lutherans. Apparently the Romanists, notably the Emperor and the
estates, were ashamed of the document. True, Cochlaeus reports that
toward the close of the Diet Charles authorized him and Eck to publish
it, but that this was not done, because Duke George and the Emperor left
Augsburg shortly after, and the printer also moved away. (Koellner,
414.) All subsequent pleading and imploring, however, on the part of Eck
and others, to induce the Emperor to publish the Confutation fell on
deaf ears. Evidently Charles no longer took any interest in a document
that had so shamefully shattered his fond ambition of reconciling the
religious parties. What appeared in print, early in 1531, was merely an
extract prepared by Cochlaeus, entitled, _Summary of the Imperial
Answer,_ etc. The first Latin edition of the Confutation appeared as
late as 1573; the first German edition, in 1808. All previous German
impressions (also the edition of 1584) are translations of the Latin
edition of 1573. (_C. R._ 27, 25. 82.) Concerning the German text of the
Confutation Kolde remarks: "Since changes were made even after it had
been read, we have even less definite knowledge, respecting details, as
to what was read than in the case of the Augustana." (35.) One may
therefore also speak of a Confutatio Variata. The doctrine of the
Confutation does not differ essentially from that which was later on
affirmed by the Council of Trent (1545-1563). However, says Kolde,
"being written by the German leaders of the Catholic party under the eye
of the Papal Legate, and approved by the Emperor, the German bishops,
and the Roman-minded princes, it [the Confutation] must be reckoned
among the historically most important documents of the Roman Catholic
faith of that day."