Since the Confutation, in the manner indicated, had been presented as
the Emperor's final verdict upon the Augsburg Confession the Lutherans
were compelled to declare themselves. Accordingly, Chancellor Brueck at
once responded to the demand for submission made through the Palatinate
after the reading of the Confutation, saying: The importance of this
matter, which concerned their salvation, required that the Confutation
be delivered to the Lutherans for careful inspection and examination to
enable them to arrive at a decision in the matter. The delegates from
Nuernberg reported, in substance: After the Confutation was read, Doctor
Brueck answered: Whereas, according to their Confession, the Lutherans
were willing to do and yield everything that could be so done with a
good conscience, whereas, furthermore, according to the Confutation,
some of their [the Lutherans'] articles were approved, others entirely
rejected, still others partly admitted to be right and partly
repudiated; and whereas the Confutation was a somewhat lengthy document:
therefore the Electors, princes, and cities deemed it necessary to scan
these articles more closely, the more so, because many writings were
adduced in them that made it necessary to show to what intent, and if at
all they were rightly quoted, and accordingly requested the Emperor,
since he had promised to hear both parties, to submit the Confutation
for their inspection. The Emperor answered: "As it was now late and
grown dark, and since the matter was important, he would consider their
request and reply to it later." Hereupon, according to the Nuernberg
delegates, "the chancellor pleaded again and most earnestly that His
Imperial Majesty would consider this important and great affair as a
gracious and Christian emperor ought to do, and not deny their prayer
and petition, but deliver to them the document which had been read."
(_C. R._ 2, 251.)
Now, although the Romanists were in no way minded and disposed to submit
the Confutation to the Lutherans, they nevertheless did not consider it
wise to refuse their petition outright and bluntly; for they realized
that this would redound to the glory neither of themselves nor of their
document. The fanatical theologians, putting little faith in that sorry
fabrication of their own, and shunning the light, at first succeeded in
having a resolution passed declaring the entire matter settled with the
mere reading. However in order to save their faces and to avoid the
appearance of having refused the Confutation as well as "the scorn and
ridicule on that account" (as the Emperor naively put it), and "lest any
one say that His Imperial Majesty had not, in accordance with his
manifesto, first dealt kindly with" the Lutherans, the estates resolved
on August 4 to grant their request. At the same time, however, they
added conditions which the Lutherans regarded as dangerous, insinuating
and impossible, hence rendering the Catholic offer illusory and
unacceptable.
August 5 the Emperor communicated the resolutions adopted by the
Catholic estates to the Lutherans. According to a report of the
Nuernberg delegates the negotiations proceeded as follows: The Emperor
declared that the Confutation would be forwarded to the Lutherans, but
with the understanding that they must come to an agreement with the
Catholic princes and estates; furthermore that they spare His Imperial
Majesty with their refutations and make no further reply and, above all,
that they keep this and other writings to themselves, nor let them pass
out of their hands, for instance, by printing them or in any other way.
Hereupon Brueck, in the name of the Lutherans, thanked the Emperor, at
the same time voicing the request "that, considering their dire
necessity, His Imperial Majesty would permit his Elector and princes to
make answer to the Confutation." Duke Frederick responded: The Emperor
was inclined to grant them permission to reply, but desired the answer
to be "as profitable and brief as possible," also expected them to come
to an agreement with the Catholics, and finally required a solemn
promise that they would not permit the document to pass out of their
hands. Brueck answered guardedly: The Lutherans would gladly come to an
agreement "as far as it was possible for them to do so with God and
their conscience;" and as to their answer and the preservation of the
document, they would be found "irreprehensible." The Emperor now
declared: "The document should be delivered to the Lutherans in case
they would promise to keep it to themselves and not allow it to fall
into other hands; otherwise His Imperial Majesty was not minded to
confer with them any longer." Brueck asked for time to consider the
matter, and was given till evening. In his response he declined the
Emperor's offer, at the same time indicating that an answer to the
Confutation would be forthcoming nevertheless. The Lutherans, he said,
felt constrained to relinquish their petition, because the condition
that the document be kept in their hands had been stressed in such a
manner that they could not but fear the worst interpretation if it would
nevertheless leak out without their knowledge and consent; still, they
offered to answer the Confutation, since they had noted the most
important points while it was read; in this case, however, they asked
that it be not charged to them if anything should be overlooked; at the
same time they besought the Emperor to consider this action of theirs as
compelled by dire necessity, and in no other light. (_C. R._ 2, 255ff.)
In the Preface to the Apology, Melanchthon says: "This [a copy of the
Confutation] our princes could not obtain, except on the most perilous
conditions, which it was impossible for them to accept." (99.)