In the year 1530, thirteen years after the publication of Luther’s Ninety-Five Theses, the Reformation had taken roots and aroused considerable controversy in the German lands. Germany at the time was ruled by numerous autonomous dukes, princes, and bishops, although there was an elected emperor technically in charge of the entire Holy Roman Empire. Emperor Charles V, a devout Hapsburg Catholic, had opposed the very idea of princes and their subjects disavowing the pope, but he was helpless to prevent it. The emperor was in reality subject to the nobles who had elected him to office, seven electors, three ecclesiastical and four secular rulers. Of these seven, three professed Reformed beliefs, while the other four ruled in areas where Luther’s teaching was widely accepted.

The Lutheran princes petitioned the emperor for permission to submit a creedal statement which would allow them the freedom to practice their interpretation of the Christian faith within their own lands. The emperor resisted, but was forced to capitulate and allow a meeting of the German rulers, an imperial diet, called to meet in the city of Augsburg. At first the idea was advanced that each prince would draw up a confession for his domain, but then Philipp Melanchthon was given the charge of composing a creed that would suffice for all the German states embracing reform. This creedal statement was then presented to the imperial diet at Augsburg in 1530.
Initially the emperor threatened and begged the princes to recant their “heresy”, but

when they lay their heads on the floor before the emperor’s throne and jointly pledged to allow him to behead them rather than give up their beliefs, the emperor relented and allowed their creed, known famously as the Augsburg Confession, to be officially accepted, thus assuring legality for Lutherans in the German lands. The site of the Augsburg diet was the bishop’s palace. The original one is gone, the only part of it still extant being the bell tower. The current bishop’s palace is shown.

A less well-known event took place in Augsburg in 1518 when Luther met Cardinal Cajetan in a session arranged by Luther’s Augustinian order in order to work out differences with the pope. The meeting was a disaster in terms of such a reconciliation. Luther had been told to say nothing until asked by the cardinal, and then only a yes or no answer. However, in Luther’s flamboyant style, he openly debated and argued with Cajetan who, interestingly enough, was impressed by Luther and thought he might make

a good pope. That meeting took place in the building pictured above built by Jacob Fugger who founded a bank in Augsburg and thus was responsible for much economic growth in Germany. He also built the Fuggerei, the first low-cost public housing project.
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