Perhaps the grave character of the master-points at issue with Romanism
demanded these closely-succeeding expressions of doctrinal opinion; but
we question if the advantage was not much less than the outlay. First of
all came Melanchthon's celebrated _Augsburg Confession_, in 1530. The
Roman Catholics replied by their _Confutation_, which, in turn, was
answered by Melanchthon in the _Apology of the Confession_. Luther
followed in 1536-'37 with his _Articles of Smalcald_, and still later by
his two _Catechisms_. In 1577 came the _Formula Concordiae_, and in 1580
the symbolical canon entitled _Liber Concordiae_.
Amid this mass of doctrinal opinion in which many conflicting points
were easy enough to find, it was no small task to know what to accept.
The air was filled with the sounds of strife. Those who had fought so
steadfastly against Papacy were now turning their weapons in deadly
strife against each other.
The very names by which Church History has recorded the memory of these
strifes indicate the real littleness of many of the points in question.
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