Luther, Melanchthon, and the Specter of Zwingli during the Diet of Augsburg in 1530

Abstract

Since at least the early twentieth century, German scholars of the Reformation have discussed critically the remark in Martin Luther’s letter of 21 July 1530 to his friend and associate Justus Jonas that “Satan still lives and well sensed that your Apology [Augsburg Confession] stepped softly and had ignored the articles about purgatory, the cult of the saints, and especially the antichristian pope.”1 Despite disagreeing about the remark’s precise significance in relation to