CONCORD, BOOK OF

collected doctrinal standards of the Lutheran church, published in German (June 25, 1580) and in Latin (1584). Its publication climaxed 30 years of effort to heal the schisms that had broken out in the Lutheran movement after Martin Luther's death and to keep the Lutheran churches from being absorbed into an all-Protestant union. After two political conferences (in 1558 and 1561) had failed to produce agreement, the Protestant princes of the Holy Roman Empire entrusted the project to several theologians, who produced the Formula of Concord, an orthodox interpretation of the Augsburg Confession, which was written primarily by Jakob Andre and Martin Chemnitz and put in final form in 1577. The Book of Concord was subsequently compiled. It was not adopted in total by all Lutheran churches, but it has remained the standard of orthodox Lutheranism. It consists of: (1) a preface signed by 51 electors, bishops, princes, and nobles of the Holy Roman Empire and representatives of 35 free cities; (2) the three ecumenical creeds (Apostolic, Nicene, and Athanasian); (3) the Unaltered Augsburg Confession (1530) and (4) its Apology (1531); (5) the Schmalkaldic Articles (153637); (6) Philipp Melanchthon's Treatise on the Power and Primacy of the Pope (1537); (7) Martin Luther's Small and Large Catechisms (1529); (8) the Formula of Concord (1577); and (9) the Catalogue of Testimonies (1580), an optional supplement of citations from the writings of early Church Fathers.