SCHWABACH, ARTICLES OF

early Lutheran confession of faith, written in 1529 by Martin Luther and other Wittenberg theologians and incorporated into the Augsburg Confession by Philipp Melanchthon in 1530. It was prepared at the request of John the Steadfast, elector of Saxony, to provide a unifying document for the various Reformers and their followers, and was accepted by the secular leaders of Saxony and Brandenburg. Luther used the confession as the basis for the Articles of Marburg (October 1529). John submitted it as Saxony's official confession of faith to Emperor Charles V at Innsbruck in May 1530, prior to the Diet of Augsburg.