fault will it be?" He then proceeds to denounce the power and
consecration which he had admitted at the time of the Augsburg Diet,
and declares the church's entire independence of Rome for ordination.
[Note 1]

Again, the Preamble asserts, "That the entire Lutheran Church of
Germany has rejected the symbolical books _as a whole_, and also
abandoned some of the doctrines of the Augsburg Confession, among
others the far greater part of them, the doctrine of the _bodily_
presence of the Saviour in the eucharist."

The truth of these positions is well known to those acquainted with
the churches in Germany generally. A few extracts from standard
authorities may be pleasing to those not well informed on this subject.
Says _Koellner_, in 1837: "The theologians of more recent times have,
as a body, departed from the rigid doctrinal system of the symbols, and
let it be particularly noted, not only those who in the opposing parties
are termed rationalists, but also those who, in antithesis to these,
desire to be regarded as _champions for the doctrines of the church._
Accordingly, not only those who have been sufficiently denounced as
heterodox, have abandoned the doctrines of the symbols, but also the
so-called _orthodox_, such as _Doederlein, Morus, Michaelis_, the
venerable _Reinhard, Knapp, Storr, Schott, Schwartz, Augusti,
Marheinecke_, as well as _Hahn, Oltshausen, Tholuk_, and _Hengstenberg_.
In like manner has the public _pledge to the symbols_ been greatly
relaxed, and is _nowhere unconditional_; but in fidelity to the
principles of Protestantism, and guarding it, the obligation is always
expressed with the _explicit reservation_ of the supreme authority of
the Scriptures, as is evident from an inspection of the pledges
prescribed in the different Protestant countries." [Note 2] Again: "It