The Catholic Confession: Book I: General, Volume V—Part II, Chapters XIV–XIX and Appendix: Canon Law, Scholasticism, Legends, Revelations, Reason, and Propagation

Johann Gerhard’s Confessio Catholica is one of the monumental documentary works of Lutheran Orthodoxy. Written in the final years of his life, it answers the charge that the churches of the Augsburg Confession had abandoned the historic catholic faith and established a new religion.

This fifth and concluding volume of Book I presents Chapters XIV–XIX and the Appendix. Gerhard tests canon law, scholastic theology, legends of the saints, private revelations, and appeals to natural reason against Scripture, repeatedly calling Roman Catholic authorities as witnesses. He then examines the violent and fraudulent means by which the pontifical religion is propagated and answers accusations against the Lutheran churches and Martin Luther. Translated from the Jena first edition of 1634, this volume includes explanatory and source-critical notes, a selected bibliography, a biographical register, and comprehensive indexes.