There were several causes which contributed to the intemperate controversies that sprang up immediately after the Reformation. The Reformers were involved in serious disputes among themselves. Had Luther and Zwinglius never uttered the word _Consubstantiation_ they would have gained multitudes to the cause they both loved so dearly. Many other questions, which unfortunately occupied so much public attention, caused minute divisions among those who should have stood firm and united in that plastic period of the great movement. But it is to the numerous confessions of faith that we must attribute most of these controversies. Perhaps the grave character of the master-points at issue with Romanism demanded these closely-succeeding expressions of doctrinal opinion; but we question if the advantage was not much less than the outlay. First of all came Melanchthon's celebrated _Augsburg Confession_, in 1530. The Roman Catholics replied by their _Confutation_, which, in turn, was answered by Melanchthon in the _Apology of the Confession_. Luther followed in 1536-'37 with his _Articles of Smalcald_, and still later by his two _Catechisms_. In 1577 came the _Formula Concordiae_, and in 1580 the symbolical canon entitled _Liber Concordiae_. Amid this mass of doctrinal opinion in which many conflicting points were easy enough to find, it was no small task to know what to accept. The air was filled with the sounds of strife. Those who had fought so steadfastly against Papacy were now turning their weapons in deadly strife against each other.