It was thus that the ‘Confession of Augsbourg’ was composed; and we observe on its very surface thus much of the spirit of conciliation, that of its twenty-eight chapters twenty-one were devoted to the exposition of the opinions of the Reformers, while seven only were directed against the tenets of their adversaries. In the tedious and perplexing negotiations that followed, some concessions were privately proposed by Melancthon, which could scarcely have been sanctioned by Luther, as they were inconsistent with the principles of the Reformation and the independence of the Reformers. In some letters written towards the conclusion of the Diet, he acknowledged in the strongest terms the authority of the Roman Church, and all its hierarchy; he asserted that there was positively no doctrinal difference between the parties; that the whole dispute turned on matters of discipline and practice; and that, if the Pope would grant only a provisional toleration on the two points of the double communion and the marriage of the clergy, it would not be difficult to remove all other differences, not excepting that respecting the mass. “Concede,” he says to the Pope’s legate, “or pretend to concede those two points, and we will submit to the bishops; and if some slight differences shall still remain between the two parties, they will not occasion any breach of union, because there is no difference on any point of faith, and they will be governed by the same bishops; and these bishops, having once recovered their authority, will be able in process of time to correct defects which must now of necessity be tolerated.” On this occasion Melancthon took counsel of Erasmus rather than of Luther. It was his object at any rate to prevent the war with which the Protestants were threatened, and from which he may have expected their destruction. But the perfect and almost unconditional submission to the Roman hierarchy, which he proposed as the only alternative, would have accomplished the same purpose much more certainly; and Protestant writers have observed, that the bitterest enemy of the Reformation could have suggested no more effectual or insidious method of subverting it, than that which was so warmly pressed upon the Roman Catholics by Melancthon himself. Luther was indignant when he heard of these proceedings; he strongly urged Melancthon to break off the negotiations, and to abide by the Confession. Indeed, it appears that these degrading concessions to avowed enemies produced, as is ever the case, no other effect than to increase their pride and exalt their expectations, and so lead them to demand still more unworthy conditions, and a still more abject humiliation.