We  must,  however,  acknowledge  that  from  the  moment  they  had
decided  to  refuse  to  admit  the  adherents  of  Zwingli  into  their  community,
this  was  impossible.  They  found  themselves  almost  eclipsed  by  the
popularity  of  the  doctrines  taught  by  Zwingli ;  the  majority  of  the  inhabi-
tants of  Augsburg  espoused  the  latter  ;  and  nothing  less  was  talked  of
than  a  union  of  Upper  Germany  and  Switzerland,  in  order  to  overthrow
the  entire  hierarchy  of  the  empire.  Even  one  of  the  most  eminent  of  the
reforming  princes,  Landgrave  Philip  of  Hessen,  seemed  from  his  con-
versation to  lean  to  the  side  of  Zwingli.2  A  special  admonition  from
Luther  was  required,  to  induce  him  to  subscribe  the  Confession.
1  It  is  well  known  that  neither  of  the  originals  of  the  Augsburg  Confession,
signed  by  the  princes,  has  ever  come  to  light.  It  was  for  a  long  time  thought
that  the  German  copy  had  been  discovered  in  Mainz  ;  but  Weber  in  his  "  Kritische
Geschichte  der  Augsburger  Confession  "  has  shown  with  scrupulous  industry
that  this,  like  many  others,  is  a  transcript  without  any  authentic  value.  These
transcripts  present  a  number  of  deviations  both  from  each  other  and  from  the
first  edition,  which  Melanchthon  superintended  in  the  year  1530.  Fortunately
the  deviations,  though  numerous,  are  not  important.  The  scribes  of  that  time
allowed  themselves  slight  freedoms,  especially  in  the  law  language,  which  was
so  little  fixed  ;  but,  for  the  meaning  and  tenor,  these  seldom  are  of  any  moment.
