Text Files Available

I was able to secure the text files for Confessio Catholica by going to UW-Madison. I will e-mail them to you if you so desire.

Great News!

Concordia Theological Seminary in St. Louis is going to send me their copy of Confessio Catholica so I can take digital images of it!

Status on Obtaining the Text

I am still busy trying to get the text for Confessio Catholica.

1) I'm checking with my local public library to see if I can request a copy of the book from Concordia Seminary in St. Louis.

2) If I cannot get the book from Concordia Seminary I am going to see if the University of Minnesota will allow me to make digital photographs of the one they have in their rare book collection. I was initially going to go up there on September 3 & 4, but I called them just to make sure I could and they said the book has to be reviewed first. I did not want to drive an hour and a half to have the U of M tell me I could not make photographs of it.

Team Members Welcome

If anyone would like to participate in this blog just send your e-mail to me at jfschmidt@mchsi.com and I will add you to the list.

Blog Mission Statement

My purpose in starting this blog is to make the Latin text of Johann Gerhard’s Confessio Catholica readily available and perhaps speed up its translation. I have found the work very hard to come by as it is more often than not in the rare book collection of various university and seminary libraries.

Hopefully I will be heading to the University of Minnesota on September 3-4 to make digital photographs of Confessio Catholica in their rare book collection.

Over time I will type the Latin text and post it along with the digital images. This will be a massive project that may take several years due to the size of the work and time constraints (I believe the work is around 1,600 pages).

What is Confessio Catholica?

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Confessio Catholica is one of the main works of German Orthodox Lutheran theologian Johann Gerhard (1582 – 1637). It seeks to prove the evangelical and catholic character of the doctrine of the Augsburg Confession from the writings of approved Roman Catholic authors.


Confessio catholica, in qua doctrina catholica et evangelica, quam ecclesiae Augustanae confessioni addictae profilentur, ex Romano-catholicorum scriptorum suffragiis confirmatur (4 parts, Frankfort and Leipsic, 1634-37), is based upon the Catalogus testium veritatis of Flacius. It is more comprehensive than its title denotes, being at the same time an extensive apology and polemic of the Evangelical Creed. The first part is general and treats the principia et media nostrae et pontificiae religionis. The other three volumes treat the disputed articles of faith in the order of Bellarmine, the controversialist par excellence.