54. Apology Recast by Melanchthon.

Owing to the fact that Melanchthon, immediately after the presentation
of the Apology, resolved to revise and recast it, the original draft was
forced into the background. It remained unknown for a long time and was
published for the first time forty-seven years after the Diet. Chytraeus
embodied it in his _Historia Augustanae Confessionis,_ 1578, with the
caption, "_Prima Delineatio Caesari Carolo Die 22. Septembris Oblata,
sed Non Recepta_--The First Draft which was Offered to Emperor Charles
on September 22, but Not Accepted." The German and Latin texts are found
in _Corp. Ref._ 27, 275ff. and 322. Following is the Latin title:
"Apologia Confessionis, 1530. Ps. 119: Principes persecuti sunt me
gratis." The German title runs: "Antwort der Widerlegung auf unser
Bekenntnis uebergeben." (245. 378.) Plitt says of the original Apology:
"It was well qualified to be presented to the Emperor, and, in form
also, far surpassed the Confutation of the Papists. Still the
Evangelical Church suffered no harm when the Emperor declined to accept
it. The opportunity for revision which was thus offered and fully
exploited by Melanchthon, who was never able to satisfy himself,
resulted in a great improvement. The Apology as it appeared the
following year is much riper, sharper in its rebuttal, and stronger in
its argumentation." (88.)

The draft of the Apology presented at Augsburg concluded as follows: "If
the Confutation had been forwarded to us for inspection we would perhaps
have been able to give a more adequate answer on these and additional
points." (_C. R._ 27, 378.) When, therefore, the Emperor had refused to
accept it, Melanchthon determined to revise, reenforce, and augment the
document. September 23 he left Augsburg in the company of the Elector;
and already while _en route_ he began the work. In his _History of the
Augsburg Confession,_ 1730, Salig remarks: "Still the loss of the first
copy [of the Apology] does not seem to be so great, since we now possess
the Apology in a more carefully elaborated form. For while the Diet was
still in session, and also after the theologians had returned home,
Melanchthon was constantly engaged upon it, casting it into an entirely
different mold, and making it much more extensive than it was before.
When the theologians had returned to Saxony from the Diet, Melanchthon,
in Spalatin's house at Altenburg, even worked at it on Sunday, so that
Luther plucke