Well, Jon, that’s not necessarily the case. Back in the day, so to speak, the body of Lutherans did submit themselves in the Augsburg Confession to the judgment of a General Council with no mention being made for the participation of the Orthodox Church.
For you see, Jon, that the difficulty in condemning the doctrine of the Church was pressing, and this was the reason that the Lutherans dared not acknowledge that their confession of faith was opposite to the Church of Rome, or that they had withdrawn themselves from her. They endeavored to have it believed that they were not distinguished but by certain rites and slight observances. And, moreover, to show they always pretended to make one body with her, they openly submited to her council.
This appears in the preface of the Confession of Augsburg, addressed to Charles the V.
“Your imperial majesty has declared, that you could determine nothing in this affair, wherein religion was concerned, but would have recourse to the Pope, to procure the convention of an universal council. You repeated the same declaration in the last year in the diet held at Spire, and manifested that you persisted in the resolution of procuring this assembly of a general council: adding that the affairs between you and the Pope being concluded (no mention of the Orthodox Church here), you believed he might easily be induced to call a general council.”
By this it is seen what council it was, of which there was question. It was a general council, to be assembled by the Pope, and the Lutherans submitted themselves to it in these terms: “If matters of religion cannot be amicably arranged with our parties, we offer in all obedience to your imperial majesty, to appear and plead our own cause before such a general, free, and Christian council.”
And, finally, “It is to this general council, and to your imperial majesty conjointly, that we have and do appeal, and we adhere to this appeal.”
When they spoke in this manner, it was not their intention to give the emperor authority to pronounce on the articles of faith: but upon appealing to the council, they also named the emperor in their appeal as the person who was to procure the convocation of this holy assembly, and whom they solicited to retain in the meantime all things in suspense.
So solemn a declaration will remain for ever upon the record in the most authentic act the Lutherans have ever made, and in the very front of the Augsburg Confession, in testimony against them, and in acknowledgement of the inviolable authority of the Church.
All then submitted to it, and whatever might be done before her decision arrived, was all provisional. But, after the horror of schism had diminished and the party had gained strength by treaties and leagues, the Church was forgotten and all they said of her holy authority vanished like a dream, and the title " of a free and Christian Council," used by them, became a pretext to render their calling for a council illusionary.
