Formula of Concord

It was instigated at the behest of the Elector August of Saxony, and it was the joint work of a group of Lutheran theologians and churchmen of the latter sixteenth century.

They were Jakob Andreä (1528–90), Martin Chemnitz (1522–86), Nikolaus Selnecker (1528–92), David Chytraeus (1531–1600), Andreas Musculus (1514–81), Christoph Körner (1518–94), Caspar Heyderich (1517–86), Paul Crell (1532–79), Maximilian Mörlin (1516–84), Wolfgang Harder (1522–1602), Daniel Gräser (1504–91), Nicholas Jagenteufel (1520–83), Johannes Cornicaelius, John Schütz (1531–84), Martin Mirus (1532–93), Georg Listenius (1532–96), and Peter Glaser (1528–83).

A smaller set of this group (Andreä, Chemnitz, Selnecker, Chytraeus, Musculus, and Körner) worked on the document a year later in Bergen Abbey, near Magdeburg, both from March 1–14, and in May, 1577.

Having before them two earlier documents (the Swabian-Saxon Concord, drafted by Andreä in 1574 and the so-called Maulbron Formula of 1576) the first group of theologians produced the Torgau Book.

Subsequently, it was signed (subscribed to) by three electors of the Holy Roman Empire, twenty dukes and princes, twenty-four counts, four barons, thirty-five free imperial cities, and over 8,000 pastors.