What constitutes a tyrannical government? How and when are Christians to respond and act when a government does become tyrannical? Are Christians to have unlimited obedience to the State?
These questions and others were addressed and answered by the pastors in their Confession. In defiance of Charles V’s tyranny, they declared “Divine laws necessarily trump human ones.”
The Magdeburg Confession is the first document in the history of man to set forth
the Lesser Magistrate Doctrine.
What the pastors of Magdeburg wrote in the Confession impacted men like John Knox, Theodore Beza and Phillip Mornay. The repercussions of the The Magdeburg Confession were felt throughout Western Civilization all the way to the founding of America as a nation. For over 460 years, the Confession has existed only in Latin and German. Now English-speaking people can read it for themselves. This is the first English translation of The Magdeburg Confession ever written.