“3. But so far as it pertains to the divisions in matters of faith, which have arisen in our day, we regard as the unanimous expression and declaration of our Christian faith and confession,—particularly in opposition to the Papacy and its false methods of worship, its idolatry, and its superstition, as well as to other sects,—the symbol of our time, the original, unaltered Augsburg Confession, delivered to the Emperor Charles V. at Augsburg, in the year 1530, at the great Diet; together with the Apology of the same, and the Articles drawn up at Smalcald, in the year 1537, and subscribed by the most eminent theologians at that time.
And inasmuch as these matters also concern all laymen, and the salvation of their souls, we also acknowledge the Smaller and Larger Catechisms of Dr. Luther, in the form in which both these Catechisms occur in the writings of Luther, as a species of bible of the laity, comprising all that is treated of copiously in the holy Scriptures, and all that it is necessary for a Christian to know for his salvation” (Formula of Concord, Epitome, Rule and Standard, Henkel p. 554)