Does the original sin affect the essence of man, the substance of man and destroy his likeness to God, or does it ultimately remain something external, an accident that leaves man with the ability to participate in his own justification? - This question is at the center of the so-called original sin dispute that broke out in the aftermath of the Weimar disputation of 1560 between Matthias Flacius Illyricus and Victorin Strigel. With the publication of Flacius' original sin treaty as part of his textbook "Clavis scripturae" in 1567, the discussion expanded into a heated argument among once-like-minded Lutheran theologians, which produced numerous pamphlets, which were broadcast in the congregations and in some cases were violently carried out. Even the formula of concord from 1577 could not completely settle the dispute, especially in Austria there were still communities that clung to Flacius' radical doctrine of original sin for a longer period of time.
