In his letter to Luther the Elector made special reference also to the
qualified subscription of Melanchthon. "Concerning the Pope," he said,
"we have no hesitation about resisting him most vehemently. For if, from
good opinion, or for the sake of peace, as Magister Philip suggests, we
should suffer him to remain a lord having the right to command us, our
bishops, pastors, and preachers, we would expose ourselves to danger and
burden (because he and his successors will not cease in their endeavors
to destroy us entirely and to root out all our posterity), for which
there is no necessity, since God's Word has delivered and redeemed us
therefrom. And if we, now that God has delivered us from the Babylonian
captivity, should again run into such danger and thus tempt God, this
[subjection to the Pope] would, by a just decree of God, come upon us
through our wisdom, which otherwise, no doubt, will not come to pass."
(2145.) Evidently, the Elector, though not regarding Melanchthon's
deviation as a false doctrine, did not consider it to be without danger.
At the beginning of the Reformation, Luther had entertained similar
thoughts, but he had long ago seen through the Papacy, and abandoned
such opinions. In the Smalcald Articles he is done with the Pope and his
superiority, also by human right. And this for two reasons: first,
because it would be impossible for the Pope to agree to a mere
superiority _iure humano,_ for in that case he must suffer his rule and
estate to be overturned and destroyed together with all his laws and
books; in brief, he cannot do it; in the second place, because even such
a purely human superiority would only harm the Church. (473, 7. 8.)
Melanchthon, on the other hand, still adhered to the position which he
had occupied in the compromise discussions at Augsburg, whence, _e.g._,
he wrote to Camerarius, August 31, 1530 "Oh, would that I could, not
indeed fortify the domination, but restore the administration of the
bishops. For I see what manner of church we shall have when the
ecclesiastical body has been disorganized. I see that afterwards there
will arise a much more intolerable tyranny [of the princes] than there
ever was before." (_C. R._ 2, 334.) At Smalcald, however, his views met
with so little response among the princes and theologians that in his
"Tract on the Primacy of the Pope" he omitted them entirely and followed
Luther's trend of thought. March 1, 1537, Melanchthon himself wrote
concerning his defeat at the deliberations of the theologians on the
question in which articles concessions might be made in the interest of
peace, saying that the unlearned and the more vehement would not hear of
concessions, since the Lutherans would then be charged with
inconsistency and the Emperor would only increase his demands. (_C. R._
3, 292.) Evidently then, even at that time Melanchthon was not entirely
cured of his utopian dream.
"If the Pontiff would admit the Gospel, _si pontifex evangelium
admitteret._" A. Osiander remarked: "That is, if the devil would become
an apostle." In the Jena edition of Luther's works Melanchthon's phrase
is commented upon as follows: "And yet the Pope with his wolves, the
bishops, even now curses, blasphemes, and outlaws the holy Gospel more
horribly than ever before, raging and fuming against the Church of
Christ and us poor Christians in most horrible fashion, both with fire
and sword, and in whatever way he can, like a real werwolf, [tr. note:
sic!] aye, like the very devil himself." (6, 557b.) The same comment is
found in the edition of the Smalcald Articles prepared 1553 by Stolz
and Aurifaber, where the passage begins: "O quantum mutatus ab illo [the
former Melanchthon]!" (Koellner, 448. 457.) Carpzov remarks pertinently:
"This subscription [of Melanchthon] is not a part of the Book of Concord
[it does not contain the doctrine advocated by the Book of Concord], nor
was it approved by Luther; moreover, it was later on repudiated by
Philip himself." (_Isagoge_ 823. 894.)