The Leipzig Interim was the signal for a general and prolonged warfare
within the Lutheran Church. It contained the germs of various doctrinal
errors, and produced a spirit of general distrust and suspicion, which
tended to exaggerate and multiply the real differences. Schmauk says:
"The seeds of the subsequent controversies are all to be found in the
Leipzig Interim." (595.) At any rate, most of the controversies after
Luther's death flowed from, or were in some way or other connected with,
this unfortunate document. Such is the view also of the Formula of
Concord, which declares that the thirty years' controversies which it
settled originated especially in the Interim. (857, 19; 947, 29.)
Yet the Interim was rather the occasion than the ultimate cause of these
conflicts. Long before the flames of open discord burst forth, the
embers of secret doctrinal dissension had been glowing under the
surface. Even during the life of Luther much powder had been secretly
stored up for which the Interim furnished the spark. This is proved,
among other things, by Luther's predictions (referred to in the
preceding chapter) concerning his own colleagues. And above all it was
the "peace-loving" Philip who first and most successfully sowed the
dragon's teeth of discord. Melanchthon's doctrinal deviations from the
teachings of Luther and from his own former position must be regarded as
the last cause of both the Leipzig Interim and the lamentable
controversies that followed in its wake. Indeed, a tragic sight to
behold: The co-laborer of Luther, the servant of the Reformation second
only to Luther, the Praeceptor Germaniae, the ardent and anxious lover
of peace, etc.--untrue to his confiding friend, disloyal to the cause of
the Reformation, and the chief cause of strife and dissension in the
Lutheran Church! And withal, Melanchthon, mistaking external union for
real unity and temporal peace with men for true peace with God, felt
satisfied that he had spent the efforts of his entire life in the
interest of the true welfare of the Church! Shortly before his death
(April 19, 1560) he expressed his joy that now he would be delivered
from the "fury of the theologians." On a sheet of paper found on his
table were written a number of reasons why he feared death less. One of
them was: "_Liberaberis ab aerumnis et a rabie teologorum._ You will be
delivered from toils and from the fury of the theologians." (_C. R._ 9,
1098.) Thus even in the face of death he did not realize that he himself
was the chief cause of the conflicts that had embittered his declining
years!