Till about 1530 Melanchthon seems to have been in complete harmony with
Luther, and to have followed him enthusiastically. To propagate, coin,
and bring into scholastic form the Christian truths once more brought to
light by the Reformer he considered to be his peculiar mission. But his
secret letters and, with gradually increasing clearness and boldness,
also his publications show that later on he began to strike out on paths
of his own, and to cultivate and disseminate doctrines incompatible with
the Lutheranism of Luther. In a measure, these deviations were known
also to the Wittenberg students and theologians, to Cordatus, Stifel,
Amsdorf, the Elector John Frederick, Brueck, and Luther, who also called
him to account whenever sufficient evidence warranted his doing so.
(_Lehre und Wehre_ 1908, 61ff.)
In a letter to Cordatus, dated April 15, 1537, Melanchthon was bold
enough to state that he had made many corrections in his writings and
was glad of the fact: "_Multa ultro correxi in libellis meis et
correxisse me gaudeo._" (_C. R._ 3, 342.) In discussing the squabble
between Cordatus and Melanchthon whether good works are necessary for
salvation, Luther is reported by the former to have said, in 1536: "To
Philip I leave the sciences and philosophy and nothing else. But I shall
be compelled to chop off the head of philosophy, too." (Kolde,
_Analecta,_ 266.) Melanchthon, as Luther put it, was always troubled by
his philosophy; that is to say, instead of subjecting his reason to the
Word of God, he was inclined to balance the former against the latter.
The truth is that Melanchthon never fully succeeded in freeing himself
from his original humanistic tendencies, a fact which gave his mind a
moralistic rather than a truly religious and Scriptural bent. Even
during the early years of the Reformation when he was carried away with
admiration for Luther and his work, the humanistic undercurrent did not
disappear altogether. January 22, 1525, he wrote to Camerarius: "_Ego
mihi conscius sum, non ullam ob causam unquam tetheologekenai, nisi at
mores meos emendarem_. I am conscious of the fact that I have never
theologized for any other reason than to improve my morals." (_C. R._ 1,
722.) Such, then, being his frame of mind, it was no wonder that he
should finally desert Luther in most important points, lapse into
synergism and other errors, and, in particular value
indifferentistically doctrinal convictions, notably on the real presence
in the Lord's Supper and the person of Christ. "Over against Luther,"
says Schaff, "Melanchthon represented the unionistic and liberal type of
Lutheranism." (_Creeds,_ 1, 259.) This is correct; but the stricture
must be added that, since unionism and liberalism are incompatible with
the very essence of Lutheranism, Melanchthonianism as such was in
reality not a "type," but a denial of Lutheranism.
Melanchthon lacked the simple faith in, and the firm adherence and
implicit submission to, the Word of God which made Luther the undaunted
and invincible hero of the Reformation. Standing four-square on the
Bible and deriving from this source of divine power alone all his
theological thoughts and convictions, Luther was a rock, firm and
immovable. With him every theological question was decided and settled
conclusively by quoting a clear passage from the Holy Scriptures, while
Melanchthon, devoid of Luther's single-minded and whole-hearted devotion
to the Word of God, endeavored to satisfy his reason as well.
Consequently he lacked assurance and firm conviction, wavered and
vacillated, and was never fully satisfied that the position he occupied
was really the only correct one, while, on the other hand, he endeavored
to present his views concerning some of the disputed doctrines in
ambiguous and indefinite terms. "We have twenty-eight large volumes of
Melanchthon's writings," says C. P. Krauth, "and, at this hour,
impartial and learned men are not agreed as to what were his views on
some of the profoundest questions of church doctrine, on which
Melanchthon was writing all his life!" (_Conservative Ref.,_ 291;
Schmauk, 748.) This indefinite and wavering attitude towards divine
truth, the natural consequence of the humanistic bent of his mind,
produced in Melanchthon a general tendency and proneness to surrender or
compromise doctrinal matters in the interest of policy, and to barter
away eternal truth for temporal peace. It made him an indifferentist and
a unionist, always ready to strike a bargain also in matters pertaining
to Christian faith, and to cover doctrinal differences with ambiguous
formulas. While Luther's lifelong attitude on matters of Christian
doctrine is characterized by the famous words spoken by him at Worms in
1521: "_Ich kann nicht anders,_ I cannot do otherwise," Melanchthon,
treating even questions of faith as matters of expediency rather than of
conscience, was the man who, as a rule, could also do otherwise, and who
was great in manufacturing "Polish boots," as the ambiguous phrases by
which he endeavored to unite opposing parties were called by the
Lutherans in Reuss.
In order to preserve peace with the Romanists at Augsburg in 1530, he
did not hesitate to sacrifice Lutheran truths and to receive into the
bargain a number of what he considered minor papal errors. In his
subsequent overtures to the Reformed he was more than willing to make
similar concessions. The spirit of Melanchthon was the spirit of
religious indifference and of unionism, which, though thoroughly
eliminated by the Formula of Concord, was from time to time revived
within the Lutheran Church by such men as Calixtus, Spener, Zinzendorf,
Neander, and, in our own country, by S. S. Schmucker.
The unionistic tendencies and doctrinal corruptions which Melanchthon
injected into Lutheranism were all the more dangerous to our Church
because they derived special weight and prestige from the fact that
Luther had unstintingly praised his gifts, his books, and the services
he had rendered the Church (St. L. 18, 1671; 23, 1152), that he was now
generally regarded as Luther's successor with regard to theological
leadership of the Church; and that he was gratefully admired as the
Praeceptor Germaniae by a host of loyal pupils, who made it a point also
to cultivate just those theological peculiarities of Master Philip, as
they called him, in which he differed from Luther.