Though not personally mentioned and attacked by the opponents of
Majorism, Melanchthon must be regarded as the real father also of this
controversy. He was the first to introduce and to cultivate the phrase:
"Good works are necessary to salvation." In his _Loci_ of 1535 he taught
that, in the article of justification, good works are the _causa sine
qua non_ and are necessary to salvation, _ad vitam aeternam, ad
salutem._ (Herzog, _R. E._, 1903, 12, 519; Galle, _Melanchthon,_ 345.
134.) Melanchthon defined: "_Causa sine qua non_ works nothing, nor is
it a constituent part but merely something without which the effect does
not occur, or by which, if it were not present, the working cause would
be hindered because it was not added. _Causa sine qua non nihil agit,
nec est pars constituens, sed tantum est quiddam, sine quo non fit
effectus, seu quo, si non adesset, impediretur agens, ideo quia illud
non accessisset."_ (Preger 1, 356.) According to Melanchthon, therefore,
justification cannot occur without the presence of good works. He
explained: "_Et tamen bona opera ita necessaria sunt ad vitam aeternam,
quia sequi reconciliationem necessario debent._ Nevertheless good works
are necessary to eternal life, inasmuch as they must necessarily follow
reconciliation." (_C. R._ 21, 429. 775.) According to the context in
which it is found, this statement includes that good works are necessary
also to justification; for Melanchthon, too, correctly held "that the
adoption to eternal life or the gift of eternal life was connected with
justification, that is, the reconciliation imparted to faith." (453.)
At Wittenberg Melanchthon's efforts to introduce the new formula met
with energetic opposition, especially on the part of Cordatus and
Amsdorf. The formula: "_Bona opera non quidem esse causam efficientem
salutis, sed tamen causam sine qua non_--Good works are indeed not the
efficient cause of salvation, but nevertheless an indispensable cause,"
a necessary antecedent, was launched in a lecture delivered July 24,
1536, by a devoted pupil of Melanchthon, Caspar Cruciger, Sr. [born at
Leipzig, January 1, 1504; professor in Wittenberg; assisted Luther in
translating the Bible and in taking down his lectures and sermons;
present at colloquies in Marburg 1529, in Wittenberg 1536, in Smalcald
1537, in Worms and Hagenau 1540 in Regensburg 1541, in Augsburg 1548;
died November 16, 1548]. According to Ratzeberger, Cruciger had
dictated: "_Bona opera requiri ad salutem tamquam causam sine qua non._"
Cordatus reports Cruciger's dictation as follows: "_Tantum Christus est
causa propter quem; interim tamen verum est, homines agere aliquid
oportere; oportere nos habere contritionem et debere Verbo erigere
conscientiam, ut fidem concipiamus, ut nostra contritio et noster
conatus sunt causae iustificationis sine quibus non_--our contrition and
our endeavor are causes of justification without which it does not take
place." (3, 350.)
Cordatus immediately attacked the new formula as false. "I know," said
he, "that this duality of causes cannot stand with the simple article of
justification." (3, 350.) He demanded a public retraction from Cruciger.
Before long Amsdorf also entered the fray. September 14, 1536, he wrote
to Luther about the new-fangled teaching of Melanchthon, "that works are
necessary to eternal life." (3, 162; Luther, St. L. 21b, 4104.) Pressed
by Cordatus, Cruciger finally admitted that Melanchthon was back of the
phrases he had dictated. He declared that he was the pupil of Mr.
Philip; that the entire dictation was Mr. Philip's; that by him he had
been led into this matter; and that he did not know how it happened. _Se
esse D. Philippi discipulum, et dictata omnia esse D. Philippi, se ab eo
in illam rem traductum, et nescire quomodo._" [tr. note: no opening
quotation mark in original] (_C. R._ 3, 162.)
That Melanchthon had been making efforts to introduce the new phrases in
Wittenberg appears from the passage in his _Loci_ of 1535 quoted above,
and especially from his letters of the two following years. November 5,
1536, he wrote to Veit Dietrich: "Cordatus incites the city, its
neighborhood, and even the Court against me because in the explanation
of the controversy on justification I have said that new obedience is
necessary to salvation, _novam obedientiam necessariam esse ad
salutem._" (185. 179.) May 16, 1537, Veit Dietrich wrote to Forester:
"Our Cordatus, driven, I know not, by what furies, writes against Philip
and Cruciger as against heretics, and is determined to force Cruciger to
retract because he has said that good works are necessary to
salvation.... This matter worries Philip very much, and if certain
malicious men do not control themselves, he threatens to leave." (372.)
As for Melanchthon, he made no efforts to shirk the responsibility for
Cruciger's dictation. "_Libenter totam rem in me transfero_--I
cheerfully transfer the entire affair to myself" he wrote April 15,
1537. Yet he was worried much more than his words seem to indicate.
(342.)
Complaints against the innovations of Melanchthon and Cruciger were also
lodged with Luther by Cordatus, Amsdorf, and Stiefel. Cordatus reports
Luther as saying after the matter had been related to him, October 24,
1536: "This is the very theology of Erasmus, nor can anything be more
opposed to our doctrine. _Haec est ipsissima theologia Erasmi, neque
potest quidquam nostrae doctrinae esse magis adversum._" To say that new
obedience is the "_causa sine qua non--sine qua non contingit vita
aeterna,_" Luther declared, was tantamount to treading Christ and His
blood under our feet. "_Cruciger autem haec, quae publice dictavit,
publice revocabit._ What he has publicly dictated, Cruciger shall
publicly retract." (Kolde, _Analecta,_ 266.)
According to Ratzeberger, Luther immediately warned and censured
Cruciger "in severe terms." (_C. R._ 4, 1038.) Flacius reports that
Luther had publicly declared more than five times: "_Propositionem: Bona
opera esse necessaria ad salutem, volumus damnatam, abrogatam, ex
ecclesiis et scholis nostris penitus explosam._" (Schluesselburg 7,
567.) After his return from Smalcald, where he had expressed grave fears
as to the future doctrinal soundness of his Wittenberg colleagues,
Luther, in a public disputation on June 1, 1537 "exploded and condemned"
the teaching that good works are necessary to salvation, or necessary to
salvation as a _causa sine qua non_. (_Lehre u. Wehre_ 1908, 65.) Both
parties were present at the disputation, Cordatus as well as Melanchthon
and Cruciger. In a letter to Veit Dietrich, June 27, 1537, Cruciger
reports: Luther maintained that new obedience is an "effect necessarily
following justification," but he rejected the statement: "New obedience
is necessary to salvation, _necessariam ad salutem._" He adds: "_Male
hoc habuit nostrum [Melanchthon], sed noluit eam rem porro agitare._
Melanchthon was displeased with this, but he did not wish to agitate the
matter any further." (_C. R._ 3, 385.) After the disputation Cruciger
was handed an anonymous note, saying that his "Treatise on Timothy" was
now branded as "heretical, sacrilegious, impious, and blasphemous
(_haeretica, sacrilega, impia et blasphema_)," and unless he retracted,
he would have to be regarded as a Papist, a teacher and servant of Satan
and not of Christ, and that his dictations would be published. (387.) In
a letter to Dietrich, Cruciger remarks that Luther had disapproved of
this anonymous writing, but he adds: "I can't see why he [Luther] gives
so much encouragement to Cordatus." (385.)
In private, Luther repeatedly discussed this matter also with
Melanchthon. This appears from their Disputation of 1536 on the
question: "Whether this proposition is true: The righteousness of works
is necessary to salvation." (E. 58, 353.) In a letter to Dietrich of
June 22, 1537, Melanchthon, in substance, refers as follows to his
discussions with Luther: I am desirous of maintaining the unity of the
Wittenberg Academy; in this matter I also employ some art; nor does
Luther seem to be inimical; yesterday he spoke to me in a very kind
manner on the questions raised by Quadratus [Cordatus]. What a spectacle
if the Lutherans would oppose each other as the Cadmean brethren! I will
therefore modify whatever I can. Yet I desire a more thorough exposition
of the doctrines of predestination, of the consent of the will, of the
necessity of our obedience, and of the sin unto death. (_C. R._ 3, 383.)
A number of private letters written by Melanchthon during and
immediately after his conflict with Cordatus, however, reveal much
animosity, not only against Cordatus, but against Luther as well. Nor do
those written after Luther's disputation, June 1, 1537, indicate that he
was then fully cured of his error. (357. 392. 407.) Moreover, in his
_Loci_ of 1538 we read: "_Et tamen haec nova spiritualis obedientia
(nova spiritualitas) necessaria est ad vitam aeternam._ And nevertheless
this new spiritual obedience is necessary to eternal life." (21, 429.)
Evidently, then, Melanchthon did not grasp the matter, and was not
convinced of the incorrectness of his phraseology. Yet he made it a
point to avoid and eliminate from his publications the obnoxious
formula: "_Bona opera necessaria esse ad salutem._" At any rate, his
essay on Justification and Good Works, of October 1537, as well as
subsequent publications of his, do not contain it. In the _Loci_ of
1538, just referred to, he replaced the words _bona opera_ by the phrase
_obedientia haec nova spiritualis,_--indeed, a purely verbal rather than
a doctrinal change. Nor did it reappear even in the _Variata_ of 1540.
In 1541, at Regensburg, Melanchthon consented to the formula "that we
are justified by a living and efficacious faith--_iustificari per fidem
vivam et efficacem._" But when Luther deleted the words "_et efficacem,_
and efficacious," Melanchthon acquiesced. (4, 499.) In the _Loci_ of
1543 he expunged the appendix "_ad salutem,_ to salvation." At the same
time, however, he retained the error in a more disguised form, _viz._,
that good works are necessary to retain faith. For among the reasons why
good works are necessary he here enumerates also "the necessity of
retaining the faith, since the Holy Spirit is expelled and grieved when
sins against the conscience are admitted." (21, 775.)