Prominent among the theologians who were in essential agreement with
Major was Justus Menius. He was born 1499; became Superintendent in
Gotha 1546; was favorably disposed toward the Leipzig Interim; resigned
his position in Gotha 1557; removed to Leipzig, where he published his
polemical writings against Flacius; died August 11, 1558. In 1554 he was
entangled in the Majoristic controversy. In this year Amsdorf demanded
that Menius, who, together with himself, Schnepf, and Stolz, had been
appointed visitors of Thuringia, declare himself against the
Adiaphorists, and, in particular, reject the books of Major, and his
doctrine that good works are necessary to salvation. Menius declined,
because, he said, he had not read these books. As a result Menius was
charged with being a secret adherent of Majorism.
In 1556, however, Menius himself proved by his publications that this
suspicion was not altogether unwarranted. For in his _Preparation for a
Blessed Death_ and in a _Sermon on Salvation,_ published in that year,
Menius taught that the beginning of the new life in believers is
"necessary to salvation" (Tschackert, 517; _Herzog, R._ 12, 89.) This
caused Flacius to remark in his book, _Concerning the Unity of Those who
in the Past Years have Fought for and against the Adiaphora,_ 1556:
"Major and Menius, in their printed books, are again reviving the error
that good works are necessary to salvation, wherefore it is to be feared
that the latter misfortune will be worse than the former." (Preger 1,
382.) Soon after, Menius was suspended from office and required to clear
himself before the Synod in Eisenach, 1556. Here he subscribed seven
propositions in which the doctrine that good works are necessary to
salvation, or to retain salvation, was rejected.
The seven Eisenach propositions, signed by Menius, read as follows: "1.
Although this proposition, Good works are necessary to salvation, may be
tolerated in the doctrine of the Law abstractly and ideally (_in
doctrina legis abstractive et de idea tolerari potest_), nevertheless
there are many weighty reasons why it should be avoided and shunned no
less than the other: Christ is a creature. 2. In the forum of
justification and salvation this proposition, Good works are necessary
to salvation, is not at all to be tolerated. 3. In the forum of new
obedience, after reconciliation, good works are not at all necessary to
salvation but for other causes. 4. Faith alone justifies and saves in
the beginning, middle, and end. 5. Good works are not necessary to
retain salvation (_ad retinendam salutem_). 6. Justification and
salvation are synonyms and equipollent or convertible terms, and neither
can nor must be separated in any way (_nec ulla ratione distrahi aut
possunt aut debent_). 7. May therefore the papistical buskin be banished
from our church on account of its manifold offenses and innumerable
dissensions and other causes of which the apostles speak Acts 15."
(Preger 1, 383.)
In his subscription to these theses Menius declared: "I, Justus Menius,
testify by my present signature that this confession is true and
orthodox, and that, according to the gift given me by God, I have
heretofore by word and writing publicly defended it, and shall continue
to defend it." In this subscription Menius also promised to correct the
offensive expressions in his _Sermon on Salvation._ However,
dissatisfied with the intolerable situation thus created, he resigned,
and soon after became Superintendent in Leipzig. In three violently
polemical books, published there in 1557 and 1558, he freely vented his
long pent-up feelings of anger and animosity, especially against
Flacius. (384f.)
In these publications, Menius denied that he had ever used the
proposition of Major. However, he not only refused to reject it, but
defended the same error, though in somewhat different terms. He merely
replaced the phrase "good works" by "new life," "new righteousness,"
"new obedience," and affirmed "that it is necessary to our salvation
that such be wrought in us by the Holy Ghost." He wrote: The Holy Spirit
renews those who have become children of God by faith in Christ, and
that this is performed in them "this, I say, they need for their
salvation--_sei ihnen zur Seligkeit vonnoeten._" (Frank 2, 223.) Again:
"He [the Holy Spirit] begins righteousness and life in the believers,
which beginning is in this life (as long as we dwell on earth in this
sinful flesh) very weak and imperfect, _but nevertheless necessary to
salvation,_ and will be perfect after the resurrection, that we may walk
in it before God eternally and be saved." (222.) Works, said Menius,
must not be introduced into the article of justification,
reconciliation, and redemption; but when dealing with the article of
sanctification, "then it is correct to say: Sanctification, or renewal
of the Holy Spirit, is necessary to salvation." (Preger 1, 388.)
With respect to the proposition, Good works are necessary to salvation,
Menius stated that he could not simply condemn it as altogether false
and heretical. Moreover, he argued: "If it is correct to say:
Sanctification, or renewal by the Holy Spirit, is necessary to
salvation, then it cannot be false to say: Good works are necessary to
salvation, since it is certain and cannot be gainsaid that
sanctification and renewal do not and cannot exist without good works."
(386.) Indeed, he himself maintained that "good works are necessary to
salvation in order that we may not lose it again." (387. 391.) At the
same time Menius, as stated above, claimed that he had never employed
Major's proposition, and counseled others to abstain from its use in
order to avoid misinterpretation. The same advice he gave with respect
to his own formula that new obedience is necessary to salvation. (Frank
2, 165. 223.)
Menius also confounded justification and sanctification. He wrote: "By
faith in Christ alone we become just before God and are saved. Why?
Because by faith one receives first, forgiveness of sins and the
righteousness or obedience of Christ, with which He fulfilled the Law
for us; thereupon, one also receives the Holy Spirit, who effects and
fulfils in us the righteousness required by the Law, here in this life
imperfectly and perfectly in the life to come." (Preger 1, 387.) At the
synod of Eisenach, 1556, the theologians accordingly declared: "Although
it is true that grace and the gift through grace cannot be separated,
but are always together, nevertheless the gift of the Holy Spirit is not
a piece or part, much less a co-cause of justification and salvation,
but an appendix, a consequence, and an additional gift of grace.--
_Wiewohl es wahr ist, dass gratia und donum per gratiam nicht koennen
getrennt werden, sondern allezeit beieinander sind, so ist doch die Gabe
des Heiligen Geistes nicht ein Stueck oder Teil, viel weniger eine
Mitursache der Justifikation und Salvation, sondern ist ein Anhang,
Folge und Zugab be der Gnade._" (Seeberg 4, 487.)