While Melanchthon in a public and formal way, continued, in the manner
indicated, to maintain orthodox appearances till his death, he had
inwardly and in reality since 1530 come to be more and more of a
stranger to Luther's firmness of conviction, also with respect to the
doctrine of the Lord's Supper. Influenced by an undue respect for the
authority of the ancient fathers and misled by his reason or, as Luther
put it, by his philosophy, he gradually lost his firm hold on the clear
words of the institution of the Holy Supper. As a result he became a
wavering reed, driven to and fro with the wind, now verging toward
Luther, now toward Calvin. Always oscillating between truth and error,
he was unable to rise to the certainty of firm doctrinal conviction, and
the immovable stand which characterized Luther. In a letter dated May
24, 1538, in which he revealed the torments of his distracted and
doubting soul, he wrote to Veit Dietrich: "Know that for ten years
neither a night nor a day has passed in which I did not reflect on this
matter," the Lord's Supper. (_C. R._ 3, 537.) And his doubts led to a
departure from his own former position,--a fact for which also
sufficient evidences are not wholly lacking. "Already in 1531," says
Seeberg, "Melanchthon secretly expressed his opinion plainly enough to
the effect that it was sufficient to acknowledge a presence of the
divinity of Christ in the Lord's Supper, but not a union of the body and
the bread. _Ep._, p.85." (_Dogg._ 4, 2, 447.)
That Melanchthon's later public statements and protestations concerning
his faithful adherence to the doctrine of the _Augsburg Confession_ must
be more or less discounted, appears, apart from other considerations,
from his own admission that he was wont to dissimulate in these and
other matters; from his private letters, in which he favorably refers to
the symbolical interpretation of the words of institution; from his
communication to Philip of Hesse with regard to Luther's article on the
Lord's Supper at Smalcald, referred to in a previous chapter; from the
changes which he made 1540 in Article X of the _Augsburg Confession_;
from his later indefinite statements concerning the real presence in the
Holy Supper; from his intimate relations and his cordial correspondence
with Calvin; from his public indifference and neutrality during the
eucharistic controversy with the Calvinists; and from his unfriendly
attitude toward the champions of Luther in this conflict.