CHAPTER XVIII. LUTHER AND MELANCHTHON pages 319-378✦

1. MELANCHTHON IN THE SERVICE OF LUTHERANISM, 1518-30.

What Luther owed to his friend. Their earlier relations; Luther’s unstinted praise; Melanchthon’s apprehensions; his work during the Visitation in 1527; is horrified by Luther’s language to Duke George and saddened by the “Protest” of the dissidents at Spires. Melanchthon at the Diet of Augsburg, 1530. The “Augsburg Confession” and its “Apology” characteristic of the writer; his admission regarding the use he had made of the name of St. Augustine; his letter to Cardinal Campeggio; some contemporaries on Melanchthon’s “duplicity”; the Gospel proviso; Melanchthon judged by modern historians; Luther consoles his friend. The “Erasmian” intermediary pages 319-346

2. DISAGREEMENTS AND ACCORD BETWEEN LUTHER AND MELANCHTHON.

Melanchthon first accepts the whole of Luther’s doctrine, but afterwards deviates from it even in essentials; his antipathy to the denial of freedom and to absolute predestination to hell, to faith alone and to the denial of the value of works. Penance and the motive of fear. Differs from Luther on the question of the Supper and gradually approaches the Zwinglian standpoint. Points of accord with Luther; he shares Luther’s superstition and belief in the Papal Antichrist; has unjustly been accused of being more tolerant than his master; his ideal a pedagogic one pages 346-360

3. MELANCHTHON AT THE ZENITH OF HIS CAREER. HIS MENTAL SUFFERINGS.

His interest in the promotion of studies; his correspondence; his intimacy with Luther; his disappointment; what he disliked in Luther; he meets with little sympathy in Luther’s circle, though Luther’s personal esteem never fails him; the rumour that he was disposed to return to the Catholic fold; his willingness to find congenial employment away from Wittenberg; his tendency to leave religious affairs in the hands of the State pages 360-378

CHAPTER XIX. LUTHER’S RELATIONS WITH ZWINGLI, CARLSTADT, BUGENHAGEN AND OTHERS pages 379-416

1. ZWINGLI AND THE CONTROVERSY ON THE SUPPER.

Earlier relationship between Zwingli and Luther; their divergent opinions on the Eucharist; the Marburg Conference between the two; the power behind this Conference; Luther on Zwingli’s untimely end pages 379-385

2. CARLSTADT.

Finding Wittenberg too warm, Carlstadt removes to Orlamünde; his meeting with Luther in the Black Bear Inn at Jena; he goes to Strasburg, and thence to Rothenburg; he is driven by want to accept Luther’s conditions; he breaks his promise, escapes to Switzerland and receives an appointment at Basle. What Luther says of him in the Table-Talk and in his “Widder die hymelischen Propheten”: The defects of Carlstadt’s mission, his violent behaviour, his attachment to the Decalogue, his wrong interpretation of the Supper, his stress on the inward rather than on the outward Word, his unacquaintance with “temptations” pages 385-400

3. JOHANN AGRICOLA, JACOB SCHENK, AND JOHANN EGRANUS.

Luther on Agricola. Schenk and the question of the Law; an encounter between Schenk and Luther. Egranus’s dissatisfaction with Luther; Luther’s references to the “brood of Erasmus”; the burden of Egranus’s complaints pages 400-404

4. BUGENHAGEN, JONAS AND OTHERS.

Luther’s admiration for Amsdorf and Brenz. Bugenhagen, a legate “a facie et a corde”; his antecedents; becomes pastor of Wittenberg; his missionary labours; his intimacy with Luther; his letters from Denmark; a female demoniac. Friendship between Luther and Jonas as attested by the Table-Talk; chief events of Jonas’s life pages 404-416

CHAPTER XX. ATTEMPTS AT UNION IN VIEW OF THE PROPOSED COUNCIL pages 417-449

1. ZÜRICH, MÜNSTER, THE WITTENBERG CONCORD, 1536.

The Swiss theologians on Luther and his doctrine. The Anabaptists and Luther’s opinion of their doings at Münster. Pope Paul III. Efforts of the Protestants to reach an understanding among themselves; Martin Bucer; the Wittenberg Concord; attempts to secure the adhesion of the Swiss; Luther pockets his scruples; collapse of the negotiations; Luther’s “Kurtz Bekentnis” pages 417-424

2. EFFORTS IN VIEW OF A COUNCIL. VERGERIO VISITS LUTHER.

Pope Paul III. determines to hold a Council at Mantua in 1537. Vergerio dispatched by the Pope to Germany to smooth the way; the Legate invites Luther to breakfast with him at the Castle of Wittenberg; his description of his guest; his own subsequent apostasy pages 424-430

3. THE SCHMALKALDEN ASSEMBLY OF 1537. LUTHER’S ILLNESS.

The Schmalkalden League. The league of the Catholic Princes. Luther’s “Artickel” for the Schmalkalden convention. Melanchthon’s endeavour to arrange matters. Luther’s willingness to promote the Council. The discussions at Schmalkalden; Melanchthon’s backhanded proceedings. Luther, prostrated by an attack of stone, desires to be removed so as not to die in a town defiled by the presence of a Papal envoy. His parting benediction: “Deus vos impleat odio Papæ.” The agreement subsequently reached at Schmalkalden. Luther makes his “First Will”; his recovery; his imprecatory Paternoster pages 430-438

4. LUTHER’S SPIRIT IN MELANCHTHON.

Melanchthon’s sudden change of attitude whilst at Schmalkalden; he emulates Luther; reason of the change; Melanchthon’s preference for the “needle,” Luther’s for the “hog-spear.” Melanchthon’s work for Luther in the Antinomian and Osiander controversies; his “Confessio Augustana variata” tacitly sanctioned by Luther; Bucer and Melanchthon and the “Cologne Book of Reform”; Bucer is violently taken to task by Luther, but Melanchthon is spared. The last joint work of Luther and Melanchthon, viz. the “Wittenberg Reformation” (1545) pages 438-449

VOL. III

THE REFORMER (I)

LUTHER