It is worth our while to examine a little more closely the nature of the doctrinal differences between Luther and Melanchthon, seeing that the latter—to quote the Protestant theologian Gustav Krüger—was the real “creator of evangelical theology” and the “founder of the evangelical Church system.”[1150] As a matter of fact Melanchthon had already shaped out a course of his own by the modifications which he had seen fit to introduce in the original Confession of Augsburg. Not only did he omit whatever displeased him in the new doctrine, but he also formulated it in a way which manifestly deviated from Luther’s own. Human co-operation, for instance, plays a part much greater than with Luther. Unlike Luther, he did not venture to assert plainly that the gift of faith was the work of God independent of all human co-operation. Concerning the “law,” too, he put forward a different opinion, which, however, was not much better than Luther’s.[1151] In 1530, so says Fr. Loofs, one of the most esteemed Protestant historians of dogma, “he was no longer merely an interpreter of Luther’s ideas.”[1152] “Yet he had not yet arrived at a finished theology of his own even in 1531, when he published the ‘_editio princeps_’ of the ‘_Augustana_’ and the ‘_Apologia_.’”[1153] One of the first important products of the change was the Commentary on Romans which he published in 1532. Then, in 1535, appeared the revised edition of the “_Loci_,” which, in its new shape, apart from mere modifications of detail, was to serve as his measure for the last twenty-five years of his life. “The ‘_Loci_’ of 1535 embody the distinctive Melanchthonian theology.”[1154] “Thus, even before the death of Luther, and before altered circumstances had restricted Melanchthon’s influence, the stamp which the latter had impressed upon the principles of the Reformation had already become the heritage of a large circle of evangelical theologians.”[1155] Leaving aside the idea of an unconditional Divine predestination, he spoke in both these works of the “_promissio universalis_” of salvation. The Holy Ghost—such is his view on the question of conversion—by means of the “Word” produces faith in those who do not resist. The human will, which does not reject, but accepts grace, forms, together with the “Word of God” and the “Holy Ghost,” one of the three causes (“_tres causæ concurrentes_”) of conversion. It is really to Luther’s deterministic doctrine that the author of the “_Loci_” alludes in the 1535 edition: “The Stoics’ ravings about fate must find no place in the Church.”[1156]