On the question of the Sacrament, the theory of the “Sacramentarians”
came more and more to seem to him the true one.
Owing, however, to his timidity and the fear in which he stood
of Luther, he did not dare to speak out. The “_Loci_” of 1535 is
remarkably obscure in its teaching concerning the Sacrament, whilst, in
a letter to Camerarius of the same year, he speaks of Luther’s view as
“alien” to his own, which, however, he refuses to explain.[1170] Later
the Cologne scheme of 1543 in which Bucer, to Luther’s great annoyance,
evaded the question of the Real Presence, obtained Melanchthon’s
approval. When, in 1540, Melanchthon made public a new edition of the
Confession of Augsburg (“_Confessio variata_”), containing alterations
of greater import than those of the previous editions, the new wording
of the 10th Article was “Melanchthonian” in the sense that it failed to
exclude “the doctrine either of Melanchthon, or of Bucer, or of Calvin
on the Supper.”[1171] It was “Melanchthonian” also in that elasticity
and ambiguity which has since become the model for so many Protestant
formularies. In order to secure a certain outward unity it became usual
to avoid any explicitness which might affright such as happened to have
scruples. A Melanchthonian character was thus imparted to the theology
which, with Melanchthon himself as leader, was to guard the heritage of
Luther.
_Points of Accord between Melanchthon and Luther._
Melanchthon’s religious character naturally exhibits many points of
contact with that of Luther.
Only to a limited extent, however, does this hold good of the “inward
terrors.” Attempts have been made to prove that, like Luther, his more
youthful friend believed he had experienced within him the salutary
working of the new doctrine of Justification.[1172] But, though, in
his “_Apologia_” to the Augsburg Confession and in other writings, he
extols, as we have seen, this doctrine as alone capable of imparting
strength and consolation in times of severe anxiety of conscience
and spiritual desolation, and though he speaks of the “_certamina
conscientiæ_,” and of the assurance of salvation in exactly the same
way that Luther does, still this is no proof of his having experienced
anything of the sort himself. The statements, which might be adduced
in plenty from his private letters, lag very far behind Luther’s
characteristic assurances of his own experience.
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