The Life of Philip MelanchthonLedderhose, Karl Friedrich
History
The Life of Philip Melanchthon
Ledderhose, Karl Friedrich
Melanchthon, Philipp, 1497-1560
All these efforts, as might have been foreseen, did not effect peace,
so that the committee adjourned August 30, and Melanchthon wrote to
Luther September 1: "Three days ago we brought our Conference to a
conclusion. We would not accept the proposed terms of Union on the
subjects of the one kind in the Sacrament, of the Canon of Private
Masses, and also of the Celibacy of the Priesthood. Now the matter has
again been laid before the Emperor, and I do not know what will be done.
Let us only pray God that he may influence the heart of the Emperor to
maintain peace, which we need so much, and not we alone, but all
Germany. You cannot believe how the Nurembergers and others hate me on
account of the restoration of Jurisdiction to the Bishops. In this
manner do our friends merely contend for power, and not for the Gospel.
A certain friend wrote: If the Pope had bribed me with never so much
money, I could not have invented a better plan to restore the papal
supremacy than the one we have taken appears to the people. Yet I have
not, up to this time, dropped or given up a single article of doctrine."
Although Melanchthon did really not give up a single doctrinal point, he
was yet justly to be blamed for wishing to restore jurisdiction to the
Bishops. How soon would they have suppressed the true doctrine! Jerome
Baumgaertner, otherwise a friend of Melanchthon, expresses himself very
strongly in regard to him: "Philippus has become more childish than a
child;" and calls upon Spengler: "You will do your part, and write to
Dr. Martin Luther, that he, as the one by whom God first again revealed
his word to the world, should put a stop to Philip's course, and should
warn the pious princes, and especially his own sovereign, against him,
and exhort them to be steadfast. For no man has done more harm to the
Gospel during this Diet, up to the present day, than Philip." This
judgment is indeed too severe; and Baumgaertner, at a later period,
himself repented of having formed so severe a judgment. It is true,
also, that Melanchthon did not only defend Episcopal jurisdiction during
the Diet of Augsburg, but has also expressed his approbation of it in a
number of places. He did this for the sake of order in the Church.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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