Philip Melanchthon

Melanchthon with Luther behind, by Johann Gottfried Schadow, Melanchthon House Museum, Wittenberg

Melanchthon's importance for the Reformation lay essentially in the fact that he systematized Luther's ideas, defended them in public, and made them the basis of a religious education. These two figures, by complementing each other, could be said to have harmoniously achieved the results of the Reformation. Melanchthon was impelled by Luther to work for the Reformation; his own inclinations would have kept him in academia. Without Luther's influence he could have been "a second Erasmus", although he had a deep religious interest in the Reformation. While Luther scattered the sparks among the people, Melanchthon had the sympathy of educated people and scholars. Both Luther's strength of faith and Melanchthon's calmness, temperance and love of peace, had a share in the success of the movement.[28]

Both were aware of their mutual position and they thought of it as a “divine necessity”. Melanchthon wrote in 1520, "I would rather die than be separated from Luther", whom he also compared to Elijah, and called him "the man full of the Holy Ghost". In spite of the strained relations between them in the last years of Luther's life, Melanchthon said at Luther's death, "Dead is the horseman and chariot of Israel who ruled the church in this last age of the world!"[28]

Portrait of Philip Melanchthon by Lucas Cranach the Younger, c. 1562

In the preface to Melanchthon's Kolosserkommentar (1529), Luther wrote, "I had to fight with rabble and devils, for which reason my books are very warlike. I am the rough pioneer who must break the road; but Master Philip comes along softly and gently, sows and waters heartily, since God has richly endowed him with gifts." Luther also praised Melanchthon's revised Loci and called him "a divine instrument which has achieved the very best in the department of theology to the great rage of the devil and his scabby tribe." Luther never spoke directly against Melanchthon.[28] However often he was dissatisfied with Melanchthon's actions, he never uttered a word against his private character, although Melanchthon sometimes evinced a lack of confidence in Luther.[28] In a letter to Carlowitz, before the Diet of Augsburg, he protested that Luther, with his hot-headed nature, exercised a personally humiliating pressure upon him.

The distinction between Luther and Melanchthon is well brought out in Luther's letters to the latter (June 1530):[28]

To your great anxiety by which you are made weak, I am a cordial foe; for the cause is not ours. It is your philosophy, and not your theology, which tortures you so, - as though you could accomplish anything by your useless anxieties. So far as the public cause is concerned, I am well content and satisfied; for I know that it is right and true, and, what is more, it is the cause of Christ and God himself. For that reason, I am merely a spectator. If we fall, Christ will likewise fall; and if he fall, I would rather fall with Christ than stand with the emperor.[30]

The statue of Melanchthon at the Helsinki Lutheran Cathedral in Helsinki, Finland

As a reformer, Melanchthon’s work was characterized by moderation, conscientiousness, caution, and love of peace; however these qualities were sometimes said to only be lack of decision, consistence, and courage. His main priority was for the welfare of the community and for the quiet development of the church.

The Melanchthon window attributed to the Quaker City Stained Glass Company of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, at St. Matthew's German Evangelical Lutheran Church in Charleston, South Carolina

Melanchthon had an innate aversion to quarrels and discord; yet, often he was very irritable. His irenical character often led him to adapt himself to the views of others, as may be seen from his correspondence with Erasmus and from his public attitude from the Diet of Augsburg to the Interim. It was said not to be merely a personal desire for peace, but his conservative religious nature that guided him in his acts of conciliation. He never could forget that his father on his death-bed had besought his family "never to leave the church." He stood toward the history of the church in an attitude of piety and reverence that made it much more difficult for him than for Luther to be content with the thought of the impossibility of a reconciliation with the Catholic Church. He laid stress upon the authority of the Church Fathers, not only of Augustine, but also of the Greek Fathers.[31]

His attitude in matters of worship was conservative, and in the Leipsic Interim he was said by Cordatus and Schenk even to be Crypto-Catholic. He did not look for a reconciliation with Catholicism at the price of pure doctrine. He attributed more value to the external appearance and organization of the Church than Luther did, as can be seen from his treatment of the "doctrine of the church". The ideal conception of the church, which he expressed in Loci in 1535, later lost its prominence when he began to emphasize the conception of the true visible church as it may be found among the Protestants.

He believed that the relation of the church to God was that the church held the divine office of the ministry of the Gospel. The universal priesthood was for Melanchthon as for Luther no principle of an ecclesiastical constitution, but a purely religious principle. In accordance with this idea he tried to keep the traditional church constitution and government, including the bishops. He did not want, however, a church altogether independent of the state, but rather, in agreement with Luther, he believed it the duty of the secular authorities to protect religion and the church. He looked upon the consistories as ecclesiastical courts which therefore should be composed of spiritual and secular judges, as he believed that the official authority of the church did not lie in a special class of priests, but rather in the whole congregation, to be represented therefore not only by ecclesiastics, but also by laymen. In advocating church union he did not overlook differences in doctrine for the sake of common practical tasks.[31]

The older he grew, the less he distinguished between the Gospel as the announcement of the will of God, and right doctrine as the human knowledge of it. He took pains to safeguard unity in doctrine by theological formulas of union, but these were made as broad as possible and were restricted to the needs of practical religion.[31]

Detail from Unterricht der Visitatorn, an die Pfarherrn in Hertzog Heinrichs zu Sachsen Fürstenthum, Gleicher form der Visitation im Kurfürstenthum gestellet, woodcut by Lucas Cranach the Younger, Wittenberg, 1539

As a scholar Melanchthon embodied the spiritual culture of his age. His writing was simple and clear; his manuals, even if they were not always original, were quickly introduced into schools and kept their place for more than a century. For him, knowledge existed only for the service of moral and religious education, and so the teacher of Germany prepared the way for the religious thoughts of the Reformation. He was an important figure in the movement known as Christian humanism, which exerted a lasting influence upon scientific life in Germany.[31]

Melanchthon wrote many treatises on education and learning that present some of his views on the basis, method, and goal of reformed education. In his "Book of Visitation", Melanchthon outlines a school plan that recommends schools to teach Latin only. He suggests children should be broken up into three distinct groups: children who are learning to read, children who know how to read and are ready to learn grammar, and children who are well-trained in grammar and syntax.[32] Melanchthon also believed that the disciplinary system of the classical "seven liberal arts", and the sciences studied in the higher faculties could not encompass the new revolutionary discoveries of the age in terms of either content or method. He expanded the traditional categorization of science in several directions, incorporating not only history, geography and poetry but also the new natural sciences in his system of scholarly disciplines.

As a theologian, his strength lay in collecting and systematizing the ideas of others, especially of Luther, for the purpose of instruction. He kept to the practical, and did not look at the connection of the parts, and his Loci were in the form of isolated paragraphs. His humanistic mode of thought formed the basis of his theology so that he acknowledged moral and religious truths outside of Christianity, and brought Christian truth into closer contact with them, to mediate between Christian revelation and ancient philosophy.[31]

Melanchthon's views differed from Luther's only in some modifications of ideas. Melanchthon looked upon the law as not only the correlate of the Gospel, but as the unchangeable order of the spiritual world with its basis in God himself. He distilled Luther's view of redemption to that of legal satisfaction. He did not focus on the mysticism running through Luther's theology, but emphasized the ethical and intellectual elements.[31]

After giving up determinism and absolute predestination and ascribing a certain moral freedom to humanity, he tried to ascertain the share of free will in conversion, naming three causes as concurring in the work of conversion - the Word, the Spirit, and the human will, which was not passive, but resisting its own weakness. After 1548 he used Erasmus’ definition of freedom, "the capability of applying oneself to grace."[31]

In dividing faith into knowledge, assent, and trust, he made the participation of the heart subsequent to that of the intellect, which gave rise to the view of the later orthodoxy that the establishment and acceptation of pure doctrine should precede the personal attitude of faith. His conception of faith corresponded with his view that the Church is the communion of those who adhere to the true belief and that her visible existence depends upon the consent of her unregenerated members to her teachings.[33]

Melanchthon's doctrine of the Lord's Supper lacked the mysticism of faith by which Luther united the sensual elements and supersensual realities. It did however demand their formal distinction.[34]

The development of Melanchthon's beliefs may be seen from the history of the Loci. Originally he intended a development of the leading ideas representing the Evangelical conception of salvation, while the later editions approached a plan of a text-book of dogma. At first he insisted on the necessity of every event, rejected the philosophy of Aristotle, and had not fully developed his doctrine of the sacraments. In 1535 he treated for the first time the doctrine of God and that of the Trinity; he rejected the doctrine of the necessity of every event and named free will as a concurring cause in conversion. The doctrine of justification received its forensic form and the necessity of good works was emphasized in the interest of moral discipline. The last editions are distinguished from the earlier ones by the prominence given to the theoretical and rational element.[34]

In ethics he preserved and renewed the tradition of ancient morality and represented the Protestant conception of life. His books on morals were chiefly drawn from the classics, and were influenced not so much by Aristotle as by Cicero. His principal works in this line were Prolegomena to Cicero's De officiis (1525); Enarrationes librorum Ethicorum Aristotelis (1529); Epitome philosophiae moralis (1538); and Ethicae doctrinae elementa (1550).[34]

In his Epitome philosophiae moralis he considers the relation of philosophy to the law of God and the Gospel. Moral principles are knowable in the light of reason. Melanchthon calls these the law of God, and being endowed in human nature by God, so also the law of nature. The virtuous pagans had not yet developed the ideas of Original Sin and the Fall, or the fallen aspect of human nature itself, and so could not articulate or explain why humans did not always act virtuously. If virtue was the true law of human nature (having been put there by God himself) than the light of reason could only be darkened by sin.[35] The revealed law, necessitated because of sin, is distinguished from natural law only by its greater completeness and clearness. The fundamental order of moral life can be grasped also by reason; therefore the development of moral philosophy from natural principles must not be neglected. Melanchthon therefore made no sharp distinction between natural and revealed morals.[34]

His contribution to Christian ethics in the proper sense can be seen in the Augsburg Confession and its Apology as well as in his Loci, where he followed Luther in depicting the Protestant ideal of life, the free realization of the divine law by a personality blessed in faith and filled with the spirit of God.[34]

Crest of Philip Melanchthon, featuring the bronze serpent of Moses

Melanchthon's formulation of the authority of Scripture became the norm for some time. The principle of his hermeneutics is expressed in his words: "Every theologian and faithful interpreter of the heavenly doctrine must necessarily be first a grammarian, then a dialectician, and finally a witness." By "grammarian" he meant the philologist who is master of history, archaeology, and ancient geography. For the method of interpretation, he insisted on the unity of the sense and upon the literal sense in contrast to the four senses of the scholastics. He further stated that whatever is looked for in the words of Scripture, outside of the literal sense, is only dogmatic or practical application.[34]

His commentaries are full of theological and practical matter, confirming the doctrines of the Reformation. The most important are those on Genesis, Proverbs, Daniel, the Psalms, Romans (edited in 1522 against his will by Luther), Colossians (1527), and John (1523). Melanchthon worked with Luther in his translation of the Bible, and both the books of the Maccabees in Luther's Bible are ascribed to him. A Latin Bible published in 1529 at Wittenberg is designated as a joint work of Melanchthon and Luther.[34]

Anonymous Netherlands, Portrait of Melanchthon, early 18th century, engraving and etching

Melanchthon's room in Wittenberg

Melanchthon’s influence in historical theology was felt until the seventeenth century, especially in the method of treating church history in connection with political history. His was the first Protestant attempt at a history of dogma with both Sententiae veterum aliquot patrum de caena domini (1530) and De ecclesia et auctoritate verbi Dei (1539).[34]

Melanchthon exerted a wide influence in homiletics, and has been regarded in the Protestant church as the author of the methodical style of preaching. He stayed aloof from dogmatizing or rhetoric in the Annotationes in Evangelia (1544), the Conciones in Evangelium Matthaei (1558), and in his German sermons prepared for George of Anhalt. He never preached from the pulpit and his Latin sermons (Postilla) were prepared for the Hungarian students at Wittenberg who did not understand German.

In 1548 he published the History of the Life and Acts of Luther. In this book, he includes the image of Luther nailing the 95 Theses to the Door of Castle Church in Wittenberg. However, he had not met Luther at this time and Luther himself never mentioned this event.[36]

Melanchthon also produced the first Protestant work on the method of theological study, as well as his Catechesis puerilis (1532), a religious manual for younger students, and a German catechism (1549).[34]

Head of Melanchton statue at Lessing-Gymnasium (Frankfurt), whose founder had been influenced by personal contacts with Melanchton

As a philologist and pedagogue Melanchthon was the spiritual heir of the South German Humanists, such as Reuchlin, Jakob Wimpfeling, and Rodolphus Agricola, who represented an ethical conception of the humanities. He saw the liberal arts and a classical education as paths, not only towards natural and ethical philosophy, but also towards divine philosophy. The ancient classics were seen as the sources of a purer knowledge, and also the best means of educating the youth both by their beauty of form and by their ethical content. By his activity in educational institutions and his compilations of Latin and Greek grammars and commentaries, he became the founder of the learned schools of Evangelical Germany, using a combination of humanistic and Christian ideals. The influence of his philosophical compendia ended only with the rule of the Leibniz–Wolff school.[37]

He came to Wittenberg with the plan of editing the complete works of Aristotle and he edited the Rhetoric (1519) and the Dialectic (1520).[38]

He believed that the relation of philosophy to theology is characterized by the distinction between Law and Gospel. The former, as a light of nature, is innate; it also contains the elements of the natural knowledge of God which, however, have been obscured and weakened by sin. Therefore, renewed promulgation of the Law by revelation became necessary and was furnished in the Decalogue; and all law, including that in the form of natural philosophy, contains only demands, shadowings; its fulfillment is given only in the Gospel, the object of certainty in theology, by which also the philosophical elements of knowledge - experience, principles of reason, and syllogism - receive only their final confirmation. As the law is a divinely ordered pedagogue that leads to Christ, philosophy, its interpreter, is subject to revealed truth as the principal standard of opinions and life.[38]

He published De dialecta libri iv (1528), Erotemata dialectices (1547), Liber de anima (1540), Initia doctrinae physicae (1549), and Ethicae doctrinae elementa (1550).[38]

Engraving of Melanchthon in 1526 by Albrecht Dürer captioned, "Dürer was able to draw the living Philip's face, but the learned hand could not paint his spirit" (translated from Latin)

There have been preserved original portraits of Melanchthon by three famous painters of his time - Hans Holbein the Younger with one version in the Royal Gallery of Hanover, Albrecht Dürer and Lucas Cranach the Elder.[38] Melanchthon was described as being dwarfish, misshapen, and physically weak,[39] although he is said to have had a bright and sparkling eye, which kept its colour till the day of his death.[38]

He did not value money and possessions; his hospitality was often misused in such a way that his Swabian servant sometimes had difficulty in managing the household. His domestic life was happy. He called his home "a little church of God", always found peace there, and showed a tender solicitude for his wife and children. A French scholar once found him rocking the cradle with one hand, and holding a book in the other.[38]

His closest friend was Joachim Camerarius, whom he called the half of his soul. His extensive correspondence forms a commentary on his life. He wrote speeches and scientific treatises for others, permitting them to use their own signatures. He acknowledged his faults even to opponents like Flacius, and was open to criticism. He laid great stress upon prayer, daily meditation on the Bible, and attendance of public service.[38]