Читать книгу Historical Introductions to the Symbolical Books of the Evangelical Lutheran Church - Bente Friedrich - Страница 70

In his letter to Luther the Elector made special reference also to the qualified subscription of Melanchthon. "Concerning the Pope," he said, "we have no hesitation about resisting him most vehemently. For if, from good opinion, or for the sake of peace, as Magister Philip suggests, we should suffer him to remain a lord having the right to command us, our bishops, pastors, and preachers, we would expose ourselves to danger and burden (because he and his successors will not cease in their endeavors to destroy us entirely and to root out all our posterity), for which there is no necessity, since God's Word has delivered and redeemed us therefrom. And if we, now that God has delivered us from the Babylonian captivity, should again run into such danger and thus tempt God, this [subjection to the Pope] would, by a just decree of God, come upon us through our wisdom, which otherwise, no doubt, will not come to pass." (2145.) Evidently, the Elector, though not regarding Melanchthon's deviation as a false doctrine, did not consider it to be without danger.

At the beginning of the Reformation, Luther had entertained similar thoughts, but he had long ago seen through the Papacy, and abandoned such opinions. In the Smalcald Articles he is done with the Pope and his superiority, also by human right. And this for two reasons: first, because it would be impossible for the Pope to agree to a mere superiority iure humano, for in that case he must suffer his rule and estate to be overturned and destroyed together with all his laws and books; in brief, he cannot do it; in the second place, because even such a purely human superiority would only harm the Church. (473, 7. 8.) Melanchthon, on the other hand, still adhered to the position which he had occupied in the compromise discussions at Augsburg, whence, e. g., he wrote to Camerarius, August 31, 1530 "Oh, would that I could, not indeed fortify the domination, but restore the administration of the bishops. For I see what manner of church we shall have when the ecclesiastical body has been disorganized. I see that afterwards there will arise a much more intolerable tyranny [of the princes] than there ever was before." (C. R. 2, 334.) At Smalcald, however, his views met with so little response among the princes and theologians that in his "Tract on the Primacy of the Pope" he omitted them entirely and followed Luther's trend of thought. March 1, 1537, Melanchthon himself wrote concerning his defeat at the deliberations of the theologians on the question in which articles concessions might be made in the interest of peace, saying that the unlearned and the more vehement would not hear of concessions, since the Lutherans would then be charged with inconsistency and the Emperor would only increase his demands. (C. R. 3, 292.) Evidently then, even at that time Melanchthon was not entirely cured of his utopian dream.

"If the Pontiff would admit the Gospel, si pontifex evangelium admitteret." A. Osiander remarked: "That is, if the devil would become an apostle." In the Jena edition of Luther's works Melanchthon's phrase is commented upon as follows: "And yet the Pope with his wolves, the bishops, even now curses, blasphemes, and outlaws the holy Gospel more horribly than ever before, raging and fuming against the Church of Christ and us poor Christians in most horrible fashion, both with fire and sword, and in whatever way he can, like a real werwolf, [tr. note: sic!] aye, like the very devil himself." (6, 557b.) The same comment is found in the edition of the Smalcald Articles prepared 1553 by Stolz and Aurifaber, where the passage begins: "O quantum mutatus ab illo [the former Melanchthon]!" (Koellner, 448. 457.) Carpzov remarks pertinently: "This subscription [of Melanchthon] is not a part of the Book of Concord [it does not contain the doctrine advocated by the Book of Concord], nor was it approved by Luther; moreover, it was later on repudiated by Philip himself." (Isagoge 823. 894.)