The Conservative Reformation and Its Theology - Saint Mary ...

of the Reformation, as represented in Melanchthon, seemed destined to fall
into chaos. Everywhere, his works in their various editions, were in the
hands of the friends and foes of the Conservative Reformation. The friends
of that Reformation were embarrassed and confounded, and its enemies
delighted and encouraged, by perceiving endless diversities of statement in
the editions of books, rapidly succeeding each other, books which, in their
first form, Luther had endorsed as of Canonical purity and worthy of
immortality. The very Confessions of the Church, determined by her
authorities, and signed by her representatives, were emended, enlarged
here, abridged there, changed in structure and in statement, as the restless
spirit of refining in thought or style moved Melanchthon. All his works
show the tinge of his mind at the time of their issue, whether affected by his
hopes that Rome would be softened, or roused by the elusive prospect of
real union with the less radical part of the Zwinglians. Melanchthon fell
into a hallucination by which his own peace of mind was wrecked, his
Christian consistency seriously compromised, the spirit of partisanship
developed, the Church distracted and well nigh lost. This was the
hallucination that peace could be restored by ambiguous formulas,
accepted indeed by both parties, but understood in different senses. It is a
plan which has often been tried and which never succeeds, where men are
in earnest. It not only does not bind men more closely, but leaves them
more widely alienated, more full of bitter mistrust. Men must be honest in
their difference, if they are ever to be honest in their agreement.
The three works of Melanchthon in which the changes were most
noted and most mischievous, are 1: the Augsburg Confession; 2: the
Apology; and 3: the Loci Communes.
II. Connected closely with Melanchthon's vacillations, various
Controversies rose among the theologians of the Augsburg Confession,
which may be stated as generically the conflict between the PHILIPPISTS,
or adherents of Melanchthon, and the more consistent LUTHERANS. The
great name of Melanchthon was used to shield much which there is no
reason to believe he would have approved. Much that he wrote could be
taken