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History and Evolution:
By William E. Steinman:
Part 65, Melanchthon and Franck:
June 21, 2004:
We can get back to the religious reformation with Philip Melanchthon (1497-1560). Melanchthon was an associate of Luther. He was also a German scholar, humanist, and religious reformer in his own right. His education was humanist in nature and he learned to love Latin and its classical literature. He also studied Scholastic ideas at the Universities of Heidelberg and Tubingen. He studied the works of such greats as William of Ockham, John of Wesel, and the Dutch humanist Rudolf Agricola.
With that background it is no wonder that he was a successful writer and lecturer. One of his most important works was Rudiments of the Greek Language which he first published in 1518. He was soon know and praised in Europe and England. He then accepted a position as first professor of Greek at Wittenberg where he promptly called for a return to classical and Christian sources. He advocated the revitalization of theology and through that, society.
He met Luther at Wittenberg and they hit it off immediately developing a very close friendship. He was deeply dedicated to Luther's evangelical cause which began with Luther's Ninety-five Theses. As much of a rabble rouser as Luther himself, Melanchthon went against Luther's main enemy, Johann Eck to defend scriptural authority. He even broke with his earlier tutor, his great uncle Reuchlin to support Luther. Reuchlin was a humanist Hebraist who wrote a grammar of the Hebrew language. Melanchthon also rejected the doctrine of transubstantiation as did Luther.
He also continued to publish. With Luther's support he published the Loci communes. This was the first systematization of the evangelical concepts. It dealt with Sin, law, grace, free will, vows, hope, and confession. Melanchthon used scripture to argue that sin is more than an external act. His argument gets into convoluted detail and has to do with ideas of will, emotion, Original Sin, grace, forgiveness and all of that theological nit picking that religious folks are noted for.
Though we associate Luther's name with the reformation, many others contributed and gave much momentum to the movement. Melanchthon was a shooter in that battle and he demonstrated it with his Loci. Luther thought it was so great that he declared the Loci should have a place in the canon of Scripture. Cambridge University in England made it a requirement and even Queen Elisabeth studied and memorized it. Big doings!
This was not just a game of he said she said going on. We must realize there was a decree of death for anyone who was fool enough to support Luther's activities. So Melanchthon showed great courage when he stood up to that. He went against the folks at Sorbonne with two works, Against the Furious Decree of the Parisian Theologasters and Passion of Christ and Antichrist. This second was a sharp criticism of pope's lifestyle.
In 1521, Luther was hiding out at Wartburg under the protection of Frederick III of Saxony and Melanchthon became the leader of the Reformation. In 1526 a fragile peace accord came out of the diet of Speyer and Melanchthon became one of 28 commissioners. Their task was to visit the reformed states and regulate the constitutions of the churches. In that position he produced a document called Instructions for Visitors which included a plan for elementary education. Largely through that document, his teacher training, and his textbooks, the entire system of education in Germany was reorganized. He was also instrumental in founding the universities of Königsberg, Jena, and Marburg. Not satisfied, he helped reform the Universities of Greifswald, Wittenberg, Cologne, Tübingen, Leipzig, Heidelberg, Rostock, and Frankfurt an der Oder. All this work got him the title "Preceptor of Germany."
At the Diet of Augsburg In 1530 Melanchthon prepared the so called Augsburg Confession. This is the Lutheran confession of faith. It consists of 28 articles. Its purpose was to defend Lutherans against misrepresentations and to provide a statement of their theology that would be acceptable to the Roman Catholics in the Holy Roman Empire. The Catholic theologians kicked it around modifying and rejecting most of it. Melanchthon offered a reply, but the emperor refused it. That tore it. Melanchthon wrote the Apology of the Augsburg Confession. It was not an apology at all, but a detailed and brilliant statement of the Lutheran position. It became the authoritative statement of the Lutheran faith.
Melanchthon remained active after Luther's death. He worked with the Catholic theologians and did make some compromises, but he held fast to the the doctrines of justification by faith and scriptural authority. He died in 1560 and was buried beside Luther in Wittenberg.
Another sixteenth century German Reformer was Sebastian Franck (1499-1542). Sebastian was a Roman Catholic who converted to Lutheranism. He gave up a solid position as curate in Augsburg to do that. He became a reform preacher, but he lost his enthusiasm when the moral results were not always salutary. He banged around a bit and ended up in Strassburg and became something of a mystic.
At Strassburg he wrote Time Book and Historical Bible which was a anti-catholic study of heresies and heretics. That got him thrown in the slammer for a time after which he was expelled from Strassburg. He drifted around and fetched up in Ulm where he became a printer. That didn't last long before the Lutherans threw him out of there in 1539. Doesn't all of this get pretty silly? First the Catholics boot him out, then the Lutherans boot him out. Oh well!
Franck had the urge to religious freedom and wanted a religion
based on his own inner revelation. He saw the contradictions which
permeate the Bible that did nothing but conceal the real message.
He contended that Christians did not need any doctrines beyond
the Ten Commandments and the Apostles' Creed. Needless to say,
he did not make many friends amongst the religious bigots of his
day, be they Catholic or Lutheran. He was a solitary man, not
unlike Nietzsche's Zarathustra.
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