THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
its characteristic formulas. The personal presence and self-impartation of Christ in the Lord's Supper were especially important for Melanchthon; but he did not definitely state how body and blood are related to this. Although rejecting the physical act of mastication, he nevertheless assumed the real presence of the body of Christ and therefore also a real self-impartation. Melanchthon differed from Calvin also in emphasizing the relation of the Lord's Supper to justification.
But before these and other theological dissensions were ended, he was at last freed by his death; a few days before this event he committed 9. Death, to writing his reasons for not fearing it. On the left were the words, " Thou shalt be delivered from sins, and be freed from the acrimony and fury of theologians"; on the right, " Thou shalt go to the light, see God, look upon his Son, learn those wonderful mysteries which thou hast not been able to understand in this life." The immediate cause of death was a severe cold which he had contracted on a journey to Leipsic in March, 1560, followed by a fever that consumed his strength, weakened by many sufferings. The only care that occupied him until his last moment, was the desolate condition of the Church. He strengthened himself in almost uninterrupted prayer, and in listening to passages of Scripture. Especially significant did the words seem to him, " His own received him not; but as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God." When Caspar Peucer (q.v.), his sonin-law, asked him if he wanted anything, he replied, " Nothing but heaven." His body was laid beside Luther's in the Schlosskirche in Wittenberg.
II. Estimate of his Works and Character: 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, by complementing each other, harmoniously achieved the great results of the Reformation. Only the heroism and creative power of a Luther were
1. Luther able to break with the reigning
and Me- church. Melanchthon was impelled lanchthon. by Luther to work for the Reformation ; his own inclinations would have kept him a student. Without Luther's influence Melanchthon would have been "a second Erasmus," although his heart was filled with a deeper religious interest in the Reformation. While Luther scattered the sparks among the people, Melanchthon by his humanistic studies won the sympathy of educated people and scholars for the Reformation. Beside Luther's heroism of faith, Melanchthon's manysidedness and calmness, his temperance and love of peace, had a share in the success of the movement. Both men had a clear consciousness of their mutual position and the divine necessity of their common calling. Melanchthon wrote in 1520, " I would rather die than be separated from Luther," whom he afterward compared to Elijah, and called "the man full of the Holy Ghost." In spite of the strained relations between them in the last years of Luther's life, Melanchthon exclaimed at Luther's death, " Dead is the horseman and chariot of
Israel who ruled the Church in this last age of the world I" On the other hand, Luther wrote of Melanchthon, in the preface to Melanchthon's Commentary on the Colossians (1529), " 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 Philipp comes along softly and gently, sows and waters heartily, since God has richly endowed him with gifts." Luther also did justice to Melanchthon's teachings, praising one year before his death in the preface to his own writings Melanchthon's revised Loci above them and calling Melanchthon " 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." It is remarkable that Luther, who vehemently attacked men like Erasmus and Butzer, when he thought that truth was at stake, never spoke directly against Melanchthon, and even during his melancholy last years conquered his temper. The strained relation between these two men never came from external things, such as human rank and fame, much less from other advantages, but always from matters of Church and doctrine, and chiefly from the fundamental difference of their individualities; they repelled and attracted each other " because nature had not formed out of them one man." However, it can not be denied that Luther was the more magnanimous, for however much he was at times dissatisfied with Melanchthon's actions, he never uttered a word against his private character; but Melanchthon, on the other hand, sometimes evinced a lack of confidence in Luther. In a letter to Carlowitz he complained that Luther on account of his polemical nature exercised a personally humiliating pressure upon him. Luther certainly never intended to exercise such a pressure, and if it existed at all, it was Melanchthon's own fault.
As a Reformer Melanchthon was characterized
by moderation, conscientiousness, caution, and love
of peace; but these qualities were sometimes only
lack of decision, consistence, and courage. Often,
however, his actions showed not
2. His anxiety for his own safety, but regard
Work as for the welfare of the community, Reformer, and for the quiet development of the Church. Melanchthon did not lack personal courage; but it was less of an aggressive than of a passive nature. When he was reminded how much power and strength Luther drew from his trust in God, he answered, " If I myself do not do my part, I can not expect anything from God in prayer." His nature was inclined rather to suffer with faith in God that he would be released from every evil than to act valiantly with his aid. The distinction between Luther and Melanchthon is well brought out in Luther's letters to the latter (June, 1530) : " 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