Melancthon Proposes Unity

THE death of Luther (February 18, 1546) left Melancthon at the head of the Reformation in Germany; and his views on the Supper were almost, if not identical with, those of the Reformed, i.e. the Swiss as distinguished from Lutherans. 

His love of peace and his respect for Luther had caused him to hold

his views in abeyance while Luther lived; but after Luther’s death, this very love of peace led him into a war that lasted as long as he lived; for, holding views so favorable to those of the opposition, and believing besides that, even in the widest difference of opinion on this subject, there was nothing that justified any division, much less such bitter contention, between the friends of the Reformation, his desire for peace induced him to propose a union of Lutherans and Zwingli ans. 

This immediately caused a division among the Lutherans, and developed what Mosheim calls 

the “rigid Lutherans” and the “moderate Lutherans,” the moderate Lutherans favoring union, and the rigid Lutherans attacking with renewed vigor all together, 

and Melancthon in particular.

A Difference of Opinion

In these events lies the secret of the difference of opinion between the Reformers on the Lord’s Supper. 

In the beginning Luther had inclined to the symbolical explanation of the Supper, and even at this time was not decidedly against it. 

But now that Carlstadt preached it, and the fanatics pushed the

symbolism to the length of despising the Supper entirely; and Carlstadt being in a measure, however slight, mixed up with them, Luther having to meet all this, rejected all idea of any symbolical meaning in the words, “This is my body,” and adopted that view from which, to use his own words, he would not be moved by “reason, common sense, carnal arguments,” nor “mathematical proofs.”

In the way in which the subject was brought prominently before him, it appeared to him that, to hold the view of the bread and wine being symbols was akin to fanaticism, if not fanaticism itself. 

And when Carlstadt, after being banished from Saxony, went to Switzerland, and was admitted as pastor and professor of divinity at Basel; and when before this Zwingli’s writings, maintaining the same views, had reached Luther, the whole company was held by Luther to be opponents of the truth; and he being as strenuous against this as against anything else that he deemed error, and his opponents in this holding the truth, and necessarily defending it, it could not but be that the result must be division. 

It is true that in this controversy Luther was stubborn; but in view of all the circumstances amidst which it arose, surely our charity will not be unduly taxed in excusing it. If he had been less strenuous in defending what he held to be true, the world would not have had the Reformation then. 

But however worthily our charity be bestowed in this instance, it fails to be so, when the scenes and the actors have all passed from the stage, when the Reformation has escaped the breakers and rides securely, and his successors stubbornly resist the truth for no other reason than that “Luther believed thus, and so do we;” and so cease to be reformers, and become rigid Lutherans.

The Self-perception of Justinian

Justinian’s self-perception: Lawyer, Emperor, Chief of Staffs, Ecumenical Agent, Police for the Papacy, Theologian, Builder of 37 churches, caesaro-papist. 

Justinian saw himself as sacred as he said on the 6th November 529 “For what is greater or more sacred than the Imperial Majesty.” 

He actually wanted to come to the aspect of himself as the only

correct interpretation of the law and its ultimate center and concluded with others “We hold that every interpretation of the laws by the Emperor, whether in answer to requests made to him, or whether given in judgment, or in any other way whatsoever, shall be considered valid, and free from all ambiguity; for if, by the present enactment, the Emperor alone can make laws, it should also be the province of the Imperial Dignity alone to interpret them”.

On the 18th of 530, Justinian wrote that the ultimate power of the Romans is not the army but God Almighty.

About his Code Justinian said on completion of it “We have given thanks to Almighty God who has offered us the opportunity to fortunately carry on war, as well as to enjoy an honorable peace, and to formulate a most excellent system of laws, not only for the use of the present age but for that of those which shall come hereafter,and with pious mind, We have offered this work for the benefit of man.”

This Code was intended by Justinian to unify his whole empire ecumenically and ecclesiastically under the Catholic Church with the Papacy as primary authority. 

He saw himself as the great unifier or religious civilization architect. His relation with the papacy and the papacy with him is well illustrated in the letter of Justinian to Pope Johannes and vice versa. 

The Code is actually a law with discriminating biting teeth. 

It provided a definition for church in a monotone only. 

Any other color was not accepted and condemned, and in fact, discriminated against and even persecuted or killed. 

Justinian created the glove that was to become the backbone of the Middle Ages Catholic Churches Holy Roman Empire and the persecutions that happened during this period can all be tract back to this legal system that Justinian installed throughout his empire.

Fanaticism

But Carlstadt was impetuous, and while Luther was a captive in the

Wartburg, Carlstadt, being deprived of his counsels, went too far for that present time, and in a measure endangered the Reformation.

In every great religious movement, when the minds of men are unusually stirred, fanaticism is ever ready to break forth and bring reproach upon the truth. 

It was so in the first days of the Reformation, and there has been no exception from that time to the present. 

And in this way the Reformation was endangered by these premature movements under the leadership of Carlstadt. 

---At that very time fanaticism was showing itself in Wittemberg; and when the Reformers spoke against images, with other errors of the Romish church, the slightest spark was soon blown by the fanatics into a most vehement flame; they rushed into the churches, tore down the images and crucifixes, broke them to pieces, and burned them. ------One excess led to another; 

the fanatics pretended to be illumined by the Spirit; 

despised the Supper, and held internal communion instead; 

claimed to have no need of the Bible nor of human learning, 

began to prophesy the destruction of all but the saints; 

and that when that should be accomplished, the kingdom of God would be established upon the earth, the chief fanatic would be put in supreme authority, and he would commit the government to the saints.

Carlstadt was to a certain extent influenced for awhile by these

enthusiasts; but only for awhile, and then only so far as to despise learning and advise his students at the College to return to their homes.

Luther was informed of the state of affairs, and left his retreat, and returned to Wittemberg; and it fell upon him to quench this flame of enthusiasm, to put down this rule of fanaticism.

Persecution of private gatherings for worship besides state sanctioned worship

The Novella LXVII spelled out a number of rules for clerics regarding alienation of immovable property of the church and other related matters, dating to 538 and the implications must have been a difficult situation for the papacy since the papacy had to flee at times for his life and Justinian made it illegal of anyone to leave their churches.

They had to reside in the church and could not take long trips and ask members to send them money. 

Justinian prohibited anyone to start a house-church and one can see this as the beginning of persecution of private worship movements or small groups outside the domain of the public church. 

More evidence of Justinian and the persecution of heretics are the following. In Novella CIX of 541 Justinian outlined the state’s intolerance with heretics. 

He explained his epistemology behind his methodology that permanency of his reign can only be achieved if he found favor with God. 

Therefore the laws of the state should be based upon finding favor with God like Leo and Justin did, forbidding all heretics to have a share in public employments or offices so that they cannot use that office against the church. 

This rule they have built into the constitution. Heretics are defined as “those who are the members of different heterodox sects”ν “insane Hebrew doctrines of Nestorius”, “evil dogmas”, “impiety”, “all such as are not affiliated with the Catholic and Apostolic Church of God” which “preach the true faith and ecclesiastical tradition”.

A heretic is one who does not receive the sacraments from a cleric of the Catholic Church even though they call themselves “Christians”. Those who hold and embrace the doctrines of the Catholic Church shall have greater privileges than those who do not. 

If females are not a member of the church and do not receive sacraments they “shall be deprived of all the advantages of our Constitution”.

In Novella CXXIII of 541 Justinian described aspects that one would expect to find in a church manual as part of civil law. 

Evidence Justinian and Seventh-day Sabbath-keeping persecution are the following. 

In Novella CXLIV there is an example of Sabbath persecution. 

About the Samaritans Justinian said (undated) “And if any Samaritan,

after having proved himself worthy to receive baptism, should return to his former error and be detected in observing the Sabbath, or in doing anything else which proves that he was only baptized through simulated conversion, We order that he shall be proscribed, and sentenced to exile for life”.

Justinian changed the attitude towards Sabbath keeping in 538. In his diary of 1847, Hiram Edson said “The council of Orleans, held 538, prohibited the country to labor on Sunday, which Constantine, by his laws, permitted. This council also declared, “That to hold it unlawful to travel with horses, cattle and carriages, to prepare food, or to do anything necessary to the cleanliness and decency of houses or persons, savors more of Judaism than Christianity”.

Justinian and persecution of heretics is dealt with in his sources. In Novella XXXVII the fate of heretics are given by Justinian as follows “A heretic shall not confer the rite of baptism, or discharge the duties of a public office, and a catechumen shall not circumcise anyone. No heretic shall, under any circumstances, have a house of worship, or a place of prayer.” 

The civil law has teeth on ecclesiastical matters here: It is undated Novella XLV from 535 is ruling over heretics, Jews and Samaritans that they shall not be able to testify against an orthodox Christian or the government who is considered to be favoring orthodox Christians. The persecuting power of the state is seen in these laws.

The Lord’s Supper

It was a natural and an easy step to the next point, the Lord’s Supper
instead of the papal mass. 

--And here opens a new scene of controversy. 

Opposition is not confined between the reformers and the papacy; on this subject it opens between the reformers themselves. 

And the zeal that ought to have been exerted unitedly in maintaining a solid front in attacking the papacy, was in a great measure spent in opposing one another. 

The contending parties on this subject were Luther on one side, and Carlstadt and Zwingli on the other. 

The papal doctrine of the mass is, that the bread and the wine in the sacrament are veritably the actual flesh and blood of the Lord; and that either is as much so as both together; and that therefore it is superfluous to administer both to the laity; and so the bread alone is given instead of bread and wine. This is Trans-substantiation; i.e., “change of substance”. 

Luther renounced this, and held that although the bread and wine are not the real body and blood of the Lord, yet Christ is really present with the bread and wine. This is Con-substantiation; i.e., “with the

substance”. 

Carlstadt and Zwingli denied both, and held, as is now held by Protestants almost everywhere, that the bread and wine are only memorials of the broken body and shed blood of the Lord Christ.

Justification by Faith

As the Reformation was “the offspring of the age,” so the leading doctrine of the Reformation, i.e., Justification by Faith, was the logical deduction from the promises laid down by the age. 

And in view of the times and the events, it is difficult to conceive any other doctrine that might properly have been the leading one. 

At the date of the Reformation, the beginning of the sixteenth century,

the papacy had, from Gregory the Great, through and Stephen III, Hildebrand and Innocent III, Alexander VI, and Leo X, reached that pinnacle of abusive power where she held the sway over this world and the world to come, and over the eternal destinies of the human race; and where she could traffic in immortal bliss, selling it for money, where, in the energetic words of another, 

The church was omnipotent, and Leo was the church.

In the exercise of that omnipotency, Leo proceeds to the sale of indulgences, covering both worlds for the past, present, and future. 

And now begins the Reformation. 

Luther resists the sale of indulgences, and the claims upon which they are sold. 

--It is plain that if both sides stand firmly to their principles, nothing else can come out of it but renunciation of the church of Rome, on the part of Luther, the adoption of Christ as Head of the church instead of the pope, and justification by faith instead of by money in the purchase of indulgences. 

For: 

1. If the pope cannot grant remission of sin by an indulgence, can he grant remission at all? 

2. If he cannot grant remission at all, can he bestow upon another the power to remit sin? 

3. If he has not the authority, and those who receive authority from him have it not, then is such authority possessed by any one on earth?

4. If it stand thus with the pope, is he head of the church? 

5. If he be not the head of the church, is not Christ alone the head of the church on earth as well as in heaven? 

6. If Christ alone be the head of the church and the one alone through whose intercession and merits forgiveness of sin can be obtained, and if this forgiveness is to be obtained from God alone, through Christ alone, without the intervention of priest, bishop, or pope, must not every one go to Christ himself, for himself, for justification? 

And therefore the logical consequence is justification by faith. 

And such was the course through which Luther was led. 

Not that Luther saw or realized it all when he began. Not at all. Had he realized even the half of it, doubtless he would have stood aghast. 

When he opposed the indulgences, he saw only the wickedness of the indulgences as ministered by their vendors, and of the manner in which Tetzel conducted the traffic. 

And as the pope persisted in this course, 

and Luther persisted in his opposition, 

this first step carried him logically to the second,and, as events shaped the course, finally to the logical consequence of all, justification by faith, and therefore the Reformation.