Note 1166 — Chapter XVIII

Karl Müller (“Symbole,” p. 127 f.) points out very truly that Melanchthon was in the habit of appealing to Luther’s authority, who, for his part, “claimed immutability for his own view of the Gospel”; and further that later followers of Luther, for instance, Flacius, thanks to this very principle, reverted to the real Luther, and furiously assailed Melanchthon for his deformation of the Reformer. According to G. Krüger, “Melanchthon,” p. 12, Melanchthon “in his revisions (of the ‘Loci’) cut himself more and more adrift from Luther, not always happily, but rather to the detriment of the cause.” Page 25: “Many are of opinion that the glorious seed of the German Reformation would have borne much richer fruit had Melanchthon been different from what he was.” Yet Krüger also says: “Should the Luther for whom we long ever come, then let us hope that a Melanchthon will be his right-hand man, that, with the advent of the Titan who overthrows the old and founds the new, the spirit of peace and kindliness may still prevail to the blessing to our Fatherland and Church.” What the aims of the new Luther and new Melanchthon are to be, the author fails to state.