The editions of his theological manual are divided into three classes: 1, those from 1521 to
1535; 2, those from 1535 to 1544; 3, those from 1544 to 1559. The edition of 1535 (dedicated to
King Henry VIII. of England, and translated into German by Justus Jonas) was a thorough revision.
This and the editions which followed embody, besides additions in matter and improvements in
style, important modifications of his views on predestination and free will, on the real presence,
and on justification by faith. He gave up necessitarianism for synergism, the corporeal presence in
the eucharist for a spiritual real presence, and solifidianism for the necessity of good works. In the
first and third article he made an approach to the Roman-Catholic system, in the second to Calvinism.
The changes were the result of his continued study of the Bible and the Fathers, and his
personal conferences with Roman and Reformed divines at Augsburg and in the colloquies of
Frankfort, Hagenau, Worms, and Ratisbon. He calls them elucidations of obscurities, moderations
of extreme views, and sober second thoughts.^468
- He denied at first, with Luther and Augustin, all freedom of the human will in spiritual
things.^469 He even held the Stoic doctrine of the necessary occurrence of all actions, bad as well as
good, including the adultery of David and the treason of Judas as well as the conversion of Paul.^470
But on closer examination, and partly under the influence of Erasmus, he abandoned this
stoic fatalism as a dangerous error, inconsistent with Christianity and morality. He taught instead
a co-operation of the divine and human will in the work of conversion; thus anticipating
Arminianism, and approaching the older semi-Pelagianism, but giving the initiative to divine grace.
"God," he said in 1535, "is not the cause of sin, and does not will sin; but the will of the Devil and
the will of man are the causes of sin." Human nature is radically, but not absolutely and hopelessly,
corrupt; it can not without the aid of the Holy Spirit produce spiritual affections such as the fear
and love of God, and true obedience; but it can accept or reject divine grace. God precedes, calls,
moves, supports us; but we must follow, and not resist. Three causes concur in the conversion,—the
word of God, the Holy Spirit, and the will of man. Melanchthon quotes from the Greek Fathers
who lay great stress on human freedom, and he accepts Chrysostom’s sentence: "God draws the
willing."
He intimated this synergistic view in the eighteenth article of the altered Augsburg
Confession, and in the German edition of the Apology of the Confession. But he continued to deny
the meritoriousness of good works; and in the colloquy of Worms, 1557, he declined to condemn
the doctrine of the slavery of the human will, because Luther had adhered to it to the end. He was
willing to tolerate it as a theological opinion, although he himself had rejected it.
- As to the Lord’s Supper, he first accepted Luther’s view under the impression that it was
supported by the ancient Church. But in this he was shaken by Oecolampadius, who proved (1530)
that the Fathers held different opinions, and that Augustin did not teach an oral manducation. After
1534 he virtually gave up for himself, though he would not condemn and exclude, the conception
(^468) See his letters to his friend Camerarius, 2 Sept. 1535 ("Corp. Ref." II. 936), and Dec. 24, 1535 (ib. II. 1027): "Ego nunc in meis Locis
multa mitigavi." ... "In Locis meis videor habereδευτέρας φροντίδας." His letters are interspersed with Greek words and classical
reminiscences.
(^469) Loc. Theol., 1521 A.7: "Quandoquidem omnia quae eveniunt, necessario juxta divinam praedestinationem eveniunt, nulla est
voluntatis nostrae libertas." He refers to Rom. 9 and 11 and Matt. 10:29.
(^470) In his Com. in Ep. ad Roman., 1524, cap. 8: "Itaque sit haec certa sententia, a Deo fieri omnia tam bona quam mala ... Constat
Deum omnia facere non permissive sed potenter,—ita ut sit ejus proprium opus Judae proditio, sicut Pauli vocatio." Luther published
this commentary without Melanchthon’s knowledge, and humorously dedicated it to him.