the Lord's Supper
as "bread-worshipers," so he stigmatized as Stoics all Lutherans who
opposed his synergistic tendencies. (_C. R._ 8, 782. 783. 916; 9, 100.
565. 733; 23, 392.) Seeberg summarizes Melanchthon's doctrine as
follows: "Grace alone saves, but it saves by imparting to man the
freedom to decide for himself. This synergistic element reappears in his
doctrine of election." (4, 2, 446.) "God elects all men who desire to
believe." (_Grundriss_, 144.)

Naturally the Synergists of Wittenberg and other places followed Master
Philip also in the doctrine of election. In 1555, John Pfeffinger
declared in his _Quaestiones Quinque_ (extensively quoted from in the
chapter on the Synergistic Controversy), thesis 17: "If the will were
idle or purely passive [in conversion], there would be no distinction
between the pious and the impious, or the elect and the damned, as
between Saul and David, between Judas and Peter. God would become a
respecter of persons and the author of contumacy in the wicked and
damned. Moreover, contradictory wills would be ascribed to God which
conflicts with the entire Scripture. Hence it follows that there is in
us some cause why some assent while others do not assent." Thesis 23:
"For we are elected and received because we believe in the Son. (_Ideo
enim electi sumus et recepti, quia credimus in Filium_.) But our
apprehension must concur. For since the promise of grace is universal,
and we must obey the promise, it follows that between the elect and the
rejected some difference must be inferred from our will, _viz._, that
those are rejected who resist the promise while contrariwise those are
accepted who embrace the promise."

The Synergists argued: If in every respect grace alone is the cause of
our salvation, conversion, and election, grace cannot be universal. Or,
since man's contempt of God's Word is the cause of his reprobation,
man's acceptance of God's grace must be regarded as a cause of his
election. Joachim Ernest of Anhalt, for instance, in a letter to
Landgrave William of Hesse, dated April 20, 1577, criticized the
_Formula of Concord_ for not allowing and admitting this argument.
(Frank 4, 135. 267.)

225. Calvinistic Predestination.

While the Synergists, in answering the question why only some are saved,
denied the _sola gratia_ and taught a conversion and predestination
conditioned by the conduct of man, John Calvin and his adherents, on the
other hand, made rapid progress i