licious men do not control themselves, he threatens to leave." (372.)
As for Melanchthon, he made no efforts to shirk the responsibility for
Cruciger's dictation. "_Libenter totam rem in me transfero_--I
cheerfully transfer the entire affair to myself" he wrote April 15,
1537. Yet he was worried much more than his words seem to indicate.
(342.)

Complaints against the innovations of Melanchthon and Cruciger were also
lodged with Luther by Cordatus, Amsdorf, and Stiefel. Cordatus reports
Luther as saying after the matter had been related to him, October 24,
1536: "This is the very theology of Erasmus, nor can anything be more
opposed to our doctrine. _Haec est ipsissima theologia Erasmi, neque
potest quidquam nostrae doctrinae esse magis adversum._" To say that new
obedience is the "_causa sine qua non--sine qua non contingit vita
aeterna,_" Luther declared, was tantamount to treading Christ and His
blood under our feet. "_Cruciger autem haec, quae publice dictavit,
publice revocabit._ What he has publicly dictated, Cruciger shall
publicly retract." (Kolde, _Analecta,_ 266.)

According to Ratzeberger, Luther immediately warned and censured
Cruciger "in severe terms." (_C. R._ 4, 1038.) Flacius reports that
Luther had publicly declared more than five times: "_Propositionem: Bona
opera esse necessaria ad salutem, volumus damnatam, abrogatam, ex
ecclesiis et scholis nostris penitus explosam._" (Schluesselburg 7,
567.) After his return from Smalcald, where he had expressed grave fears
as to the future doctrinal soundness of his Wittenberg colleagues,
Luther, in a public disputation on June 1, 1537 "exploded and condemned"
the teaching that good works are necessary to salvation, or necessary to
salvation as a _causa sine qua non_. (_Lehre u. Wehre_ 1908, 65.) Both
parties were present at the disputation, Cordatus as well as Melanchthon
and Cruciger. In a letter to Veit Dietrich, June 27, 1537, Cruciger
reports: Luther maintained that new obedience is an "effect necessarily
following justification," but he rejected the statement: "New obedience
is necessary to salvation, _necessariam ad salutem._" He adds: "_Male
hoc habuit nostrum [Melanchthon], sed noluit eam rem porro agitare._
Melanchthon was displeased with this, but he did not wish to agitate the
matter any further." (_C. R._ 3, 385.) After the disputation Cruciger
was handed an anonymous note, saying that his "Treatise on Timothy" was
now branded as "heretical, sacrile