sunt necessaria et debita_)? This question, too, was a
point of dispute in the Majoristic controversy. Originally the
controversy concerning these terms and phrases was a mere logomachy,
which, however, later on (when, after the error lurking in the absolute
rejection of them had been pointed out, the phrases were still flatly
condemned), developed into a violent controversy. The _Formula of
Concord_ explains: "It has also been argued by some that good works are
not _necessary (noetig)_, but are _voluntary (freiwillig)_, because they
are not extorted by fear and the penalty of the Law, but are to be done
from a voluntary spirit and a joyful heart. Over against this the other
side contended that good works are _necessary_. This controversy was
originally occasioned by the words _necessitas_ and _libertas_
["_notwendig_" und "_frei_"], that is, necessary and free, because
especially the word _necessitas,_ necessary, signifies not only the
eternal, immutable order according to which all men are obliged and in
duty bound to obey God, but sometimes also a coercion, by which the Law
forces men to good works. But afterwards there was a disputation not
only concerning the words, but the doctrine itself was attacked in the
most violent manner, and it was contended that the new obedience in the
regenerate is not necessary because of the above-mentioned divine
order." (939, 4f.)

From the very beginning of the Reformation the Romanists had slandered
Luther also by maintaining that he condemned good works and simply
denied their necessity. A similar charge was made by the Majorists
against their opponents generally. And Melanchthon's writings, too,
frequently create the same impression. But it was an inference of their
own. They argued: If good works are not necessary to salvation, they
cannot be necessary at all. Wigand wrote: "It is a most malicious and
insidious trait in the new teachers [the Majorists] that they, in order
to gloss over their case, cry out with the Papists that the controversy
is whether good works are necessary. But this is not in dispute, for no
Christian ever denied it. Good works are necessary; that is certainly
true. But the conflict arises from the appendix attached to it, and the
patch pasted to it, _viz._, 'to salvation.' And here all God-fearing
men say that it is a detrimental, offensive, damnable, papistic
appendix." (Planck 4, 498. 544.)

It is true, however, that the Antinomians (who will be dealt