ns made by Major and Menius did not and could not satisfy their
opponents. They maintained, as explained above, that the words
"necessary to" always imply "something that precedes, moves, effects,
works," and that, accordingly, the obnoxious propositions of Major
"place good works before the remission of sins and before salvation."
(Preger 1, 377.) Even Planck admits that only force could make the
proposition, "Good works are necessary to salvation," say, "Good works
must follow faith and justification." "According to the usage of every
language," says he, "a phrase saying that one thing is necessary to
another designates a causal connection. Whoever dreamt of asserting that
heat is necessary to make it day, because it is a necessary effect of
the rays of the sun, by the spreading of which it becomes day." (4, 542.
485.) Without compromising the truth and jeopardizing the doctrine of
justification, therefore, the Lutherans were able to regard as
satisfactory only a clear and unequivocal rejection of Majorism as it is
found in the _Formula of Concord._

149. Absurd Proposition of Amsdorf.

Nicholas Amsdorf, the intimate and trusted friend of Luther, was among
the most zealous of the opponents of Majorism. He was born December 3,
1483; professor in Wittenberg; 1521 in Worms with Luther; superintendent
in Magdeburg; 1542 bishop at Naumburg; banished by Maurice in 1547, he
removed to Magdeburg; soon after professor and superintendent in Jena;
opposed the Interimists, Adiaphorists, Osiandrists, Majorists,
Synergists, Sacramentarians, Anabaptists, and Schwenckfeldians; died at
Eisenach May 14, 1565. Regarding the bold statements of Major as a blow
at the very heart of true Lutheranism, Amsdorf antagonized his teaching
as a "most pernicious error," and denounced Major as a Pelagian and a
double Papist. But, alas, the momentum of his uncontrolled zeal carried
him a step too far--over the precipice. He declared that good works are
detrimental and injurious to salvation, _bona opera perniciosa_ (noxia)
_esse ad salutem._ He defended his paradoxical statement in a
publication of 1559 against Menius, with whose subscription to the
Eisenach propositions, referred to above, he was not satisfied; chiefly
because Menius said there that he had taught and defended them also in
the past. The flagrant blunder of Amsdorf was all the more offensive
because it appeared on the title of his tract, reading as follows:
"_Dass diese Propositio: '