SOURCE: Pauck, Wilhelm. “Loci Communes Theologici: Editor's Introduction.” In Melanchthon and Bucer, The Library of Christian Classics, Volume XIX, edited by Wilhelm Pauck, pp. 3-17. Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1969.

In the essay which follows, Pauck surveys Melanchthon's career before examining in detail the purpose and method, theological content, and significance of the Loci Communes.

Philip Melanchthon's work Loci communes rerum theologicarum (Fundamental Theological Themes) was first published in December, 1521, in Wittenberg (a little later another edition appeared in Basel). Melanchthon had begun to work on it in 1520, at a time when Martin Luther, his friend and older colleague at the University of Wittenberg, was deeply involved in the conflict with the Roman Catholic Church that his Ninety-five Theses of October 31, 1517, had aroused. On June 15, 1520, Pope Leo X published the bull Exsurge Domine, which threatened Luther with excommunication unless he recanted his views. On December 10, 1520, Luther publicly burned a...