warmth and earnestness-to say nothing of] and greater freedom than the stereotyped bitterness and violence-which should have creed of Luther permitted, that his counsels been reserved for matters of the last impor- were sought in confidence, in order that, tance. The animosity which their head when obtained, they might be made matter had manifested towards Zwingle, inherited of accusation against him; and when Carby his disciples, split them up into factions, dinal Sadoletus, known as one of the purest, each of which had its own leader, who, Latinists in Italy, addressed a complimenthough no larger than the frog in the fable, tary letter to him, in commendation of his. must distend himself, if possible, to Luther's distinguished merits in the advancement of size and consequence. There is not, per- classical learning, the zealots of his party, haps, a more humiliating scene in the whole instead of rejoicing in the reputation of range of ecclesiastical history than is ex- their most eminent professor, accused him, hibited in the state of Lutheranism, during though the letter was never answered, of the latter part of the sixteenth century, and an inclination to go over to the papal side. much of the seventeenth; vanity, passion, and dogmatical inflexibility, combined together, raised the odium theologicum to a most disgraceful and destructive height. Heats and dissensions, censures and condemnations, imprisonment, exile, and even death, marked its unchristian course, and proved its virulence. Nor had the churches rest from it, until they sunk into the torpid slumbers of an icy rationalism. We have said that when the strife about the Interim broke out, Melanchthon was between two fires. On the one side were the advocates of the imperial or Augsburg Interim, including his old enemy Agricola; on the other, the opponents of all concession, even in observances which left the substance of the Gospel untouched, among whom the principal were Amsdorf, and the able but impetuous Flacius Illyricus. Maurice's unOf this bad spirit, Melanchthon was the looked-for change of policy, and his success first and greatest victim. The controversy against the emperor in 1552, occasioning which arose upon the Interim was supplied the Passau treaty, soon, indeed, dissolved with fuel from the transactions of previous all disagreements about the Augsburg Inteyears. Melanchthon had not advanced a rim, but the quarrel with the other party, step in clearing his doctrinal convictions even when the Leipzig Interim was also refrom the cloudy twilight which, except on laxed, continued fierce and bitter. the great article of justification by faith, shrouded the theology of Wittemberg when he was called thither, without provoking some new enemy. From 1527, when Agricola first branded him with heresy on account of the importance he attached to the law as an instrument of conviction and repentance, until the outbreak of the intermistic controversy, he had been a perpetual offence to the more rigid Lutherans. In 1536, and again in 1537, Cordatus raised a strife on account of his views respecting the activity of the humun will in conversion.* In 1544, on many accounts one of the saddest seasons of his life, Amsdorf thought he did good service to religion by inflaming the mind of Luther, now feeble and often peevish through advancing age, against the sacramentarian opinions of his colleague. So strong, indeed, and inconsistent was the feeling against him during this whole period, as the presumed advocate of clearer views The reasons of our conviction cannot be fully unfolded within the limits to which we are here restricted, but after carefully considering all the principal passages of this affair, the acts, the official writings, and even the private letters of Melanchthon, we are satisfied that he came out of this most trying ordeal of principle, if not entirely free from blame, yet with a character in which conscientious integrity, and a determination to uphold the fundamentals of the Gospel, cost what they might, were eminently conspicuous. We do not judge him by the light of our own age. He held views with which we have no sympathy, on the nature and extent of civil and ecclesiastical obedience, and on the right of princes to provide a religion for their subjects. He would have maintained their right to dictate a religion to their subjects, provided that it was the true one. All enforced confessions, all confessions authorized as the exclusive standards of a state religion, take this for From an expression in a letter of Melanch-granted; and on this subject he was not bethon's to Brenz, it would appear that Cordatus fore his age. But shackled as he was by spared no indignities. Hic cum Hydra decerto, this unsound principle, which put the whole uno represso, alli multi exoriuntur Quidam Cordatus nuper abjectum libellum Locorum Commu- case in a false position, his conduct denium pedibus calcavit.'-Corp. Ref. iii. 390. served small censure, even if not entitled, We have in view the part he took with reference to the Landgrave's double marriage, and the distress of mind he fell into in consequence. To defend Melanchthon in the as we think it was, to respectful admiration. It is true that in a letter to Flacius, written in 1556, he says, referring apparently to the explanations and engagements of Maurice's commissioners-You shall be victor; Isanction which he gave to this marriage is out of the question. Neither the co-operation of Luther and Bucer, nor the pains which were taken in their joint declaration to urge the points most likely to dissuade the Landgrave from his purpose, will justify him in the smallest degree. This Melanchthon felt; and his feeling is at once his conviction, and his best and only apology; an apology not for the offence but the of fender, and for the offender only, because it evinces the sincerity of his repentance. The scene which follows has been described by Luther's biographers, but it may be interesting to read an account of it as described in a memoir of Melanchthon. Our Reformer had set out on a journey from Wittemberg to Hagenau in Alsace, evidently out of health and spirits, and having taken to his bed at Weimar, the elector had sequel is thus described by Ratzenberger: yield, I contend not for those ceremonies, and wish exceedingly that the church may find peace. I confess also that in this matter I was wanting, and I pray God to forgive me that I did not withdraw from these deceptive councils.' But how is this language to be interpreted? As the language of a man convinced of having acted a base and treacherous part which conscience would not justify? Is it not rather that of one who felt that he had been to some extent deceived, but who also, in the secret of his own conscience, felt that he was armed so strong in honesty that he could afford his bitterest enemy the advantage of this frank acknowledgment? To do justice to Melanchthon we must remember, that when the question was first opened he took great pains to explain the distinction which was made between things fundamental and indif-written to Luther to come to him. The ferent; that in recommending the latter on a principle of concession, he did not act merely from fear, as his enemies alleged, but conformably with his constant views upon the subjects of church discipline and order; that he expressed with equal determination to friend and foe that he would consent to no infringement whatever of the essential doctrines of the gospel; and that with a self-denial of which there are but few examples in history, he was, during the whole time these stormy collisions and hostile machinations proceeded, refusing the most flattering invitations, written by royal hands, from Denmark and England, in order that he might stand by his country and his church in the day of their calamity. Let these things be remembered as they ought, and we think there will be little question left as to the preponderance of praise or censure due to Melanchthon in the matter of the Leipzig Interim. Melanchthon's son Philip) arrived in Weimar, 'When Luther . . . . (with Cruciger and he found every thing, unhappily, just as had been represented to him. Melanchthon's eyes were quite dim, his consciousness had left him, his speech had failed, his hearing was gone, and his countenance was relaxed and fallen in. As Luther said, 'facies erat Hippo cratica.' drank nothing. When Luther saw him in this He recognized nobody, eat and unconscious state, he was exceedingly terrified, and said to his companions, 'God preserve me! How the devil has dishonored this vessel.' He then immediately turned to the window, and prayed earnestly to God. At that time,' said Luther, God was constrained to stretch out before the door, and plied his ears with all the [the hand] to me, for I threw down the wallet promises of hearing prayer which I could recount from the Holy Scriptures, [telling him] that he must hear me,-that so I should at another time trust his promises.' Hereupon he grasps Philip by the hand, and says, Bono But leaving this point to the reader's judg-God has just cause to slay thee, he willeth not animo esto, Philippe, non morieris. Though ment, let us remove to another position. the death of the sinner, but that he turn and Let us view our reformer at an earlier pe-live. He hath pleasure in life, and not in death. riod of his eminently varied life, and ascertain the bearing on his character of some other circumstances in which we find him. Has God called and received the greatest of all sinners who have come upon the earth, as Adam and Eve, back again into favor,-how much less will he reject thee, my Philip, or The invitations from England commenced suffer thee to perish in sin and sorrow! Thereeven in the reign of Henry VIII. They were re-fore do not give place to the devil, and become newed with much earnestness on Edward's accession; and the last was written by Edward himself, in May, 1553, only two months before his death. not thine own murderer, but trust in the Lord, who can bring the dead to life again, can wound and bind up, can strike and heal.' For Luther knew well the condition of his heart to say that besides repeated visitations which he made to the churches in Thuringia, and other territories belonging to electoral (afterwards ducal) Saxony, he labored with the happiest results at Leipzig, Nuremberg, and Berlin. Even remote universities, as Königsberg, which was founded in 1544, were constructed or remodelled according to his plans, and furnished in many instances with teachers whom he had formed. His pupils were the life of literature over a and conscience. On this grasping of the hand and encouragement, Philip again begins to draw his breath, but cannot, notwithstanding say any thing till after a good while. Then he turns his face directly towards Luther, and begins to implore him, for God's sake, that he will detain him here no longer. He is on a good journey, Luther must suffer him to depart; nothing better can come to him. By no means, Philip,' said Luther; thou must serve our Lord God yet longer. Thereupon Philip, by little and little, became more cheer. ful; and Luther ordered that something might be got as soon as possible for him to eat, and large extent of northern Europe, and his would have given it him himself. Philip, how-elementary treatises on grammar, rhetoric, ever, refused to take it. Then Luther urged logic, ethics, and physical science, were in him with rough words, saying, 'Hearest thou, the hands of almost all the educated youth Philip? Make short work of it; thou must eat of Saxony, and the neighboring States. for my sake, or I will put thee under excommunication. With these words he prevailed on him to eat, though but a little; and thus, by degrees his strength returned again."-Ratzenb. Annales Vit. Mel. 17. p. From the time of Luther's death, in 1546, Melanchthon became the acknowledged head of the Evangelical divines. We have seen into what suspicion and reproach his gradual emancipation from what the rigid There is perhaps no scene in the life of Lutherans called orthodoxy brought him. Luther or Melanchthon more characteristic His later years were passed amidst continthan that which has been just described. ual vexation and anxieties, under which We no more doubt Luther's sincere contri- nothing could have sustained him as he was tion for his fault than we do Melanchthon's sustained, but the testimony of a good conhis letters to the elector and to Eberhard science, and the determination that he von der Tanne, are sufficient proof of it. would, if possible, preserve the Lutheran But if he showed more force of character churches from open rupture and mutual on this occasion than his friend, the latter condemnation. He saw that there were vamanifested greater tenderness of conscience. rious parties in them, but still he hoped that There was in Luther an ardor and a bustle, these might, by the exercise of a wise cauresulting from his sanguine temperament, tion on his part, be prevented from becomwhich caused his private feelings, however ing distinct and hostile communions. He violent, nay, partly through their violence, also knew that his own more liberal system, to be of brief duration. Melanchthon, who, both as respected the doctrines of grace and notwithstanding his incessant activity, was the nature of our Lord's presence in the of a patient and reflective character, retained eucharist, was not likely, if put in marked his convictions till they swelled into a tor- distinction to the current exposition of orrent, and threatened to destroy even life it-thodoxy, as derived from Luther's writings, self. There was weakness in this, unques- to receive the sanction of the elector. He tionably, but it was the weakness of a virtuous mind, the only weakness with which Melanchthon is fairly chargeable, and one redeemed by frequent instances of energy and intrepidity. therefore refused, in the most persevering manner, to give currency to any other form of expression than those contained in the recognized symbols of the church, it being his belief, that, if the controversial spirit We made a passing reference just now to which had been the bane of Lutheranism the invitations which Melanchthon received, could but be suppressed for a time, the symduring the first heats of the interimistic con- bols might afterwards be explicitly intertroversy, to Denmark and England. These preted in harmony with the gradual imwere not solely the fruit of his great repu- provements to be expected in biblical expotation for learning and candor; they were sition. His prudence saved his principles mainly caused by the success which had at- from condemnation, and the churches and tended his efforts in planting the Reforma-universities from the loss of their best teachtion, and forming a solid, evangelical sys-ers, as long as he lived; but the first faint tem of school instruction in different States gleamings of court favor which shone upon of Germany. To detail his services in these his disciples afterwards, betrayed them into respects would take up much more space such excesses as at once and for ever ruined than we can give to them. It must suffice them. The more liberal party was immediately | Bucer (1551), Bernhard Ziegler (1552), Geo. broken up. Its leaders, as stated in the von Anhalt (1553), Jacob Sturm (1558), and opening of this paper, were deposed and im-Johann Bugenhagen, had gone before him. prisoned. And what previously had been only the private views of Luther and his more bigoted admirers, were incorporated into a symbol-the "Formula Concordiæ," published in 1577-which, burning like a firebrand till its fuel was exhausted, then hung as a clog upon the neck of orthodoxy till creeds and orthodoxy fell into contempt together. At the end of March, 1560, he travelled to Leipzig, to examine the stipendiaries, as he had done for several years. When he returned, on the 5th of April, the north wind met him so raw and bitter, that he was overtaken with a cold shuddering fit. On the 8th of April this was succeeded by a fever, with cough and shortness of breath. He had not slept during any part of the night, and was therefore so weary and weak in the morning, that he could scarcely sit upright. He took his seat at his The moral of this forcing of opinions is writing-table, but his powers were quite exnot far to seek, and Melanchthon appears hausted, so that he was obliged to go and lie to have discovered the true principle some upon his settle from time to time. His son-inyears before he died. He was at least con-law, the physician Caspar Peucer, suspected vinced of the utter uselessness of decretal that he was again suffering from the stone, synods, for when, in May, 1553, the Elector and would have had a bath got ready for him; but he said, he had for several years been Maurice communicated to him at Torgau weak about this time, and that, besides, this the intentions of himself and other princes, year there was an eclipse of the sun at the to convene a conference at Erfurt, in the equinox, and would be in conjunction of Saturn following June, Melanchthon replied, the and Mars about eight o'clock. He wished to Landgrave might remember how little the go to his wash-hand stand, but could with difconferences at Schmalcald and Marburg ficulty reach it, and said, 'I shall go out as an had effected; that the princes and divines had made up his mind to go to his lectureNotwithstanding this, he expiring candle.' were now more widely separated than they room, and read on dialectics. Only half an were then, and that therefore some would hour,' said he; 'I must read half an hour, then not even attend, and among those who did I will take the bath.' He was able to continue attend no unity would follow. "Nazian- his lecture but a quarter of an hour. The zen," he continued, "has long since said following day he was better. He corrected that he had seen no synod in his time which several funeral orations for Duke Philip of had not been the occasion of greater divi-Pomerania, who had died on the 24th of Febsions than existed before." In using Greg-hand now but funeral matters. This good ruary, and said pleasantly, 'I have nothing in ory's words to represent his own conviction, Melanchthon has given us the lessons of his own experience, and it was the experience of a man who had to do with synods and their decrees in almost every form, and who must have known the nature and effects of them, if any man could hope to do so. Melanchthon died the 19th of April, 1560, aged sixty-three. We transcribe from Matthes the account of his last days. This account, though less complete than Dr. Cox's, is an interesting pendant to that we have already given of his early life and studies, and shows that he was the same hard student, the same conscientious laborer, the same friend of union to the last. prince was named Philip.. Perhaps I shall be the next Philip to follow him-one from the people.' On Maundy Thursday he received the communion once more at church. On Good Friday he held his last festival-meditation, on Isaiah 53. The following night he slept undisturbed; and when he awoke, it seemed to him as if he were singing, as he had done when a boy in church, the words, 'I have desired to eat the passover with you before I suffer. In the course of that day he drew up the Easter programme, took it himself to the printers, and looked in again after dinner to was his last walk in the street. The next see how the setting up had proceeded. This night his fever returned. so that, on Easter Sunday, the 15th of April, he was again quite weak. Notwithstanding, he was determined to hold his Easter-meditation; and was much 'Before, however, the appointed time ardispleased when he learned that his hearers had been dismissed. On Easter Monday, he rived [the time for a convention at Bremen, which he was expected to attend], Melanch- was much in conversation with his friend thon was called away from this world, which Camerarius, who had arrived on the Saturday; at last had become a valley of mourning to but said to him, I have a desire to depart, and him, into that land of everlasting peace, to-rius returned home on the 17th. Exactly at to be with Christ.' As he got better, Camerawards which his soul had long looked with strong desire, and whither all his older friends this time, however, the fever returned again; -Luther, Caspar Borner (1547), Caspar Cru- he became weaker and weaker. On the 18th ciger (1548), Veit Dietrich (1549), Martin of April he allowed a travelling bed to be * * * * made up for him in his study, lay down in it, conveys the unpleasing idea of negligence. His stature was small and slight, but he he had an awkward motion of one shoulder was well proportioned, though in his youth when he walked, which Staphylus and Sarcerius are said to have been foolish enough to imitate. When he spoke, his manner was very animated, and he gesticulated freely with his hands. In advancing years he suffered greatly in his health, from incessant occupation and frequent want of sleep. To this was added severe bodily sufferings sometimes from the stone, all which produced at length a considerable alteration in his appearance. His public character we have already partially exhibited. His private one was every way worthy of it. It was his practice, notwithstanding his continual occupation, to attend as he had opportunity, the lectures of the younger teachers, that by his It is to be regretted that all the portraits presence he might give them consequence we possess of Melanchthon, except those on in the eyes of the students. He was emimedals, are from the dry, stiff hand of Lu- nently charitable to the poor, and generous cas Kranach, who was certainly unable to to his friends. Indeed he too frequently lend a grace where it was wanting, even if gave when he would have done better to he could (of which, however, we know of have refused; and his kindness in assisting no proof), commit to his canvass those on all occasions, even those who had no which were presented to him. There is, claim upon him, was excessive.* At table indeed, a drawing by Hans Holbein, in the he was very sociable, would cheerfully reQueen's collection at Windsor, upon which late what, in his extensive intercourse with Melanchthon's name is inscribed, and which men of all ranks, he had seen and heard of has been re-engraved in Germany as a a nature calculated either to please or inyouthful portrait of the Reformer. It is struct, and had no objection to temper digunderstood to have been in Holbein's port-nity with mirth. He was accustomed to folio when he came to England, in the reign quote Plautus's saying, Homo homini of Henry VIII., and is supposed to have ignotus lupus est,' and to call those who been taken at Erasmus's suggestion. We always sat in society with their mouths are convinced, however, that the tradition shut, and their eyes fixed upon the person respecting it is not authentic. We wish, who might be speaking, insidiatores. He indeed, it were, for there is much more life said it was inhumanity and barbarism, and and grace, as well as better drawing, in it, that sæpe tacens odii semina vultus habet. than in the best of Kranach's. Yet even At the same time, he neither indulged in Kranach was not able to miss entirely the unseemly ridicule himself, nor suffered it sweetness that played about Melanchthon's in others. He betrayed no secrets. He mouth (our readers will find it in the en-abstained from exaggerations. Vulgarity graving lately made by Müller, from perhaps in every form was hateful to him; but espehis best picture)-and it was clearly all but cially in that most odious of its many forms, impossible to overlook the ample, towering indecent allusion. He willingly conversed forehead, which is so much in harmony with none who were not, like himself, with our reformer's clear, expanded intel- urbane and chaste. lect. Melanchthon's eyes are said to have been remarkable for their beauty, lustre, many illustrations of this. He was continually and penetration. Judging from his por- writing prefaces for his friends, or letters of retraits, he sometimes wore his beard, some-commendation for students, or theses or academitimes shaved himself close, and not unfrequently, like Richard Baxter, possessed his chin in that intermediate state, which, in an age when beards are not usually worn, * His letters and Camerarius's memoirs furnish cal discourses for professors. According to Camerarius, the latter were delivered, word for word, cum humidis adhuc literis reliquæ afferri iis, qui as written by Melanchthon, atqe visæ sunt charte jam pronuntiare composita ab eo priora cœpissent.' |