MELANCHTHON. 



761 



and brother to Bias. Fable relates many wonderful 

 things of his skill in the healing and prophetic arts. 

 Two serpents which, when a youth, he had taken 

 under his protection and brought up, having licked 

 his ears while he was sleeping, he found that they 

 were opened in such a manner that he was able to 

 understand the voices of birds and insects, and could 

 reveal to mankind every thing that these voices in- 

 dicated concerning the future. Bias fell in love with 

 the fair Pero, daughter of Neleus, king of Pylos, the 

 uncle of the two brothers, but he required as a nup- 

 tial present for his daughter, the herd of oxen be- 

 longing to Iphiclus, a Thessalian prince. Melampus 

 undertook to steal the herd for his brother, but was 

 detected and imprisoned. He, however, succeeded, 

 by his prophetic art, in gaining the favour of Iphiclus, 

 who gave him his liberty, and sent the oxen as a 

 present, to Bias. Melampus married Iphianassa, 

 the daughter of Prcetus, king of Argos, and received 

 with her, as a dowry, a third part of the kingdom. 

 The time in which he lived is unknown ; he is gene- 

 rally considered, however, as having been a wise 

 man, who was well skilled in all the ancient mytho- 

 logy, and who introduced the worship of several of 

 the gods, together with the Eleusinian mysteries, into 

 Greece, on which account he received divine honours. 

 MELANCHTHON, PHILIP, Luther's fellow labour- 

 er in the reformation, was born February 16, 1497, 

 at Bretten, in the palatinate of the Rhine. His 

 father, George Schwartzerd, was keeper of the 

 armoury of the count palatine, and died in 1507, and 

 his mother, Barbara, was a near relative of the 

 learned Reuchlin. He was distinguished at an early 

 age, by his intellectual endowments. His rapid 

 progress in the ancient languages, during his boy- 

 hood, made him a peculiar favourite with Reuchlin. 

 At his advice, he changed his name, according to 

 the custom of the learned at that time, from Schwartz- 

 erd (Blackearth), into the Greek name Melanchthon, 

 of the same signification, and, in 1510, went to the 

 university of Heidelberg. Here lie was preeminent in 

 philological and philosophical studies, so that, in the 

 next year, he was deemed qualified for the degree 

 of bachelor of philosophy, and was made instructer 

 of some young counts. But as this university denied 

 him the dignity of master, on account of his youth, he 

 went to Tubingen, in 1512, where, in addition to his 

 former studies, he devoted himself particularly to 

 theology, and, in 1514, after obtaining the degree of 

 master, delivered lectures on the Greek and Latin 

 authors. Mis profound knowledge is proved by a 

 Greek grammar, which he published about this time. 

 The ability of his lectures soon gained him universal 

 esteem, and the great Erasmus himself gave him, in 

 1518, tlie praise of uncommon research, correct know- 

 ledge of classical antiquity, and of an eloquent style. 

 Tubingen had to lament the loss of its chief orna- 

 ment, when Melanchthon, being invited, on Reuchlin's 

 recommendation, to Wittenberg, appeared, in 1518, 

 }it this university, in his twenty-second year, as pro- 

 fessor of the Greek language and literature. His 

 enlightened mind soon decided him in favour of the 

 cause of evangelical truth ; and his judgment, ripened 

 by classical study, his acumen as a philosopher and 

 critic, the uncommon distinctness and order of his 

 ideas, which spread light and grace over whatever 

 he discussed, the caution with which he advanced 

 from doubt to certainty, and the steadfast zeal with 

 which he held and defended the truth when found, 

 this combination of great qualities and merits, at all 

 times rare, contributed greatly to the progress and 

 success of the reformation, in connexion with Luth- 

 er's activity, spirit, and enterprise. Melanchthon's 

 superiority as a scholar, his mild, amiable character, 

 the moderation and candour with which he treated 



the opposite party, made him peculiarly suitable for 

 a mediator. No one knew better than he how to 

 soften the rigour of Luther, and to recommend the 

 new doctrines to those who were prepossessed 

 against them. His Loci theologici, which appeared 

 first in 1521, opened the path to an exposition of the 

 Christian creed, at the same time scientific and in- 

 telligible, and became the model to all Protestant 

 writers of dogmatics. He urged decidedly, in 1529, 

 the protest against the resolves of the diet of Spire, 

 which gave his party its name. He drew up, in 

 1530, the celebrated Confession of Augsburg. This 

 and the apology for it, which he composed soon after, 

 carried the reputation of his name through all 

 Europe. Francis I. invited him to France, in 1535, 

 with a view to a pacific conference with the doctors 

 of the Sorbonne, and he soon after received a similar 

 invitation to England. Political reasons prevented 

 him from accepting either of the invitations. He 

 went to Worms in 1541, and, soon after,to Ratisbon, 

 to defend the cause of the Protestants, in tBe confer- 

 ences commenced there with the Catholics. But, 

 unfortunately, the wisdom and moderation, which he 

 there manifested, failed, on account of the opposition 

 of the papal legate, to produce the peace which lie 

 so earnestly desired ; and while the reasonable part 

 of the Catholics learned, on this occasion, to respect 

 him more highly, he had to endure, from his own 

 party, bitter reproaches, for the steps for effecting a 

 compromise, upon which he had ventured after ma- 

 ture deliberation. The same thing happened to him, 

 when, having been invited to Bonn, in 1543, by the 

 elector Hermann of Cologne, he tried to introduce 

 the elector's plans of reformation in a conciliatory 

 spirit towards the Catholics. Meanwhile, neither 

 Luther, nor any other of his friends, who knew his 

 noble heart and upright piety, ever entertained a 

 doubt of the purity of his intentions, or his fidelity to 

 the gospel. 



Much as Melanchthon had to suffer from Luther's 

 vehemence, the friendship of these two noble-spirited 

 men, agreeing in sentiment and belief, remained un- 

 broken till Luther's death, whom Melanchthon la- 

 mented with the feelings of a son. A great part of 

 the confidence which Luther had enjoyed, now fell 

 to him. Germany had already called him her teacher, 

 and Wittenberg revered in him its only support, and 

 the restorer of its university, after the Smalcaldic 

 war, during which he fled hither and thither, and 

 spent some time in Weimar. The new elector, 

 Maurice, also treated him with distinction, and did 

 nothing in religious matters without his advice. But 

 some theologians, who would fain have been the sole 

 heirs of Luther's glory, could not forgive him, that 

 love to Wittenberg had induced him to submit to 

 this prince, who had rendered himself suspected by 

 the whole Lutheran church, and that the Protestants 

 nevertheless persisted in regarding him as one of the 

 pillars of their faith. They attacked his dogmas, 

 and raised suspicions of his orthodoxy. Melanchthon 

 had indeed shown, in his negotiations with the Cath- 

 olics, that many an ancient usage, and even a con- 

 ditional acknowledgment of the papal authority, did 

 not seem to him so dangerous as to Luther. More- 

 over, the gradual approach of his views (respecting 

 the presence of Christ in the supper) to the Swiss 

 reformers, was known, and the alteration which he 

 had, in consequence, made in the article of the 

 Augsburg confession concerning the supper, was 

 censured by friend and foe. He also explained the 

 doctrine of justification more definitely, and according 

 to his convictions, more scripturally, both in the later 

 editions of his Loci theologici, and in other public 

 writings, and explicitly avowed his deviation from 

 the Augustine system, by the assertion that the free 



