M E L A N* C T H O N. 



45 



points, he maintained the character of an enlightened 



rtexible Protestant. In these various conferences, 



,<1 all the excellence of his character, a* well 



as the abilities of hi* mind ; and all the efforts of the 



Romanists were exerted, without success, to gain him 



to their cause. Amidst all his constitutional soil. 



ness, the integrity of hi* principles, and the intrepidity 



mind were repeatedly manifested; and, when 

 Cardinal Campegiu* ultimately refused all toleration of 

 the Protestant sentiments, be made this mild but reso- 



p'.y. Well, then, we commend ourselves and 

 our concerns to God. If he be for us, who can l >e 

 againtt u - We ihall wait with patience whatever 

 may happen to u. If it be necessary, we would (if 

 such be the will of God) rather fight and die than be- 

 tray so many soul*." In the year 1554, he waa com. 

 ' to confer with Bucer at Casel on the sacra* 

 controversy ; and would most likely here 

 matters, had Luther been disposed to mo- 

 derate hi* violence; but, as it was, he succeeded in 

 greatly abating the hostility of the Saxon reformer to 

 the brethren of SwitserlamL I n the same year he was 

 engaged in a similar conference with the Romanists at 



c, where he equally (ailed in his object, through 

 the assuming obstinacy of the papists, while he equal- 

 ly manifested the excellence of bis own spirit. His 

 name had now attained the highest celebrity through- 

 out the nation* of Europe ; and be was successively m- 



or rather earnestly entreated, both by Francis I. 

 f r ranee, and by Henry VIII. of England, to 

 their ret|tective court* ; but was prevented, in both 

 case*, by the wishes of the Elector of Saxony, who was 

 afraid of giving offence to Charles V. and who proba- 



gured little good from either of the monarch*. 

 They had doubtless their own political views to grati- 

 fy in the proposal ; but it prove* the eminence of Me- 

 lancthon'* name, when both these powerful princes 

 were desirous to avail thrmesl-ss of his innemce, Both 

 be and Luther had considerable hops* of inducing the 

 king of England to pursue hi* apparently favourable 

 > irds the cause of the reformation : and 

 wrute several letters, beside* transmitting 

 some of hi* publication* to Henry, from whom be re- 

 ceived in rrt urn a present of 900 crowns, and the high- 

 est expressions of approbation of bis seal in the easjse 

 of the Christian religion. In consequence, however, of 

 thi* communication with the English court, he formed 

 an %fnnainr*nffe 



with Archbishop Cranmer, to whom be 

 had recommended Alexander Alee*, a learned Scotch- 

 man, who had been driven from hi* native country by 

 the violence of the Popish party, and who afterwards 

 acquired great fav.mr with King llrnry. 



Upon the appointment of a general council to meet 

 st M.uitu.1 in M.iy I ', ,7, hit service* were agsm requi- 

 red by the Protestant leaders, to tlevUe some common 

 form of doctrine, which might unite the reformed 

 churches ; and to (elect those article* of faith, which, 

 from their radical importance, were ntcnsarj to be re- 

 tained ami avowed at all basarH* in the proposed ac- 

 commodation with the Catholics. In the prosecution 

 of these objects, he drew up a treatise on the suprema- 

 cy of the pope and jurisdiction of the bishop*, which 

 net with great approbation from the ProtesUnt 

 tic*; and which manifested at once In- firmness in 

 what he conceived to be essential principles, a 

 strong desire of a reconciliation, lint many were ready 

 to misinterpret hi* intention, and to crnture hi* love of 

 peace, while be wa* resisting offer* from the Popish 

 prince*, which perhaps few of these calumniators would 



1 



have been able to withstand. In 1 539, in the Protest- 

 ant conference at Francfort, he was deputed to write 

 on the subject of lawful defence ; and soon afterwards 

 addressed a letter of strong remonstrance to the waver- 

 ing and wayward King of England on his conduct in 

 the cause of the reformation. 



To give a full view of the services of this eminent 

 and indefatigable labourer in the c.iuse of revealed re- 

 ligion and of the reformed doctrines, would require u* 

 to enter into all the leading events of the age in which 

 he lived. In a conference at Worm* in 1511 ; in aid. 

 ing the plans of the Elector of Cologne for promoting 

 the reformation in the diocese in l.~>4-<: in rendering 

 similar services to the Elector Palatine Frederic in 

 1545 ; in preparing for the expected council of Trent a 

 ttatement of the chief reasons of tlie Protestant dissent 

 . ; in almost ever}- thing, in short, that was to 

 be written his.pen waa successively and unremitting. 

 ly employed. After the death of Luther, with whom 

 he consulted and corresponded on all occasions, he 

 found himself still more unceasingly harassed by the 

 accumulating interests of the reformation, at the most 

 critical period of its progress. Upon the publication 

 of the temporary rule of faith for all parties, called the 

 INTERIM, (of which the emperor enforced the obser- 

 vence by force of arm*,) MeUncthon attended seven 

 CMtserencc* at Leipnc. and wrote all the piece* which 

 were than presented in the discussion of this imperial 

 creed. The result of these deliberation* was the pub- 

 lication of a treatise from hi* pen, and a decree of the 

 Saxon nobility and clergy, on the observance of thing* 

 of an indifferent nature. In thi* work, and the dispute* 

 which followed, called the Adiophoristic controversy, 

 Mciancthon has been most unjustly accused of having 

 fieiwfcmed the truth through excessive timidity and 

 servile compliance ; but a few quotations from hi* pub. 

 lihsd sentiment* at the moment, will sufficiently expose 



threatened with war and destruction, we must Mill ad- 

 here to the word of God, and not deny acknowledged 

 truth. A* to the danger incurred by the defence of 

 what ia preached in our churches, and we know to be 

 truth, we will entrust the affair to God." " Let the 

 potentate* and ruler* consider, amidst the alarms of 

 war now prevalent, what they will, and what they 

 oagbt to do in thi* affair, fur the peace of the church. 

 A* for myself, I am ready, by the grace .f God. to de- 



G hence, and if need be to suffer." We have been 

 ly written to, and admonished net to preach, teach, 

 or write again*t thi Interim ; but necessity compels us 

 to say this much, with all humility of mind, that we 

 will not alter in what we have hitherto taught in our 

 churches; for no creature pootssei power or authority 

 to change the word of God, and it is at every one's pe- 

 ril to deny or forsake the known truth. A, therefore, 

 this Interim i* opposed, in many of it* articles, to the 

 truth we have advocated, we feel it necessary to pub- 

 lish in a Christian spirit an explicit answer : the danger 

 incurred by this measure we cheerfully face, commit* 

 ting all to the memsl God, the father of our Lord Jesuc 

 Christ." 



arranging the order of the churches and 

 ni Mi- MM in 1555, and assisting at a con- 

 ference at Nuremburg in 1J54, for the purpose of 

 consolidating a union between the house* of Saxony, 

 Brandenburg, and Hesae, he was engaged in discus- 

 mc the subject of the union of two nature* in the Sa- 

 1 isiander and Stancarus, and also in vin- 

 dicating himself from the clamours and calumnies ex. 



Mflinc- 

 Ihon. 



