8 109. LAST ATTACK ON THE SACRAMENTARIANS. 6053
In view of these last utterances we must, reluctantly, refuse credit to the story that Luther before his death remarked to Melanchthon: “ Dear Philip, I confess that the matter of the Lord’s Supper has been overdone ;”! and that, on being asked to correct the evil, and to restore peace to the church, he replied: “1 often thought of it; but then people might lose confidence in my whole doctrine. I leave.the matter in the
hands of the Lord. Do what you can after my death.” ? ᾿ς Butit is gratifying to know that Luther never said one unkind word of Calvin, who was twenty-five years younger. He never saw him, but read some of his books, and heard of him through Melanchthon. In a letter to Bucer, dated Oct. 14, 1539, he sent his respectful salutations to John Sturm and John Calvin, who lived at that time in Strassburg, and added that he had read their books with singular delight. This includes his masterly answer to the letter of Bishop Sadolet (1539).2 Melanchthon sent salutations from Luther and Bugenhagen to Calvin, and informed him that he was “in high favor with Luther,” * notwithstanding the difference of
1 “* Der Sache vom Abendmahl ist viel zu viel gethan.”
2 Hardenberg, a Reformed minister at Bremen (d. 1574), reported such a conversation as coming from the lips of his friend Melanchthon; but Melanchthon nowhere alludes to it. Stahelin (John Calvin, I. 228 sq.) accepts, Kostlin (M.L., 11. 627) rejects the report, as resting on some misunderstanding. So also C. Bertheau in the article ‘‘ Hardenberg”’ in Herzog”, V. 596 sq. Comp. Diestelmann, Die letzte Unterredung Luthers mit Melanchthon uber den Abendmahlsstreit, Gottingen, 1874; Ko6stlin’s review of Diestelmann, in the ‘‘Studien und Kritiken,’’ 1876, p. 385 sqq.; and Walte in the “‘ Jahrb. fiir prot. Theol.,’’ 1883. It is a pity that the story cannot be sufficiently authenticated, for it certainly expresses what ought to have been Luther’s last confession on the subject.
8 De Wette, V. 211: ‘‘ Bene vale et salutabis Dr. Joannem Sturmium et Johannem Calvinum reverenter, quorum libellos cum singulari voluptate legi. Sadoleto optarem, ut crederet Deum esse creatorem hominum etiam extra Italiam.’’ From the last sentence it appears that he read Calvin’s answer to Bishop Sadolet. He is reported to have remarked to Cruciger: ‘‘ This answer has hand and foot, and I rejoice that God raises such men who will give popery the last blow, and finish the war against Antichrist which I began.”’ Calvin alludes to these salutations in his Secunda Defensio adv. Westphalum (Opera, ed. Reuss, IX. 92).
4 * Calvinus magnam gratiam iniit.”’
660 THE GERMAN REFORMATION. A.D. 1517 To 1530.
views on the real presence, and that Luther hoped for better opinions, but was willing to bear something from such a good man.! Calvin had expressed his views on the Lord’s Supper in the first edition of his Institutes, which appeared in 1536,? incidentally also in his answer to Sadolet, which Luther read “with delight,” and more fully in a special treatise, De Cena Domini, which was published in French at Strassburg, 1541, and then in Latin, 1545.4 Luther must have known these views. He is reported to have seen a copy of Calvin’s tract on the eucharist in a bookstore at Wittenberg, and, after reading it, made the remark: “The author is certainly a learned and pious man: if Zwingli and Cécolampadius had from the start declared themselves in this way, there would probably not have arisen such a controversy.” ®
Calvin returned Luther’s greetings through Melanchthon, and sent him two pamphlets with a letter, dated Jan. 21, 1545, addressing him as “my much respected father,” and requesting him to solve the scruples of some converted French refugees. He expresses the wish that “he might enjoy for a few hours the happiness of his society,” though this was impossible on earth.
Melanchthon, fearing a renewal of the eucharistic contro-
1 This letter of Melanchthon is lost, but Calvin alludes to it in a letter to Farel, 15389. Opera, X. 482. The words of Luther are: ‘‘ Spero ipsum [Calvinum] olim de nobis melius sensurum, sed equum est a bono ingenio nos aliquid ferre.”’
2 Ch. IV. p. 286 sqq. (De Coena Domini), Opera, I. 118 sqq.
3 Opera Calv., ed. Reuss, vol. V. 385-416. On fol. 400 Calvin rejects the “localis corporis Christi presentia’’ in the eucharist, but asserts ‘‘ veram carnis et sanguinis communicationem que fidelibus in coena exhibetur.”’
4 Opera, V. 429-460.
° Pezel, Ausfiihrliche Lehre vom Sacramentstreit, Bremen, 1600, p. 137 sqq. See Gieseler, vol. IV. 414 sq. (New York ed. of the Εἰ. transl.); Stahelin, Joh. Calvin, I. 227 (with Pezel’s report in full); Miiller, Dogmat. Abhandlungen, p. 406; Kostlin, M. L., 11. 615 and 687. It is remarkable in this connection that Luther spoke in high terms of the Swabian Syngrammna, which was directed against the Swiss theory, but leaves no room for an oral manducation, and comes nearest to the Calvinistic view. Comp. Kostlin, Luthers Theologie, 11. 147.