884 THE REFORMATION IN FRENCH SWITZERLAND.
about the middle of June, much to the regret of Bucer and Melanchthon, who wished to retain him.^
His sojourn there was embittered by the ravages of the pestilence in Strassburg, which carried away his beloved deacon, Claude Feray (Ferseus), his friends Bedrotus and Capito, one of his boarders, Louis de Richebourg (Claude's pupil), and the sons of CEcolampadius, Zwingli, and Hedio. He was thrown into a state of extreme anxiety and depression, which he revealed to Farel in a melancholy letter of March 29, 1541 .^ " My dear friend Claude, whom I singularly esteemed," he writes, "has been carried off by the plague. Louis (de Richebourg) followed three days afterwards. My house was in a state of sad desolation. My brother (Antoine) had gone with Charles (de Richebourg) to a neighboring village ; my wife had betaken herself to my brother's ; and the youngest of Claude's scholars [probably Malherbe of Normandy] is lying sick in bed. To the bitterness of grief there was added a very anxious concern for those who survived. Day and night my wife is constantly present to my thoughts, in need of advice, seeing that she is deprived of her husband.^ . . . These events have produced in me so much sadness that it seems as if they would utterly upset the mind and dejiress the spirit. You cannot believe the grief which consumes me on account of the death of my dear friend Claude." Then he pays a touching tribute to Feray, who had lived in his house and stuck closer to him than a brother. But the most precious fruit of this sore affliction is his letter of comfort to the distressed father of Louis de Richebourg, which we shall quote in another connection.^
1 Letter to Farel from Strassburg, early in July, 1541, in Herminjard, VII. 176. He gives in this letter an account of the later disputes at Regensburg on confession and absolution, the invocation of saints, and the primacy of the pope.
2 Herminjard, VII. 55 sqq. ; Opera, XI. 174 sqq.
3 " Mihi dies ac nodes animo obversatur uxor, consilii inops, quia capite suo caret.'' * See below, § 92, p. 421.
§ 90. CALVIN AND MELANCHTHON. 385
§ 90. Calvin and Melanchthon.
The correspondence between Calvin (14 letters) and Melanchthon (8 letters), and several letters of Calvin to Farel from Strassburg and Regensburg.
Henry, vol. I. chs. XII. and XVII. — Stahelin, I. 237-254. — Merle d'Au- BiGNE, bk. XI. ch. XIX. (vol. VII. 18-22, in Cates' translation).
One of the important advantages which his sojourn at Strassburg brought to Calvin and to the evangelical Church was his friendship with Melanchthon. It has a typical significance for the relationship of the Lutheran and Reformed Confessions, and therefore deserves special consideration.
They became first acquainted by correspondence through Bucer in October, 1538. Melanchthon brought Calvin at once into a friendly contact with Luther, who read with great pleasure Calvin's answer to Sadolet (perhaps also his Institutes'), and sent his salutations to him at Strassburg.^
Luther never saw Calvin, and probably knew little or nothing of the Reformation in Geneva. His own work was then nearly finished, and he was longing for rest. It is very fortunate, however, that while his mind was incurably poisoned against Zwingli and Ziirich, he never came into hostile conflict with Calvin and Geneva, but sent him before his departure a fraternal greeting from a respectful distance. His conduct foreshadows the attitute of the Lutheran Church and theology towards Calvin, who had the highest regard for Luther, and enjoyed in turn the esteem of Lutheran divines in proportion as he was known.
1 In a letter to Bucer, Oct. 14, 15.39: " Salutabis Dn. Joannem Sturinium et Joannem Calvinum reverenter, quorum libellos cum singulari voluptate legi. Sadoleto optarem ut crederet Deum esse creatorem hominum extra Italiam." De Wette, V. 211; and Herminjard, VI. 73 (comp. note 6). Calvin refers to this compliment in a letter to Farel, Nov. 20, 1539 (in Herminjard, VI. 130). He also quotes, from a lost letter of Melanchthon, the words: " Lut/ierus et Pomeranus [Bugenhagen^ Calvinum et Sturmium jusserunt salutari. Calvinus magnam gratiam iniit." (Ibid. p. 131.) Luther is reported to have expressed also a favorable judgment on Calvin's tract on the Lord's Supper, published at Strassburg, 1541, in French. See vol. VI. 660.