390 THE REFORMATION IN FRENCH SWITZERLAND.
their time and multiplicity of duties would permit. The correspondence of friendship is apt to diminish with the increase of age and cares. Several letters are preserved, and are most creditable to both parties.^
The first letter of Calvin after that Colloquy, is dated Feb. 16, 1543, and is a lengthy answer to a message from Melanchthon.2
" You see," he writes, " to what a lazy fellow you have intrusted your letter. It was full four months before he delivered it to me, and then crushed and rumpled with much rough usage. But although it has reached me somewhat late, I set a great value upon the acquisition. . . . Would, indeed, as you observe, that we could oftener converse together were it only by letters. To you that would be no advantage ; but to me, nothing in this world could be more desirable than to take solace in the mild and gentle spirit of your correspondence. You can scarce believe with what a load of business I am here burdened and incessantly hurried along ; but in the midst of these distractions there are two things which most of all annoy me. My chief regret is, that there does not appear to be the amount of fruit that one may reasonably expect from the labor bestowed ; the other is, because I am so far removed from yourself and a few others, and therefore am deprived of that sort of comfort and consolation which would prove a special help to me.
" But since we cannot have even so much at our own choice, that each at his own discretion might pick out the corner of the vineyard where he might serve Christ, we must remain at that post which He Himself has allotted to each. This comfort we have at least, of which no far distant separation can deprive us, — I mean, that resting content with this fellowship which Christ has consecrated with his own blood, and has also confirmed and sealed by his blessed Spirit in our hearts, — while we live on the earth, we may cheer each other with that blessed hope to which your letter calls us that in heaven above we shall dwell forever where we shall rejoice in love and in continuance of our friendship." ^
There can be no nobler expression of Christian friendship.
In the same letter Calvin informs Melanchthon that he
had dedicated to liim his " Defence of the Orthodox Doctrine
1 In Calvin's Opera there are fourteen letters of his to Melanchthon.
2 Letters of John Calvin by Dr. Jules Bonnet, translated from the original Latin and French by Constable, vol. I. 349. In Calvin's Opera, XI. 515. The original copy is in Simler's Collection in the City Library of Ziirich.
8 " Hoc saltern nobis nulla regionum longinquitas eripiet, quin hac conjunctione, quam Christus sanguine suo consecratam Spiritu quoque suo in cordibus nostris sanxit, contenti, dum vivimus in terra sustineamur beata ilia spe, ad quam nos literce turn revocant : in coelis nos simul perpetuo victuros, ubi amore amicitiaque nostra fruemur."
§ 90. CALVIN AND MELANCHTHON. 391
on the Slavery and Deliverance of the Human Will against the Calumnies of Albert Pighius," which he had urged Calvin to write, and which appeared in February, 1543.1 After some modest account of his labors in Geneva, and judicious reflections on the condition of the Church in Germany, he thus concludes : —
"Adieu, O man of most eminent accomplishments, and ever to be remembered by me and honored in the Lord ! May the Lord long preserve you in safety to the glory of his name and the edification of the Church. I wonder what can be the reason why you keep your Daniel a sealed book at home.^ Neither can I suffer myself quietly, without remonstrance, to be deprived of the benefit of its perusal. I beg you to salute Dr. Martin reverently in my name. "We have here with us at present Bernardino of Siena, an eminent and excellent man, who has occasioned no little stir in Italy by his secession. He has requested me that I would greet you in his name. Once more adieu, along with your family, whom may the Lord continually preserve."
On the 11th of May following, Melanchthon thanked Calvin for the dedication, saying -.^ "I am much affected by your kindness, and I thank you that you have been pleased to give evidence of your love for me to all the world, by placing my name at the beginning of your remarkable book, where all the world will see it." He gives due praise to the force and eloquence with which he refuted Pighius, and, confessing his own inferiority as a writer, encourages him to continue to exercise his splendid talents for the edification and encouragement of the Church. Yet, while inferior as a logician and polemic, he, after all, had a deeper insight into the mystery of predestination and free will, although unable to solve it. He gently hints to his friend that he looked too much to one side of the problem of divine sovereignty and human liberty, and says in substance : —
"As regards the question treated in your book, the question of predestination, I had in Tiibingen a learned friend, Franciscus Stadianus, who used to
^ " Defensio sance et orthodoxcB doctrince de servitute et liberatione httmani avhitrii adversus calumnias Alberti Pighii Cainpensis. Opera, VI. 225-404.
•2 Melanchthon's Commentary on Daniel appeared in the same year at Wittenberg and Leipzig.
3 Opera, vol. XL 539-542. Also in Corp. 'Reform. V. 107.