394 THE REFORMATION IN FRENCH SWITZERLAND,
seeino- that his own cause is by no means the better of the two. . . . We all of us acknowledge that we are much indebted to him. But in the Church we always must be upon our guard, lest we pay too great a deference to men. It is all over with her when a single individual has more authority than all the rest. . . . Where there is so much division and separation as we now see, it is indeed no easy matter to still the troubled waters, and bring about composure. . . . You will say he [Luther] has a vehement disposition and uno-overnable impetuosity; as if that very vehemence did not break forth with all tlie greater violence when all show themselves alike indulgent to him, and allow him to have his way unquestioned. If this specimen of overbearing tyranny has sprung forth already as the early blossom in the springtide of a reviving Church, what must we expect in a short time, when affairs have fallen into a far worse condition? Let us, therefore, bewail the calamity of the Church and not devour our grief in silence, but venture boldly to groan for freedom. . . . You have studiously endeavored, by your kindly method of instruction, to recall the minds of men from strife and contention. I applaud your prudence and moderation. But while you dread, as you would some hidden rock, to meddle with this question from fear of giving offence, you are leaving in perplexity and suspense very many persons who require from you somewhat of a more certain sound, on which they can repose. . . . Perhaps it is now the will of God to open the way for a full and satisfactory declaration of your own mind, that those who look up to your authority may not be brought to a stand, and kept in a state of perpetual doubt and hesitation. . . .
" In the mean time let us run the race set before us with deliberate courage. I return you very many thanks for your reply, and for the extraordinary kindness which Claude assures me had been shown to him by you.^ I can form a conjecture what you would have been to myself, from your having given so kind and courteous a reception to my friend. I do not cease to offer my chief thanks to God, who has vouchsafed to us that agreement in opinion upon the whole of that question [on the real presence] ; for although there is a slight difference in certain particulars, we are very well agreed upon the general question itself."
When after the defeat of the Protestants in the Sraalkaldian War, Mehanchthon accepted the Leipzig Interim with the humiliating condition of conformity to the Roman ritual, which the German emperor imposed upon them, Calvin was still more dissatisfied with his old friend. He sided, in this case, with the Lutheran non-conformists who, under the lead of Matthias Flacius, resisted the Interim, and were put under
1 Claude de Senarcleus, a friend of Calvin, returned from Wittenberg with an album full of pious inscriptions of leading Lutheran divines, which is preserved in the Town Library of Geneva. Bonnet, I.e. I. 444,
§ 90. C^\I.VIN AND MELANCHTHON. 395
the ban of the emph-e. He wrote to Melanchthon, June 18, 1550, the following letter of remonstrance : ^ —
" The ancient satirist [Juvenal, I. 79] once said, —
' Si natura negat,facit indignatio versmn.'
" It is at present far otherwise with nie. So little does my present grief aid me in speaking, that it rather renders me almost entirely speechless. . . .
1 would have you suppose me to be groaning rather than speaking. It is too well known, from their mocking and jests, how much the enemies of Christ were rejoicing over your contests with the theologians of Magdeburg.'- . . . If no blame attaches to you in this matter, my dear Thilip, it would be but the dictate of prudence and justice to devise means of curing, or at least mitigating, the evil. Yet, forgive me if I do not consider you altogether free from blame. ... In openly admonishing you, I am discharging the duty of a true friend; and if I employ a little more severity than usual, do not tliink tliat it is owing to any diminution of my old affection and esteem for you. ... I know that nothing gives you greater pleasure than open candor. . . . This is the sum of your defence : that, provided purity of doctrine be retained, externals sliould not be pertinaciously contended for. . . . But you extend the distinction of non-essentials too far. You are aware that the Papists have corrupted the worship of God in a thousand ways. Several of those things which you consider indifferent are obviously repugnant to the Word of God. . . . You ought not to have made such large concessions to the Papists. . . . At the time when circumcision was yet lawful, do you not see that Paul, because crafty and malicious fowlers were laying snares for the liberty of believers, pertinaciously refused to concede to them a ceremony at the first instituted by God? He boasts that he did not yield to them, — no, not for an hour, — that the truth of God might remain intact among the Gentiles (Gal.
2 : 5). ... I remind you of what I once said to you, tliat we consider our ink too precious if we hesitate to bear testimony in writing to those things which so many of the flock are daily sealing with tlieir blood. . . . The trepidation of a general is more dishonorable than the flight of a whole herd of private soldiers. . . . You alone, by only giving way a little, will cause more complaints and sighs than would a hundred ordinary individuals by open desertion. And, althougli I am fully persuaded that the fear of death never compelled you in the very least to swerve from the right path, yet I am apprehensive that it is just possible that another species of fear may have proved too much for your courage. For I know how much you are horrified at the charge of rude severity. But we should remember that reputation must not be accounted by the servants of Christ as of more value than life. We are no better than Paul was, who remained fearlessly on his way through ' evil and good report.' . . . You know why I am so vehement. I had rather die
1 Opera, XIII. 593 sqq.
- The zealous Lutherans at Magdeburg which stood out a long siege by the army of the Elector Maurice.