Schaff - History of the Christian Church Vol. 8 - Media Sabda Org

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severity: “If this warning, like a cock crowing rather late and out of season,
do not awaken you, all will cry out with justice that you are a sluggard.
Farewell, most distinguished sir, whom I venerate from the heart.” In
another letter of Aug. 3, 1557, he complains of the silence of three years
and apologizes for the severity of his last letter, but urges him again to
come out, like a man, and to refute the charge of slavish timidity. “I do not
think,” he says, “you need to be reminded by many words, how necessary it
is for you to hasten to wipe out this blot from your character.” He
proposes that Melanchthon should induce the Lutheran princes to convene
a peaceful conference of both parties at Strassburg, or Tübingen, or
Heidelberg, or Frankfurt, and attend the conference in person with some
pious, upright, and moderate men. “If you class me,” he concludes, “in the
number of such men, no necessity, however pressing, will prevent me from
putting up this as my chief vow, that before the Lord gather us into his
heavenly kingdom I may yet be permitted to enjoy on earth, a most
delightful interview with you, and feel some alleviation of my grief by
deploring along with you the evils which we cannot remedy.” In his last
extant letter to Melanchthon, dated Nov. 19, 1558, Calvin alludes once
more to the eucharistic controversy, but in a very gentle spirit, assuring him
that he will never allow anything to alienate his mind “from that holy
friendship and respect which I have vowed to you .... Whatever may
happen, let us cultivate with sincerity a fraternal affection towards each
other, the ties of which no wiles of Satan shall ever burst asunder.”
Melanchthon would have done better for his own fame if, instead of
approving the execution of Servetus, he had openly supported Calvin in the
conflict with Westphal. But he was weary of the rabies theologorum, and
declined to take an active part in the bitter strife on “bread-worship,” as he
called the notion of those who were not contented with the presence of the
body of Christ in the sacramental use, but insisted upon its presence in and
under the bread. He knew what kind of men he had to deal with. He knew
that the court of Saxony, from a sense of honor, would not allow an open
departure from Luther’s doctrine. Prudence, timidity, and respect for the
memory of Luther were the mingled motives of his silence. He was aware
of his natural weakness, and confessed in a letter to Christopher von
Carlowitz, in 1548: “I am, perhaps, by nature of a somewhat servile
disposition, and I have before endured an altogether unseemly servitude; as
Luther more frequently obeyed his temperament, in which was no little
contentiousness, than he regarded his own dignity and the common good.”