T this critical moment, when to the eye of man his presence and counsel seemed more than ever needful, the guiding spirit of the Reformation was called away. For some years past Luther's constitution had been enfeebled, but he continued at his post till the last, undertaking a journey from Wittemberg to Eisleben in January, 1546, in the hope of settling a dispute between the Dukes of Mansfeld and their subjects. At the latter place, early on the morning of February 18th, his spirit, released from the trammels of the flesh, passed into the presence of Jesus Christ his Savior; whose cause he had so valiantly championed on earth, whose faith he had taught, and whose love had been his constant joy and comfort.
Sad was the heart of Melancthon when the melancholy news was made known to him and in his first outburst of grief he exclaimed: "My Father my Father I the chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof." For nearly twenty-eight years had their friendship existed, and so strong had their attachment grown that they had become almost necessary to each other. Founded on principle and mutual admiration, the roots of their love had deepened with the passing years. The two friends were not perfectly agreed, but they were perfectly united. Mutual forbearance admitted the free exercise of individuality. They thoroughly knew each other, and did not allow the gusts of temporary passion to destroy the fabric that so many years of mutual affection and esteem had raised.
Luther was buried in the church of All Saints al Wittenberg. Pomeranus preached the funeral sermon and Melancthon delivered an eloquent and pathetic address over the grave of his departed friend. From this the following brief passage may be quoted:—“The removal of such a character from among us, of one who was endowed with the greatest intellectual capacity, well instructed and long experienced in the knowledge of Christian truth, adorned with numerous excellencies and with virtues of the most heroic cast, chosen by divine Providence to reform the Church of God, and cherishing for all of us a truly paternal affection—the removal, I say, of such a man demands and justifies our tears. We resemble orphans bereft of an excellent and faithful father; but while it is necessary to submit to the will of Heaven, let us not permit the memory of his virtues and his good offices to perish. He was an important instrument in the hands of God of public utility; let us diligently study the truth he taught, imitating in our humble situations his fear of God, his faith, the intensity of his devotions, the integrity of his ministerial character, his purity, his careful avoidance of seditious counsel, his ardent thirst of knowledge.”
It was not only the burden of a wounded and bereaved heart that Melancthon carried away from the sepulcher of his departed friend, but the sense of public loss, and overwhelming anxiety for the future. War seemed imminent; in fact, the emperor and the pope had agreed upon the destruction of those who should oppose the Council of Trent.
Melancthon was also now the head and leader of the theologians of the Lutheran, Church; and the remainder of his life was greatly embittered by the fierce controversies that arose within it, which controversies he was unable to quell. To these anxieties were added those connected with political affairs, for war broke out in 1546, soon after the Council of Trent had passed its first decrees; and in the November of that year the University of Wittemberg was dissolved, the students were dismissed, and Melancthon with his wife and family retired to Zerbst. He afterward for a few months filled the posts of theological and philosophical professor at Jena.
The Saxon and Hessian princes led their forces into Bavaria there to oppose the emperor; and while thus engaged Maurice Duke of Saxony, and uncle to John Frederick, perfidiously invaded the Saxon territories. This action necessitated the breaking up of the Protestant army and the return home of the elector. Charles V. pursued him by forced marches, and falling upon him unawares on April 24th, 1547, he was defeated and taken prisoner. Philip of Hesse was also induced to surrender to the emperor, who kept him in close confinement.
Maurice, as the reward of his perfidy, was given the electorship, along with most of his nephew's lands; the cause of the Protestants appeared to be hopelessly ruined, and the pope triumphant. At a diet held soon afterward at Augsburg, Maurice and the greater part of the Protestants consented to submit the decision of the religious differences to the Council of Trent. But a little later pestilence was reported as having broken out at Trent, when most of the Fathers retired to Bologna, and the council was dissolved. Paul III. could not be induced to re-convene it, and as the prospect of its again meeting seemed remote, the emperor deemed it necessary in the interim to adopt some method to preserve the peace in regard to religion, until the council should assemble. He therefore caused a paper to be drawn up, which should serve as a rule of faith and worship to the professors of both the old and new religions, until the meeting of the council. This paper, because it had not the force of a permanent law, was called the Interim.
Like many other compromises this attempt to legislate for the consciences of men was displeasing to both parties. It contained all the essential doctrines of the Church of Rome, though veiled so as to make them acceptable to the Protestants. It was forced upon the Diet of Augsburg, and its opponents were for the most part compelled to submit.
Maurice, the Elector of Saxony, who, though a Protestant, occupied a middle position between those who approved and those who rejected the Interim, held several consultations at Leipsic and other places in 1548, with his theologians and principal men, of whom Melancthon was the most distinguished, to determine what course to pursue. Melancthon, who was followed by the other theologians, decided that the whole instrument called the Interim could not be admitted, but that there was no impediment to receiving and approving it so far as it concerned things not essential to religion, or things indifferent. This decision gave rise to a most violent controversy, called from the Greek word adiaphoræ, meaning indifferent, the Adiaphoristic Controversy. Melancthon was fiercely and persistently assailed, and charged with having abandoned the truth through excessive timidity or servile compliance to the wishes of the emperor and elector. This Adiaphoristic Controversy led to others equally lamentable, so that the Reformed Church was torn with internal strife, and in imminent danger of destruction.
Among the matters classed by Melancthon as indifferent were some which had appeared of the highest importance to Luther, such as the doctrine of justification by faith alone, the question respecting the necessity of good works to eternal salvation, the number of the sacraments, and to some extent the jurisdiction claimed by the pope, bishops, etc. The more zealous Lutherans looked upon these as essentials; and exclaimed against those who took the opposite view as being false brethren and apostates from the true religion. At their head was Flacius Illyricus, who for some time had been a disciple at Wittemberg of both Luther and Melancthon, and had been treated by the latter with great kindness and liberality.
Seldom, perhaps, has the injunction of the apostle not rendering railing for railing been better exemplified than in the manner and spirit in which Melancthon treated the attacks of his calumniators. Grieved he certainly was; but, when for the sake of truth he felt bound to reply, his language was dignified, worthy of a Christian gentleman, and calculated rather to win over an adversary than inflame his ire. Never did he appear more noble than when, assailed both by Papists and extreme Protestants, he calmly stood in the place of duty and danger, inflexible to maintain what seemed to him to be essential, but willing to concede such things as appeared indifferent, and the sacrifice of which might tend to promote the harmony and unity of the Universal Church.
Paul III died on November 10th, 1549, and was succeeded by Julius III. in 1550. He consented to the reassembling of the Council of Trent; and at the Diet of Augsburg held at that time the emperor conferred with the princes on the prosecution of the council. The major portion agreed that it ought to go on, but Maurice only consented on certain conditions. At the close of the diet, therefore, in 1551, the emperor directed all to prepare themselves for the council, and promised to use his endeavors to have everything done there in a religious and Christian manner. Hence confessions of faith to be exhibited to the council were drawn up, one in Saxony by Melancthon, and another at Wurtemberg by Brentius. The leading Protestant divines of Wurtemberg repaired to Trent; and the Saxon theologians, at whose head was Melancthon, received orders to set out for that place, but to wait at Nuremberg till they received further instructions.
The Elector Maurice was at this time maturing a secret plot for the weakening of the emperor's power in Germany, the liberation of the Landgrave of Hesse and John Frederick of Saxony, and the furtherance of the cause of Protestantism and liberty. Retaining the confidence of the emperor till his plans were completed, he suddenly took up arms, issued a manifesto, in which he represented that the defense of the Protestant religion, the liberties of Germany, and the release of the Landgrave of Hesse, were his principal motives, and then, in 1552, led forth a well-appointed army against Charles V. So sudden and vigorous was his action that the emperor was unprepared to meet it; and soon after, in August, he concluded a treaty of peace at Passau, in which he not only gave present tranquility to the Protestants, but promised to assemble a diet within six months to terminate the long-protracted religious contests.
The diet thus promised was through various commotions prevented from assembling until 1555. But in that year, at Augsburg, and in presence of Ferdinand, the emperor's brother, the convention was held which gave to the Protestants the firm and stable peace they still enjoy; for on September 25th, after various discussions, all those who had embraced the Augsburg Confession were pronounced free from all jurisdiction of the pontiff and the bishops, and were bidden to live securely under their own laws and regulations. Liberty was given to all Germans to follow which of the two religions they pleased; and all those were declared to be public enemies of Germany who should presume to make war upon others, or to molest them, on account of their religion.
Melancthon returned from Nuremberg to Wittemberg, and there resumed his duties both public and private. He had to endure some fierce attacks from a pastor named Osiander, in connection with the Interim; and was likewise engaged in refuting the errors of Stancarus, the Hebrew professor at Konigsberg. Added to these cares was the oversight of the Churches and academical establishments in Misnia. In fact, as the most competent director in all matters of this description, his advice was constantly sought and his plans most generally adopted.
During, the year 1553 he had to mourn the loss of several friends, among them his old and trusted servant John. "Domestic afflictions," he said, "are super-added to others. My servant John, remarkable for his fidelity and virtue, is called from the present life to the heavenly Church; and now my wife is so extremely ill that nature seems overpowered by disease. But I pray the Son of God to grant us His presence and preserve us with His whole Church.”
John grew old in his master's service and expired in his master's house after a residence there of thirty-four years, amid the affectionate regret of the whole family. Melancthon invited the academicians to his funeral, delivered an oration over his grave, and composed an epitaph for his tombstone, of which the following may be given as a translation:—
“Here at a distance from his native land
Came faithful John, at Philip's first command;
Companion of his exile, doubly dear,
Who in a servant found a friend sincere
And more than friend, a man of faith and prayer,
Assiduous soother of his master's care;
Here to the worms his lifeless body's given,
But his immortal soul sees God in heaven.”
In the two succeeding years Melancthon suffered further bereavement by the death of John Frederick, and of Justus Jonas, the rector of the university at Wittemberg, with whom both he and Luther had been intimately acquainted for many years. But his greatest sorrow came in 1557, while upon a journey to Heidelberg, whither he had been summoned by the Elector Palatine, who wished him to oversee the arrangements for converting the Augustine monastery there into an academy. Here he rejoiced in meeting his brother George, his daughter Magdalena, and her husband Casper Peucer. And as if to add to the happiness of the harmonious circle, his friend Camerarius arrived one evening unexpectedly from Tubingen. But this friend had come on a sad mission, for the morning after his arrival, while they were walking together in the prince's garden, he informed Melancthon that his beloved Catherine was dead. For a moment the bereaved husband failed to grasp the import of the sad tidings, and then, as though speaking prophetically, he said that "he expected very soon to follow her.”
But for over two years longer he was spared. Though enfeebled in body, his mind remained clear, and his time was fully occupied in unremitting attention to academical duties, in seeing his books through the press, in controversy, in important correspondence, and in visits to more or less distant places. In fact, he was simply overwhelmed with work, and in April, 1558, wrote to a friend, "I am so overwhelmed with work that I am every day expecting to break down and die.”
A pleasing diversion occurred shortly afterward in the marriage of two of his grand-daughters, one in the summer and the other in October, 1558.
Melancthon's last journey was taken at the end of March, 1560, to Leipsic, to attend the annual theological examinations. While there he was suddenly taken ill, but recovered so that he was able to return home. He then complained of the cold dampness, saying he had not felt it so much during the whole winter. During the return journey, in his delicate state, he had taken cold, and fever quickly supervened. During the night of April 7th he was restless and his cough was extremely troublesome; and when about six o'clock in the morning his son-in-law, Dr. Peucer, came to see him, the doctor intimated his alarm, and information of the danger was at once sent to his life-long friend Camerarius.
After this Melancthon wrote several letters and made use of the medical remedies provided by his son-in-law. After an interval of silence he exclaimed, "If such be the will of God, I can willingly die, and I beseech Him to grant me a joyful dismission.”
Nine o'clock was the hour for his attendance at the university. He prepared to meet his class and deliver a half-hour lecture on logic, taking a warm bath afterward. His weakness was very great, and when in the presence of his students he found that he could only speak for a quarter of an hour. After the bath he had dinner, and then slept soundly; employing the evening before supper in writing. On succeeding days up to the twelfth he attended the university, on one occasion rising early and delivering a six o'clock lecture on John 17 His final lecture was delivered on the twelfth, its subject being the words of Isaiah, "Who hath believed our report, and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?”
Camerarius arrived the same evening, and the two friends spent several days together for the last time. Melancthon was cheerful, speaking of death with composure, saying that he dreaded nothing so much as becoming a useless cumberer of the ground, and praying that if life were spared he might be serviceable to the youth under his care and to the Church of Jesus Christ. When on the evening of the sixteenth Camerarins thought of leaving, his dying friend said: “My dear Dr. Joachim, we have been joined in the bond of friendship forty years, a friendship mutually sincere and affectionate. We have been helpers of each other with disinterested kindness in our respective stations and employments as teachers of youth, and I trust our labors have been useful; and though it be the will of God that I die, our friendship shall be perpetuated and cultivated in another world.”
Camerarins remained until the morning of the next day, when he took his final leave. Melancthon, who had just finished some letters, gave him his farewell benediction, saying: "Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who sitteth at the right hand of the Father, and giveth gifts to men, preserve you and yours and all of us!”
On the eighteenth his bed was removed by his own desire into his library, and he was placed upon it. While several of his friends were standing around, he said, "By the blessing of God I have now no particular domestic anxieties, for with respect to my grandchildren, whom I tenderly love, and who are now before my eyes, I am comforted to think they are in the hands of pious and beloved parents, who will be solicitous for their welfare, as much as I could ever be; but I feel for the state of public affairs, especially for the Church of Christ in this caviling and wicked age. Through the goodness of God, however, our doctrine is made public." A little later, addressing some present, he remarked, "God bestows talents on our youth; do you see that they use them aright." And seeing one of his grandchildren near him, he said, "Dear child, I have loved you most affectionately; see that you reverence your parents, and always endeavor to please them, and fear God, who will never forsake you. I pray you may share His constant regard and benediction.”
The same day, having searched in vain for a will he had formerly written, he attempted, with the aid of his son-in-law, to compose another, but increasing weakness prevented him from completing it. He also conferred with this relative upon matters relating to the interests of the university, and expressed a wish that Dr. Fencer might be his successor in that institution.
April 19th was his last day upon earth. His thoughts were still upon the disturbed state of the Church, and he offered fervent prayers for its welfare. Shortly after eight o'clock in the morning he repeated a form of prayer which he had written for his own daily use, and later on, after an interval of tranquil repose, said to Dr. Peucer, "I have been in the power of death, but the Lord has graciously delivered me." Several passages of Scripture were read to him, and his mind dwelt much on the statements of John: "The world knew Him not... but as many as received Him to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name"; and, "God so loved the world that He sent His only begotten Son into the world, that whosoever believeth on Him might not perish, but have everlasting life.”
The end was now near. Upon being asked by Dr. Peucer if he required anything else, he replied: "Nothing else but heaven!" His last audible words were a hearty assent to the prayer of the Psalmist which one of the bystanders had recited: "Into Thine hands I commend my spirit. Thou halt redeemed me, O Lord, Thou God of Truth!”
At a quarter to seven on the evening of the nineteenth he ceased to breath. Quietly, calmly he passed from the field of earthly strife to the repose of heaven, no more to be tormented by acrid controversy or imbittered censure. During his illness he had found comfort in the following thoughts on the blessings procured by death, which he had written on paper, in Latin, in parallel columns:—
“Thou shalt be free from sin.
Free from cares, and from the fury of theologians.
Thou shalt come into the light.
Thou shalt see God, and behold the Son of God.
Thou shalt learn those wonderful mysteries which pass our comprehension in this life, as the cause of our creation and present condition, and the mystery of the union of the divine and human nature in Christ.”
Melancthon had passed into the presence of the Eternal, where the placid and gentle spirit, which had been so sorely vexed with the strife of tongues, would find peace, and the powerful intellect an answer to those questions that had eluded its subtle grasp.
Information of Melancthon's death was at once transmitted to the elector, and preparations made for a suitable funeral. For a day and a half the public were admitted to view the remains of the illustrious scholar, and hundreds availed themselves of the permission granted. His body was then placed in a leaden coffin and conveyed by professors of the university to the parish church. Crowds of students, citizens, strangers, and persons of all ranks filled the sacred building, among them being several professors from the University of Leipsic, many of the nobility, and pastors from the churches of the surrounding districts.
The funeral service was conducted by Dr. Paul Eberus, pastor of the church, after which an oration in Latin was delivered in honor of the deceased. Then the coffin was lowered into its position beside that of Martin Luther. There, in the Schlosskirche at Wittemberg, beneath two tablets of bronze inserted in the pavement of the church, lie the ashes of these two eminent servants of the divine Lord, side by side, awaiting the final trumpet call for the resurrection of the dead.
Calumny followed Melancthon for many years after his death, and during the polemical strife of the seventeenth century his name remained under a cloud. But as men's minds cleared and were enlightened by the revival of the evangelic theology, especially in the nineteenth century, the cloud passed away; and to-day there is scarcely a Protestant divine of any note in Europe or America who does not venerate the name of Philip Melancthon.
The tri-centennial celebration of his death was held at Wittemberg on April, 19th, 1860, when the foundation stone was laid of a noble monument to his memory, erected by the side of that commemorating his friend and leader Luther. The festival oration was delivered by Dr. Nitzsch, of Berlin, the only surviving professor of the once famous University of Wittemberg, this university having been merged, in 1815, into that of Halle.
At a later date a beautiful monument in bronze was erected at Leipsic in honor of the two friends Luther and Melancthon. There, outside a church, it now stands, one of the adornments of that ancient city.
Of the amazing fertility of Melancthon's pen we have had traces in the previous pages of this book. His works fill twenty-eight quarto volumes of the Corpus Reformatorum, issued 1836-1860, edited by Bretschneider and Bindseil, and published at Halle in Saxony. They are theological, philosophical, and moral, while some relate to what are usually termed the Belles Lettres, others to the science of education; and the works of various classical authors formed yet further subjects for his illustration.
His greatest work is the Augsburg Confession, which is the generally received creed of the Lutheran Church. His Loci-Communes passed through five revisions and more than thirty editions before the author's death, and for a long period was used as a text book in the Lutheran universities. His Biblical Commentaries, although surpassed by those of Luther, Calvin, and Beza, were yet extremely popular in their day, and useful in showing the natural sense and evangelical ideas of the Scriptures in support of the Reformation.
Of the character of this truly great and yet childlike man we have already given glimpses. "Nature," says one of his early biographers, "had given Melancthon a peaceable temper, but ill-fitted to the time in which he lived. His moderation became a cross. He was like a lamb amidst wolves. Nobody appreciated his mildness; it looked as if he were lukewarm." Yet in his public capacity he was the model of a Christian scholar. He combined the highest scientific and literary culture which was attainable in that age with an humble and childlike Christian faith. Love to God and man and supreme regard to truth animated and controlled his studies and his whole life. He was emphatically the theologian of the German Reformation, and from posterity received the honorable title Preceptor Germania. He was a man of thought, not of action, and in this differed from Luther, who was great in both.
Speaking of Melancthon's talents and virtues Mosheim states: "Few men of any age can be compared with him, either for learning and knowledge of both human and divine things, or for richness, suavity, and facility of genius, or for industry as a scholar. He performed for philosophy and the other liberal arts what Luther performed for theology—that is, he freed them from the corruptions which they had contracted, restored them, and gave them currency in Germany. He possessed an extraordinary ability to comprehend and to express in clear and simple language the most abstruse and difficult subjects, and such as were exceedingly complicated. This power he so happily exerted on subjects pertaining to religion that it may be truly said no literary man by his genius and erudition has done more for their benefit. From his native love of peace he was induced most ardently to wish that religion might be reformed without any public schism, and that the visible brotherhood among Christians might remain entire. And hence it was that he frequently seemed too yielding.... In the natural temperament of his mind there was a native softness, tenderness, and timidity. Hence when he had occasion to write or to do anything, he pondered most carefully every circumstance, and often indulged fears where there were no real grounds for them. But on the contrary, when the greatest dangers seemed to impend and the cause of religion was in jeopardy, this timorous man feared nothing and opposed an undaunted mind to his adversaries.”
Possessed of a delicate constitution and weak health, he was enabled by the most rigid temperance to pursue his studies with an intenseness of application that is almost incredible. His custom was to retire to rest immediately after an 'early supper and rise soon after midnight to his labors. He endeavored as far as possible during the time devoted to rest to dismiss from his mind everything that would tend to disturb his repose, and to this end postponed the reading of any letters brought to him in the evening till the next day. He was civil -and obliging to all, at times somewhat irritable, but entirely free from envy, detraction, jealousy, and dissimulation. His principal relaxation from severe study was the conversation of his friends during his meals.
He loved his home, and his child-like nature asserted itself in his love of children. Sad at heart he often was, and tears frequently welled to his eyes; but never was he more effectually comforted than when on one occasion, as he sat weary and sad, his little daughter Anna climbed upon his knee, and seeing the tears in her father's eyes wiped them away with her pinafore.
That he was not, however, perfectly free from the persecuting spirit of the age in which he lived is evidenced by his approval of the burning of Michael Servetus, who was executed by the Swiss Reformers at Geneva, in 1553.
Monuments have been erected in honor of Philip Melancthon, orations have been delivered in his praise, but the best and most fragrant of, all his memorials is the record of his pure and unselfish Christian life, spent in the service of God and in efforts for the elevation of his fellow-men.
THE END