[_Lat. orig. autogr.--Coll. of M. Troncliin at Geneva._]
[282] The town of Magdeburg, then besieged by the army of the
Elector Maurice, persisted in rejecting the _Interim_, and the
theologians of that Church flooded Germany with pamphlets, in which
Melanchthon was not spared. The Burghers of Magdeburg, put under the
ban of the empire, sustained a long siege, and did not submit till
the following year.--Sleidan, book xxii.
[283] In a reply to Flacius Illyricus, who maintained that,
rather than tolerate the restoration of the Popish ceremonies,
he would plunder and destroy the Churches and stir up the
people,--"_vastitatem faciendam in templis, et metu seditionum
terrendos principes_." Melanchthon advocated _immovable
steadfastness in doctrine, submission in everything else_.--"_In
ceremoniis tolerandam aliquam servitutem, quæ tamen sit sine
impietate._"--Melch. Adam. _Vita Melanchthonis_, p. 344. But was it
possible to submit to the Church of Rome without deserting sound
doctrine?
[284] This letter is without date. We discover the date, however, in
a letter of Calvin's to Valentin Pacaeus, a doctor of Leipsic, of
18th June 1550, where we meet with these words:--"I make no mention
of M. Philip, as I am writing specially to himself."--Calv. _Opera_,
tom. ix. p. 54.