In 1554 Nicholas Gallus of Regensburg republished, with a preface of his
own, _Philip Melanchthon's Opinions of Some Ancient Writers Concerning
the Lord's Supper_. The timely reappearance of this book, which
Melanchthon, in 1530, had directed against the Zwinglians, was most
embarrassing to him as well as to his friend Calvin. The latter,
therefore, now urged him to break his silence and come out openly
against his public assailants. But Melanchthon did not consider it
expedient to comply with this request. Privately, however, he answered,
October 14, 1554: "As regards your admonition in your last letter that I
repress the ignorant clamors of those who renew the strife concerning
the bread-worship, know that some of them carry on this disputation out
of hatred toward me in order to have a plausible reason for oppressing
me. _Quod me hortaris, ut reprimam ineruditos clamores illorum, qui
renovant certamen peri artolatreias, scito, quosdam praecipue odio mei
eam disputationem movere, ut habeant plausibilem causam ad me
opprimendum_." (8, 362.)
Fully persuaded that he was in complete doctrinal agreement with his
Wittenberg friend on the controverted questions, Calvin finally, in his
_Last Admonition_ (_Ultima Admonitio_) _to Westphal_, 1557, publicly
claimed Melanchthon as his ally, and implored him to give public
testimony "that they [the Calvinists and Zwinglians] teach nothing
foreign to the _Augsburg Confession, nihil alienum nos tradere a
Confessione Augustana_." "I confirm," Calvin here declared, "that in
this cause [concerning the Lord's Supper] Philip can no more be torn
from me than from his own bowels. _Confirmo, non magis a me Philippum
quam a propriis visceribus in hoc causa posse divelli_." (_C. R._ 37
[_Calvini Opp_. 9], 148. 149. 193. 466; Gieseler 3, 2, 219, Tschackert,
536.) Melanchthon, however, continued to preserve his sphinxlike
silence, which indeed declared as loud as words could have done that he
favored the Calvinists, and was opposed to those who defended Luther's
doctrine. To Mordeisen he wrote, November 15, 1557: "If you will permit
me to live at a different place, I shall reply, both truthfully and
earnestly to these unlearned sycophants, and say things that are useful
to the Church." (_C. R._ 9, 374.)
After the death of Melanchthon, Calvin wrote in his _Dilucida
Explicatio_ against Hesshusius, 1561: "O Philip Melanchthon! For it is
to you that I appeal, who art living with Christ in the presence of God
and there waiting for us until we shall be assembled with you into
blessed rest. A hundred times you have said, when, fatigued with labor
and overwhelmed with cares, you, as an intimate friend, familiarly laid
your head upon my breast: Would to God I might die on this bosom! But
afterwards I have wished a thousand times that we might be granted to be
together. You would certainly have been more courageous to engage in
battle and stronger to despise envy, and disregard false accusations. In
this way, too, the wickedness of many would have been restrained whose
audacity to revile grew from your pliability, as they called it. _O
Philippe Melanchthon! Te enim appello, qui apud Deum cum Christo vivis,
nosque illic exspectas, donec tecum in beatam quietem colligamur.
Dixisti centies, quum fessus laboribus et molestiis oppressus caput
familiariter in sinum meum deponeres: Utinam, utinam moriar in hoc sinu!
Ego vero millies postea optavi nobis contingere, ut simul essemus. Certe
animosior fuisses ad obeunda certamina et ad spernendam invidiam
falsasque criminationes pro nihilo ducendas fortior. Hoc quoque modo
cohibita fuisset multorum improbitos, quibus ex tua mollitie, quam
vocabant, crevit insultandi audacia_." (_C. R._ 37 [_Calvini Opp_. 9],
461f.) It was not Melanchthon, but Westphal, who disputed Calvin's claim
by publishing (1557) extracts from Melanchthon's former writings under
the title: _Clarissimi Viri Ph. Melanchthonis Sententia de Coena Domini,
ex scriptis eius collecta_. But, alas, the voice of the later
Melanchthon was not that of the former!