He was employed by the Elector of Saxony to draw up in the German language a memorial on the side of the reformers, to be presented to the diet, which met at Spires in 1526; and was regularly consulted by the Landgrave of Hesse on the means of promoting the re formation in his dominions. His pen was employed also it, preparing a directory for the churches in Sax ony. which was entitled Libellus Visit atorius, in which the Papists pretended to discos er a difference in senti ment from Luther, because it was expressed in a strain of moderation ; while Agricola, a friend of the author, and the founder of the Antinomian heresy, declaimed against its doctrine on the necessity of repent ince, and involved him in a painful dispute on the subject. But he was soon called to take part in the still more serious con troversy among Protestant divines on the subject of the sacrament; and, while he adhered at first to Luther's notion of consubstantiation, his opinion became gradu ally more Inclined to that of Zuinglius. It was a mole important task even than this, to which his whole facul ties were required, when he was called to extend the materials furnished by Luther, and to draw up the ...lugs burg Confession of Faith ; and though, in the course of the discussions on the various articles at the diet, in which he bore the principal part on the side of the reformers, he was inclined to yield more than Luther approved, in regard to the ecclesiasti cal jurisdiction of the bishops, (of whose goad inten tions he hoped too favourably,) yet, in all doctrinal points, he maintained the character of an enlightened and inflexible protestant. In these various conferences, he displayed all the excellence of his character, as well as the abilities of his mind ; and all the efforts of the Romanists were exerted, without success, to gain him over to their cause. Amidst all his constitutional soft ness, the integrity of his principles, and the intrepidity of his mind, were repeatedly manifested ; and, when Cardinal Campcgius ultimately refused all toleration of the Protes ant sentiments, ho made this mild hut reso lute reply. " Well, then, we commend ourselves and our concerns to God. If he be for us, who can be against us ? We shall wait with patience whatever may happen to us. If it be necessary, we would (if such be the will of God) rather fight and die, than be tray so many souls." In the year 1534, he was com missioned to confer with Bucer at Casel on the sacra mentarian controversy ; and would most likely have conciliated matters, had Luther been disposed to mo derate his violence ; hut, as it was, he succeeded in greatly abating the hostility of the Saxon reformer to the brethren of Switzerland. In the same year he was engaged in a similar conference with the Romanists at Leipsic, where he equally failed in his object, through the assuming obstinacy of the papists, w bile he equal ly manifested the excellence of his own spirit. His name had now attained the highest celebrity through out the nations of Europe; and he was successively in vited, or rather earnestly entreated, both by Francis I. of France, and by Henry VIII. of England, to sisit their respective courts; but was prevented, in both cases, by the wishes of the Elector of Saxony, who was afraid of giving offence to Charles V and who proba bly augured little good from either of the monarchs. They had doubtless their own political views to grati fy in the proposal ; but it proves the eminence of Me lancthon's name, when both these powerful princes were desirous to avail themselves of his influence. Both he and Luther had considerable hopes of inducing the king of England to pursue his apparently favourable disposition towards the cause of the reformat on ; and Meiancthon wrote several letters. besides transmitting sonic of his publications to Henry. from whom he re ceived in return, a present of 200 crowns, and the hi,h est expressions of approbation of his zeal in the cause of the Christian religion. In consequence, however, of this communication with the English court, he formed an acquaintance with Archbishop Cranmer, to Al horn Ile had recommended Alexander Aless, a learned Scotch man, who had been driven from his native country by the violence of the Popish party, and who afterwards acquired great favour with King Henry.
Upon the appointment of a general council to meet at Mantua in May 1537, his services were again requi red by the Protestant leaders. to devise some common . form of doctrine, which might unite the reformed churches ; and to select those articles of faith, which.
from their radical importance, were necessary to be re tained and avowed at all hazards in the pi °posed ac commodation with the Catholics. In the prosecution of these objects, he drew up a treatise on the suprema cy of the pope and jurisdiction of the bishops, which met with great approbation from the Protestant depu ties ; and which manifested at once his firmness in what he conceived to be essential principles, and his strong desire of a reconciliation. But !natty were ready to misinterpret his intention, and to censure his love of peace, while he was resisting offers from the popish princes, which perhaps few of these calumniators would have been able to withstand. In 1539, in the Protest ant conference at Francfort, he was deputed to write on the subject of lawful defence ; and soon afterwards addressed a letter of strong remonstrance to the waver ing and wayward King of England, on his conduct in the cause of the reformation.
To give a full view of the services of this eminent and indefatigable labourer in the cause of revealed re ligion and of the reformed doctrines, would require us to enter into all the leading events or the age in which he lived. In a conference at Worms in 1541 ; in aid ing the plans of the Elector of Cologne for promoting the reformation in the diocese in 1543; in rendering similar services to the Elector Palatine Frederic in 1545 ; in preparing for the expected council of Trent a ,.tatenient of the chief reasons of the Protestant dissent
in 1546 ; in almost every thing, in short, that was to be written—his pen was successively and unremitting ly employed. After the death of Luther, with whom he consulted and corresponded on all occasions, he found himself still more unceasingly harassed by the accumulating interests of the reformation, at the most critical period of its progress. Upon the publication of the temporary rule of faith for all parties, called the INTERIM, (of which the emperor enforced the obser vance by force of arms,) Melancthon attended seven conferences at Lcipsic, and wrote all the pieces which were then presented in the discussion of this imperial creed. The result of these deliberations was the pub lication of a treatise from his pen, and a decree of the Saxon nobility and clergy, on the observance of things of an indifferent nature. In this work, and the disputes which followed, called the Adiophoristic controversy, \lelancthon has been most unjustly accused of having abandoned the truth through excessive timidity and servile compliance ; but a few quotations from his pub lished sentiments at the moment, will sufficiently expose the unfounded nature of these aspersions : " Though threatened with war and destruction, we must still ad here to the word of God, and not deny acknowledged truth. As to the danger incurred by the defence of what is preached in our churches, and we know to be truth, we will entrust the affair to God." " Let the potentates and rulers consider, amidst the alarms of war now prevalent, what they will, and what they ought to do in this affair, for the peace of the church. As for myself, I am ready, by the grace of God, to de part hence, and if need be to suffer."—" NVe have been lately written to, and admonished not to preach, teach, or write against this Interim ; but necessity compels us to say this much, with all humility of mind, that we will not alter in what we have hitherto taught in our churches ; for no creature possesses power or authority to change the word of God, and it is at every one's pe il to deny or forsake the known truilt. As, therefore, this Interim is opposed, in many of its articles, to the truth we have advocated, we feel it necessary to pub lish, in a Christian spirit, an explicit answer : the danger incurred by this measure, we cheerfully face, commit ting all to the eternal God, the father of our Lord Jesus Christ." Besides arranging the order of the churches and academies in Alisnia, in 1553, and assisting at a con ference at Nuremburg, in 1554, for the purpose of consolidating a union between the houses of S Brandenburg, and Hesse, he was engaged in discus sing the subject of the union of two natures in the Sa viour, against Osiander and Stancarus, and also in vin dicating himself from the clamours and calumnies ex cited against him by Flacius. In the expectation of being driven into banishment by the intemperate pro ceedings of his enemies among the more violent of the reformed, he had adopted the resolution of withdraw ing to Palestine, and devoting the remainder of his life to the retirement of a hermit, and the composition of works in defence of divine truth. " At the head of all the principal literary and ecclesiastical transactions of the age," says Cox, " consulted by princes, dispatched upon every urgent occasion on different journies, summoned to private conferences and public councils, necessitated to maintain a most extensive correspondence, opposed and even insulted by a violent faction, and watched as a heretic by the partisans of the Boman hierarchy, he represents himsell as tormented upon the rack of in cessant engagement, and absolutely distracted with writ ing disputations, regulations, prefaces, and letters." Ex hausted at length by his unremitting exertions, by grief for the loss of friends, and by anxiety for the fate of pure religion, he became desirous of a release from his toil some life ; and, after lingering several weeks tinder the influence of an intermittent fever, he expired on the 19th of April, 1560, in the sixty-third year of his age, in the full possession of his mental faculties, and in the most placid state of pious hope. Upon being asked by one of his friends, in his last moments, if he wished any thing else, he replied, 44 aliud nihil nisi ccelum," " 7:Gthing else but heaven ;" and requested those who were endeavouring to adjust some parts of his cloth ing, " not to disturb his delightful repose." The pul. lie were allowed to gratify their anxiety to see his body before its interment ; and their attachment to his cha racter was singularly manifested, by their picking up every pen, or piece of paper upon which he had writ ten, or any thing that he had used, however insignifi cant in itself. His remains were placed in a leaden coffin, and deposited close by the body of Luther. We could dwell with much complacency, and at great length, on the delineation of a character, which pre sents so rare a combination of intellectual and moral endowments ; and which, even when it is exhibited to the world, is so seldom estimated as it merits, amidst the violence of human contentions. But it is our pro per province to select and abridge the materials of bio graphy, rather than to expand its lessons of instruc tion ; and we must content ourselves with a very rapid sketch of what would well deserve to be placed, in all its most attractive lights, before the exasperated spirits, who crowd the departments of modern contro versy.