This was in the year 1556, and the whole memorial was published at Leipsic, by Nicholas Selneccer, about ten years after the author's decease. It is impossible for those who are not similarly situated fully to realize the perplexity and toil which Melancthon and his coadjutors sustained at this period. As the head of all the principal literary and ecclesiastical transactions of the age, consulted by princes, despatched upon every urgent occasion on different journies, summoned to private conferences and public councils, necessitated to maintain an extensive correspondence, opposed, and even insulted by a violent faction, and watched as a heretic by the partizans of the Roman hierarchy, it is not surprising that he should represent himself as tormented upon the rack of incessant engagement, and absolutely distracted with writing disputations, rules and regulations, prefaces and letters.(c) (c) "Non poëticæ carnificinæ apud inferos pares sunt meæ carnificinæ, quâ excrucior scribendis disputationibus, legibus, præfationibus, epistolis. Nunc respondeo optimo inveni 7ý ëxovty övoμa viš detê t≈ σkiniwvos, et volumen mitto. Heri in Pomeraniam Controversiæ Stetinensis disjudicationem misimus." ad Joach. Camerarium, 844. CHAP. XIII. A. D. 1557, TO A. D. 1560.. Last conference of Melancthon with the Papists at Worms-Visit to Heidelberg-Receives intelligence of his wife's death-Her epitaph-The Chronicon and other writings-Loss of friends-Melancthon's infirmities-Interesting paper assigning reasons why it is desirable to leave the world-A variety of particulars respecting his LAST ILLNESS AND DEATH -Epitaph by Theodore Beza-Ode-Conclusion. THE time was now approaching when this distinguished combatant was to pass from the field of holy and honourable warfare in which he had so long "fought a good fight," to share the honours of an eternal triumph. In the year 1557, he met his Popish adversaries for the last time in a conference at Worms. The chief subject of dispute was a most important one, meriting all the zeal and firmness with which the Reformers maintained their principles. It respected the rule of judgment in religious concerns. This the Papists strenuously affirmed to be the universal consent or custom of the church; and with no less ardour Melancthon and his coadjutors insisted that the only legitimate and authoritative rule was THE SACRED SCRIPTURE. Let it never be forgotten by a grateful posterity, that however they might differ in some other points among themselves, and however widely present or future generations may differ from them in topics, either maintained by some of them individually or perhaps all of them collectively, they are to be applauded and venerated for holding with the most tenacious grasp of mind and asserting with the utmost resolution of spirit in defiance of a persecuting world, this noble principle-this anchora sacra of the Reformation, that THE ONLY AUTHORITY TO WHICH HUMAN REASON OUGHT IMPLICITLY TO SUBMIT IN RELIGIOUS CONCERNS IS THE INFALLIBLE WORD OF THE LIVING GOD! From the conference at Worms during a temporary suspension of the business, the Elector Palatine sent for Melancthon to Heidelberg, for the purpose of adjusting some literary arrangements the Augustinian convent having been converted into an academy. In this affair he was assisted by Micyllus and other eminent scholars. The pleasure he felt in meeting his brother George at Heidelberg, and in the affectionate attentions of his celebrated son-in-law Caspar Peucer, was painfully interrupted by the intelligence of his wife's death. His friend Joachim Camerarius was charged to convey the melancholy tidings. Knowing the strength of his affections, he chose to defer the performance of this sad duty till the day after his arrival, when they walked together in the prince's garden; but instead of manifesting any extraordinary emotion, Melancthon on receiving the intelligence spoke like a man who was weaned in a great degree from the world, uttering a kind of tender farewell to his beloved Catharine, and adding "that he expected very soon to follow her." He pursued a solemn and pious strain of conversation, expressing his prophetic anticipations of the future troubles that awaited Saxony. So firmly convinced was he of the reality of his apprehensions, and so deeply affected at the dark prospect of future calamitous years, that his domestic misfortune seemed utterly absorbed in the greater importance of public affairs.(d) The last act of conjugal tenderness which closed the long union of thirty-seven years, was the composition of the few following lines to adorn the tombstone of his deceased wife : Proximus hic tumulus Catharinæ contegit ossa (d) CAM. Vit. Mel. Conjugio casto fuerat quæ nupta Philippo こ Deposited beneath this hallow'd earth Lies CATHARINE's dust, of CRAPPIN's house by birth ; To PHILIP join'd by wedlock's sacred name- Her BODY's plac'd ;-her SOUL is fled to God! Melancthon survived his beloved partner only about two years and six months, a period which he occupied in an unremitting attention to the duties of his academical station, and in the composition of useful works. His opponents would not allow him to retire from controversial writing, and in 1558 he replied to the accusations of Staphylus and Avius, two of the zealots of Rome. In the same year he issued the first part of his CHRONICON, which is published complete in the fifth volume of his works by Peucer. It consists of more than seventy pages in folio, containing the great events of general history |