The Life of Philip Melanchthon

and churches, yet the confidence enjoyed by him, and his splendid reputation, which bore his name far beyond the confines of Saxony,

open to the Gospel, and numbered among its inhabitants many of the most distinguished minds, with whom Melanchthon was intimately connected. Among these were Pirkheimer, Baumgartner, Lazarus Spengler, Ebner and Nützel. He entered Nuremberg on the 12th of November, 1525. He communicated his views in regard to the arrangement of the school, and proposed able men as teachers. Camerarius, his beloved friend, was appointed Rector of the school. Other men also accepted the call extended to them. In the following year we find Melanchthon, true to his promise, in Nuremberg again. He formally opened this learned institution with a Latin address, May 23, 1526. In this address he uttered weighty words concer

ower, had not found an entrance everywhere. In some of the schools and churches they still pertinaciously adhered to the beaten path. In other quarters it was patchwork, a new patch upon an old garment. There was one case of a minister who preached the gospel in his principal church, but read mass in the under-parochial church where they required a different practice. The confusion in doctrine, church customs, and church treasuries was truly deplorable.

t Thuringia, accompanied by Jerome Schurff, Erasmus of Haugwitz, and John of Planitz. Great indeed was the spiritual distress discovered by them! Melanchthon often went out and wept, as he writes himself: "What can be offered in justification, that these poor people have hitherto been left in such great ignorance and stupidity? My heart bleeds when I regard this misery. Often when we have completed the visitation of a place, I go to one side and pour forth m

their duty, they should preach the whole Gospel, and not one part without the other." In the article "Of the Ten Commandments," he requires that the people might be brought to a knowledge of their sins, by an exhibition of the law and of their sins, and proceeds thus: "Besides this, it will be profitable to preach of faith, in this manner, that whosoever feels pain and sorrow for sin should believe that his sins are forgiven him, not because of any merit of his own, but for Christ's sake." But the instruction always reverts to this, that faith is nothing without repentance. "Where there is no repentance there is a painted faith." After having thus given prominence to the two first parts of the Christian life, he proceeds: "The third part of the Christian life is to do good works, such as chastity, to love our neighbor, to help him, not to lie nor cheat, not to steal, not to murder, not to be revengeful, not to take vengeance into his own hands, &c. He then enters upon a consideration of the Ten Commandments. In treating the second commandment, he requires "the true Christian prayer." This section fully treats of the manner in which we ought to pray, and renounces all abuses. "Whatever it may be, we are to seek help from God alone." The fourth commandment is treated at length, and proceeds to show how children should treat parents, and parents their children, and particularly how subjects shoul

ing to marriage are also briefly considered. Of free will it says, that we are able to perform worldly piety and good works by our own strength, given us and preserved for this purpose by God. This is the righteousness of the flesh. But they also teach-"Man by his own power cannot purify his heart, and produce divine gifts, such as true repentance from sin, a true and unfeigned fear of God, true faith, cordial love, chastity, an absence of revenge, true patience, earnest prayer, freedom from covetousness, &c." Concerning Christian Liberty, the errors of the vulgar are set aside, and liberty in Christ exhibited. We are also freed from the c

one of the evangelical party. A former friend of Melanchthon, John Agricola, rector in Eisleben, considered it unscriptural, and leading to the papacy, if repentance was derived from the law, and not from the gospel. This dispute made so much noise, that the Elector considered himself obliged to arrange a meeting in Torgau, between Agricola, on the one side, and Melanchthon, Luther, and Bugenhagen, on the other. It was held in November, 1527. Agricola could easily be refuted from the Scri

his first visitation tour, he continued to lecture in Jena, and wrote against the Anabaptists, who were also carrying on their sectarianis