Philipp Melanchthon."§ 41. Luther and Melanchthon.
P. Schaff: Luther und Melanchthon, In his "Der Deutsche Kirchenfreund," Mercersburg, Pa., vol.
III. (1850), pp. 58–64. E. L. Henke: Das Verhältniss Luthers und Melanchthons zu einander.
Festrede am 19 April, 1860. Marburg (28 pages). Compare also Döllinger: Die Reformation,
vol. i. 349 sqq.
"Wo sich das strenge mit dem Zarten,
Wo Starkes sich und Mildes paarten,
Da giebt es einen guten Klang." (Schiller.)
In great creative epochs of the Church, God associates congenial leaders for mutual help and
comfort. In the Reformation of the sixteenth century, we find Luther and Melanchthon in Germany,
Zwingli and Oecolampadius, Farel and Viret, Calvin and Beza in Switzerland, Craniner, Latimer,
and Ridley in England, Knox and Melville in Scotland, working together with different gifts, but
in the same spirit and for the same end. The Methodist revival of the eighteenth century was carried
on by the co-operation of the two Wesleys and Whitefield; and the Anglo-Catholic movement of
the nineteenth, by the association of Pusey, Newman, and Keble.
Immediately after his arrival at the Saxon University, on the Elbe, Melanchthon entered
into an intimate relation with Luther, and became his most useful and influential co-laborer. He
looked up to his elder colleague with the veneration of a son, and was carried away and controlled
(sometimes against his better judgment) by the fiery genius of the Protestant Elijah; while Luther
regarded him as his superior in learning, and was not ashamed to sit humbly at his feet. He attended
his exegetical lectures, and published them, without the author’s wish and knowledge, for the benefit
of the Church. Melanchthon declared in April, 1520, that "he would rather die than be separated
from Luther;" and in November of the same year, "Martin’s welfare is dearer to me than my own
life." Luther was captivated by Melanchthon’s first lecture; he admired his scholarship, loved his
character, and wrote most enthusiastically about him in confidential letters to Spalatin, Reuchlin,
Lange, Scheurl, and others, lauding him as a prodigy of learning and piety.^222
The friendship of these two great and good men is one of the most delightful chapters in
the religious drama of the sixteenth century. It rested on mutual personal esteem and hearty German
affection, but especially on the consciousness of a providential mission intrusted to their united
labors. Although somewhat disturbed, at a later period, by slight doctrinal differences and occasional
ill-humor,^223 it lasted to the end; and as they worked together for the same cause, so they now rest
under the same roof in the castle church at Wittenberg, at whose doors Luther had nailed the war-cry
of the Reformation.
(^222) Lutherus ad Reuchlinum, Dec. 14, 1518: "Philippus noster Melanchthon, homo admirabilis, imo pene nihil habens, quod non supra
hominem sit, familiarissimus tamen et amicissimus mihi." To Billikan he wrote in 1523 (De Wette, II. 407): "Den Philippus achte ich
nicht anders als mich selbst, ausgenomnen in Hinsicht auf seine Gelehrsamkeit und die Unbescholtenheit seines Lebens, wodurch er mich,
dass ich nicht blos sage, übertrifft." In his humorous way he once invited him (Oct. 18, 1518) to supper under the address: "Philippo
Melanchthoni, Schwarzerd, Graeco, Latino, Hebraeo, Germano, nunquam Barbaro." The testimonies of Luther on Mel. are collected in
the first and last vols. of the "Corp. Reform." (especially XXViiib. 9 and 10).
(^223) Melanchthon hints also, in one of his confidential letters, at female influence, the γυναικοτυράννις, as an incidental element in the
disturbance. Corp. Ref.," III. 398.