he shook his hand, and said, smiling, and pointing his finger at him, "You are a good-for-nothing
knave."^858
In that romantic old castle of Marburg which overlooks the quaint city, and the beautiful
and fertile valley of the Lahn, the famous Conference was held on the first three days of October.
It was the first council among Protestants, and the first attempt to unite them. It attracted general
attention, and promised to become world-historical.^859 Euricius Cordus, a professor of medicine at
Marburg, addressed, in a Latin poem, "the penetrating Luther, the gentle Oecolampadius, the
magnanimous Zwingli, the eloquent Melanchthon, the pious Schnepf, the brave Bucer, the
true-hearted Hedio," and all other divines who were assembled in Marburg, with an appeal to heal
the schism. "The church," he says, "falls weeping at your feet, and begs you, by the mercies of
Christ, to consider the question with pure zeal for the welfare of believers, and to bring about a
conclusion of which the world may say that it proceeded from the Holy Spirit." Very touching is
the prayer with which Zwingli entered upon the conference: "Fill us, O Lord and Father of us all,
we beseech Thee, with thy gentle Spirit, and dispel on both sides all the clouds of misunderstanding
and passion. Make an end to the strife of blind fury. Arise, O Christ, Thou Sun of righteousness,
and shine upon us. Alas! while we contend, we only too often forget to strive after holiness which
Thou requirest from us all. Guard us against abusing our powers, and enable us to employ them
with all earnestness for the promotion of holiness."
§ 108. The Marburg Conference continued. Discussion and Result.
The work of the Conference began on Friday, the 1st of October, with divine service in the
chapel of the castle. Zwingli preached on the providence of God, which he afterwards elaborated
into an important treatise, "De Providentia." It was intended for scholars rather than the people;
and Luther found fault with the introduction of Hebrew, Greek, and Latin words into the pulpit.
Luther, Bucer, and Osiander preached the morning sermons on the following days; Luther, on his
favorite doctrine of justification by faith.
The Landgrave first arranged a private interview between the lions and the lambs; that is,
between Luther and Oecolampadius, Zwingli and Melanchthon. The two pairs met after divine
service, in separate chambers, and conferred for several hours. The Wittenberg Reformers catechised
the Swiss about their views on the Trinity, original sin, and baptism, and were in a measure relieved
of their suspicion that they entertained unsound views on these topics. Melanchthon had, a few
months before the Conference, written a very respectful letter to Oecolampadius (April 8, 1529),
in which he regrets that the "horribilis dissensio de coena Domini" interfered with the enjoyment
of their literary and Christian friendship, and states his own view of the eucharist very moderately
and clearly to the effect that it was a communion with the present Christ rather than a commemoration
of the absent Christ.^860 In the private conference with Zwingli, against whom he was strongly
(^858) "Du bist ein Schalk und ein Nebler." Melanchthon saluted Hedio in Latin, "I am glad to see you. You are Hedio." Baum, p. 459.
Erichson, p. 16.
(^859) "Die Versammlung," says Ranke, III. 122, "hatte etwas Erhabenes, Weltbedeutendes."
(^860) "Corpus Reform.," I. 1048 sqq. He says: "Vos absentia Christi corpus tanquam in tragoedia repraesentari contenditis. Ego de
Christo video exstare promissiones: ’Ego vobiscum usque ad consummationem seculi, et similes, ubi nihil est opus divellere ab humanitate