Note 392 — CI.—To Philip Melanchthon.[392]

This letter is doubtless one of the first addressed by Calvin to Melanchthon. United, since the Conferences of Ratisbon, to the German Reformer by the bonds of affection and friendship, he thenceforth lavished upon him the testimonies of his esteem and respect, and kept up relations with him which were never interrupted, notwithstanding the difference of their doctrine and genius. Calvin dedicated, in 1543, to Melanchthon, the publication which he set forth against Doctor Albert Pighius, the opponent of the doctrine of grace, and he edited, some years afterwards, the Loci Communes of Melanchthon, translated into French; thus presenting a remarkable example of the spirit of union and concord which he applied in its development to the Lutheran and Reformed Churches, according to that beautiful passage of one of his Letters: "Would that the union between all Christ's Churches upon earth were such, that the angels in heaven might join their song of praise!"