Note 400 — CCCV.—To Melanchthon.[400]

See Letter, p. 270. Doubly afflicted by the wars which were desolating Germany, and by the disorders which were rending the Church, Melanchthon had maintained a long silence, which was only broken on the 1st October 1552, by a touching letter to Calvin:—"Reverend sir and very dear brother,—I should have written you frequently, had I been able to secure trustworthy letter-carriers. I should have preferred a conversation with you on many questions of very serious interest, inasmuch as I set a very high value on your judgment, and am conscious that the integrity and candour of your mind is unexceptionable. I am at present living as if in a wasps' nest. But perhaps I shall ere long put off this mortal life for a brighter companionship in heaven." Full of affection and respect for Melanchthon, whose character he venerated, while he freely blamed him for his weakness and indecision, Calvin made known, in turn, to the German Reformer, the struggles of all sorts which he had to undergo at Geneva, and with which the name of Melanchthon himself is found mixed up, owing to the astute intrigues of the Libertines, who had an interest in involving these two great men in mutual opposition.