The controversy concerning the eucharist still raged as fiercely as ever between the two schools, but Calvin's feelings had evidently undergone a change. 'I implore you,' he wrote to Bullinger, who was a Zwinglian, 'never to forget how great a man Luther is. Think with what courage, what constancy, what power he has devoted himself to spreading the doctrine of salvation far and near. As for me, I have often said, and I say it again, though he should call me _devil_, I would still give him due honour, and recognise him as a mighty servant of the Lord.' A little later Calvin went beyond even this. He wrote to Luther: 'If I could only fly to you and enjoy your society, even for a few hours! But since this happiness is not granted to me here below, I hope that it may soon be granted me in the kingdom of God. Farewell, then, most illustrious man, eminent minister of Christ, father for ever venerable to me! May the Lord continue to direct you by his Holy Spirit for the common good of his Church!' Melancthon was charged to give this letter to Luther, but finding no doubt that his master was not in the right humour to receive it, the timid disciple kept the letter, and Luther never knew of it. I do not know if it would have had the effect of calming his irritation, but it remains as a noble expression of the sentiments which Calvin entertained for him, and which he continued to express even after Luther's death. During the Diets of 1539 and 1542, Calvin frequently met Melancthon, and they became close friends. When men are earnest and sincere, they are drawn together, and united by their points of difference almost as powerfully as by their common sympathies. {244} Melancthon attracted Calvin by the cultivation and fertility of his intellect, by its comprehensiveness as well as its subtlety and elegance; he was at the same time philosophical and literary, as well versed in the ancient Greek and Latin literature as in Christian history and theology. He belonged quite as much to the Restoration of literature in the sixteenth century as to the Reformation. All these things influenced Calvin, who was keenly alive to the charm of great learning and fine language. Moreover Melancthon shared the greater number of his own views on the principal religious questions which were at that time in dispute, especially his views on free-will and predestination. He was older than Calvin, and a man of much greater renown, and yet he showed him marked esteem and affection. During their early intercourse Calvin was the disciple, welcomed and treated with great favour by the celebrated man whose amiable nature was as great an attraction as his rare intellect and acquirements, so that he was no less honoured than delighted. He was not slow to perceive that these fine qualities were allied in Melancthon to defects which his own character and personal instincts caused him to feel keenly. Calvin was a man of great intellectual precision