Luther, on his side, accompanied by Melancthon, Cruciger, and Jonas, had stopped on the Hessian frontier, declaring that nothing should induce him to cross it until he had a safe-conduct from the Landgrave. This document being obtained, Luther arrived at Alsfeld, where the scholars, kneeling under the Reformer's windows, chanted their pious hymns. He entered Marburg on the 30th September, a day after the arrival of the Swiss. Both parties went to inns; but they had scarcely alighted, before the Landgrave invited them to come and lodge in the castle, thinking by this means to bring the opposing parties closer together. Philip entertained them in a manner truly royal.[207] "Ah!" said the pious Jonas, as he wandered through the halls of the palace, "it is not in honour of the Muses, but in honour of God and of his Christ, that we are so munificently treated in these forests of Hesse!" After dinner, on the first day, Œcolampadius, Hedio, and Bucer, desirous of entering into the prince's views, went and saluted Luther. The latter conversed affectionately with Œcolampadius in the castle-court; but Bucer, with whom he had once been very intimate, and who was now on Zwingle's side, having approached him, Luther said to him, smiling, and making a sign with his hand: "As for you, you are a good-for-nothing fellow and a knave!"[208] [207] Excepit in arce hospitio et mensa regali.--(Corp. Ref. i. p. 1096.) [208] Subridens aliquantulum respondit: _tu es nequam et nebulo_.--(Sculteti Annal. ad 1529.) [Sidenote: PRELIMINARY DISCUSSIONS.] The unhappy Carlstadt, who had begun all this dispute, was at that time in Friesland, preaching the spiritual presence of Christ, and living in such destitution that he had been forced to sell his Hebrew Bible to procure bread. The trial had crushed his pride, and he wrote to the Landgrave: "We are but one body, one house, one people, one sacerdotal race; we live and die by one and the same Saviour.[209] For this reason, I, poor and in exile, humbly pray your highness, by the blood of Jesus Christ, to allow me to be present at this disputation." [209] State Papers of Cassel. But how bring Luther and Carlstadt face to face? and yet how repel the unhappy man? The Landgrave, to extricate himself from this difficulty, referred him to the Saxon Reformer. Carlstadt did not appear. Philip of Hesse desired that, previously to the public conference, the theologians should have a private interview. It was however considered dangerous, says a contemporary, for Zwingle and Luther, who were both naturally violent, to contend with one another at the very beginning; and as Œcolampadius and Melancthon were the mildest, they were apportioned to the roughest.[210] On Friday the 1st October, after divine service, Luther and Œcolampadius were conducted into one chamber, and Zwingle and Melancthon into another. The combatants were then left to struggle two and two. [210] Abgetheilt zu den rühren.--(Bull. ii. p. 225.)