not affecting salvation, he could bear with and even love his opponents as few Christians have done. The friendship of Melanchthon and Calvin was not one of those earthly ties which pass away with the years; this affection was deep-seated and its bonds were firm. The two friends had long interviews with each other at Worms. Melanchthon never forgot them. ‘Would that I could talk fully and freely with thee,’ he wrote to Calvin at a later period, ‘as we used to do when we were together!‘[39] Having received a work of Calvin’s in which he was mentioned, Melanchthon said to him—‘I am delighted with thy love for me; and I thank thee for thinking of inscribing a memorial of it in so famous a book, as in a place of honor.’ ‘Yes, dear brother,’ wrote he on another occasion, ‘I long to speak with thee of the weightiest matters, because I have a high opinion of thy judgment, and because I know the uprightness of thy soul, thy perfect candor. I am now living here like an ass in a wasp’s nest.’[40] Calvin, although he loved Melanchthon, did not fail at the same time to tell him freely his opinion whenever he appeared too yielding. He had been told that, on one occasion of this kind, Melanchthon tore his letter to pieces; but he found that this was a mistake. ‘Our union,’ he said to him, ‘must remain holy and inviolable; and since God has consecrated it we must keep it faithfully to the end, for the prosperity or the ruin of the Church is in this case at stake. Oh! that I could talk with thee! I know thy candor, the elevation of thy sentiments, thy modesty and thy piety, manifest to angels and to men.’[41] Oftentimes Melanchthon, when worn out with the toil imposed on him by his attendance at the assemblies in company with Calvin, worried by the Catholic theologians, and not always agreeing with the Lutherans, overwhelmed with weariness, would betake himself to his friend, throw himself into his arms and exclaim, ‘Oh, would God, would God, I might die on thy bosom!‘[42] Calvin wished a thousand times that Melanchthon and he might have the happiness of living together. He did not hesitate to say to Melanchthon, ‘that he felt himself to be far inferior to him:’ and nevertheless he believed that, if they had been oftener together, his friend would have been more courageous in the conflict. The friendship which united Melanchthon and Calvin at Worms, and afterwards at Ratisbon, did not remain without fruit. If Melanchthon, who was head of the Protestant deputation, displayed on that occasion more energy than usual, if the Romish theologians were almost brought over to the Evangelical doctrines, it must be attributed to the influence of Calvin. The metal, till then too malleable, acquired by tempering a greater degree of firmness.