In 1536 the repressed discontent of the ultra-Lutherans broke out into open persecution of Melanchthon. At the head of his assailants was Conrad Cordatus, who had sniffed heresy in the stress Melanchthon laid on the will and on man’s co-operation in the work of Justification; his first step was to begin a controversy with Cruciger, Melanchthon’s friend.[1240] At about that time, Luther, in his annoyance with Melanchthon, declared: “I am willing enough to admit Master Philip’s proficiency in the sciences and in philosophy, nothing more; but, with God’s help, I shall have to chop off the head of philosophy, for so it must be.”[1241] Nevertheless, to retain the indispensable support of so great a scholar and to preserve peace at the University, Luther preferred to seek a compromise, on the occasion of a solemn Disputation held on June 1, 1537. At the same time, it is true, he characterised the thesis on the “necessity of good works for salvation” as reprehensible and misleading.[1242] Further difficulties were raised in 1537 by Pastor Jacob Schenk, who would have it that Melanchthon had made treasonable concessions in the interests of the Catholics in the matter of the giving of the chalice. This strained still further his relations with Luther, who had already long been dimly suspicious of Melanchthon’s Zwinglian leanings concerning the Supper. The Elector, who was also vexed, consulted Luther privately concerning Melanchthon; Luther, however, again expressed his regard for him, and deprecated his “being driven from the University,” adding, nevertheless, that, should he seek to assert his opinion on the Supper, then “God’s truth would have to be put first.”[1243] The intervention of the Elector in this case, and, generally, the interference of the great Lords in ecclesiastical affairs—which frequently marred his plans for conciliation—embittered him more and more as years passed. He was perfectly aware that the influential patrons of the innovations were animated by mere egoism, avarice and lust for power. “The rulers have martyred me so long,” he once declared, “that I have no wish to go on living amid such suffering.”[1244]