were communicated by the Emperor, and a demand made upon them for their execution. It is easy to imagine that the Protestant Princes would strive likewise to gain them over to their party. Philip of Hesse especially, looked toward Zurich and Zwingli. Early in April, he had addressed him from Spire. He desired a personal interview. At the same time it might serve to heal the dispute between the Saxon and Swiss Reformers, which had taken a disagreeable turn, and contributed more than anything else to make the cause of the Gospel suspicious in the eyes of the Catholics, yea, even hateful to them. The chief obstacle in the way of an understanding lay in the manner of seeking it--by a general formula, a declaration drawn up in words, though the Gospel itself did not contain such a thing. Few in that age had the sound judgment of the later _landgrave_ William of Hesse, who, in the year 1566, wrote to Bullinger: "What Christ, the Chief Schoolmaster, has not seen fit to explain, we men should not undertake to explain for ourselves." _That_ Christ, offering himself up in love, would continue to live in all the members of his church to the remotest ages, and so declared at the last breaking of bread and pouring out of wine in the circle of his disciples, must be clear to every reader of the Gospel. _Whether_ and _how_ he continues to live in them, deeds only can show: the confession of the heart, not that of the lips, which Christ himself does not require of us. But when, in spite of this, such a thing was required, it was necessarily apprehended in a plainer sense by some of the Reformers, and in a more profound one by others, according to the individual peculiarities; at the same time it was regarded as more free or more binding according to the spirit of the nations and the governments, which they represented. This will best appear from the history viewed in its connection.