But it is time to notice the internal development of the boy. As the parents lived in the fear of God, this was also aimed at in the education of their children. Philip soon exhibited a great love for the public services of the house of God. He was especially delighted with the histories of the holy men of the Christian Church. Of these he heard much, both in the church and at home. Had the Gospel been opened to him at that time, he would doubtless have received it joyfully. However, he admits the use of the Legends of the saints in the words: "It was a part of our domestic discipline rather to employ the boys with these matters, than to permit them to run about the streets, or engage in wild noise." As a matter of course, such food, as the Church then profferred, could not satisfy an inquiring mind like that of Philip. The law, as it was then exclusively employed by the Catholic Church, was barely able to plow up the soil of the heart. But when it is yet considered, in addition to this, that the laws of God occupied the background behind the frequently ridiculous laws of the Church, it is matter for surprise that so many spiritual wants were yet felt, as we find to be the case with young Melanchthon. But his mind at this time was still principally directed to the acquisition of learning, of which he had already gathered an unusually large store in Pforzheim, by the instructions of Simler, and the encouragement of the deeply-learned Reuchlin. CHAPTER II. THE UNIVERSITY.