Melanchthon himself wrote to Bugenhagen from Eisenach: "I thank you heartily, best and dearest pastor, that you have comforted me in so Christian a manner, while I was absent, and visited with terrible afflictions in body and spirit, and that at home you assisted my wife by your counsels. I still feel my disease, although it has abated somewhat. If I should remain alive, I will be able to say that I have been restored from death to life, by the power of God. This is the testimony of all who were with me. Oh! that I might thank God rightly, and live for his glory! I commend myself, and the Church of Christ, to your prayers. I hope that he also (the Landgrave), who has brought me into this great trouble, warned by my example, and the writings of our friends, will be more modest, and not publicly defend a scandalous affair. I have heard that he promised to listen to the counsels of our friends." In Eisenach, the Saxon and Hessian Theologians conferred concerning the double-marriage of the Landgrave. The Hessian Theologians, among them the court-chaplain, Dionysius Melander, wished the permission to publish the second marriage, to be granted to their Prince. An old account relates, that upon this Luther attacked them in so severe a manner, "that the water ran down their cheeks." The Wittenbergers insisted that this marriage should be concealed, like the secrets of the Confessional. On the 24th of July, Melanchthon himself wrote to the Landgrave, exhorting him to cover the matter, and not to give cause for its public discussion. He should prevent this, "not only on account of the evil reports and the offence, but also because it is no easy matter to defend this business plausibly." The Landgrave took this to heart, and for a long time bore the disgrace he so richly deserved. But when he sent forth a pamphlet, written by Bucer, yet without his name, which endeavored to justify his conduct, Melanchthon published a very severe reply to it. At the close of July, he returned to Wittenberg. CHAPTER XX. WORMS AND RATISBON.