So many sorrows resting upon Melanchthon injuriously affected his body and spirit. He was seized by another illness in July, 1544. He wrote to Veit Dietrich, July 1: "Dearest Veit, while I am writing this, I am suffering severely from an affection of the spleen, which has been caused by the afflictions which have weighed upon me for the last two months; and if my spleen ulcerates, I shall lose my life." His dear friend Camerarius, who had heard of this illness, hastened to Wittenberg, to see and comfort him. On the 6th of July, the sufferer was able to write to Myconius: "Although my health is not yet established, (for the disease of the stone is added to my other afflictions, and in two days I have passed three stones with great pain,) yet I attend to my scholastic labors, to which God has called me, and I pray for the civil government." He at this time also received the sad tidings that one of his best friends, the celebrated JEROME BAUMGARTNER, of Nuremberg, had been captured by the robber-knight, ALBERT VON ROSENBERG, when he was returning from the Diet of Spire. We cannot deny ourselves the pleasure to communicate some parts of the letter of consolation, addressed to Baumgaertner's wife by Melanchthon: "We pray God that he will not permit you to sink in this great distress, but would by his Holy Spirit grant you comfort and strength, as he has often promised that he is a God who dwelleth with the sorrowful, as I have often experienced in no slight afflictions. And may you particularly console yourself with these three considerations: _first_, that what our Saviour said is certainly true, that all our hairs are numbered by God; that is, that God regards and preserves us, although we may be in danger. Therefore, even as he preserved Daniel among the lions, so he will also comfort and preserve your lord in the midst of the robbers who have captured him. In the _second_ place, that this also is certainly true, that the Divine Majesty has promised, and pledged itself, to be with the troubled and terrified who call upon him, as it is written in the 37th chapter of the Prophet Isaiah. Therefore you should not doubt that the Eternal God is with your lord and you, and will strengthen and save you from this great distress. In the _third place_, it is certain that it is God's will that we should acknowledge him by calling upon him, and that he will manifest his presence by those gifts for which we pray, as he has said, 'Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me.' Therefore you should not doubt that God will hear you, and the many Christians who are praying that the Lord would restore your husband to you with joy. May the Eternal God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, do this for his own glory, and at all times comfort and protect you and your husband. Amen."