In the spring of 1557, he would have had an excellent opportunity to get rid of the Flacians, for the Elector of the Palatinate called him to the University of Heidelberg. "However, I have not yet come to any conclusion in regard to my removal," he wrote to Languentius from Leipzig, "because I must first learn the sentiments of the Court." He wrote to Camerarius: "I wrote this letter on the 31st of March, on which day, 420 years after Christ, Jerome died in his 91st year, in the town of Bethlehem, whither he had fled from the rage of his intriguing enemies. I would already have fled to those solitudes, if I had no family." But the Court would not permit him to go, and he remained. He was very much afraid of a journey to Denmark, whither the Elector wished to take him, because the king intended to assemble a number of Theologians, to discuss the sacramental controversy. Some one had told his father, 60 years before, that Philip would be shipwrecked on the Baltic Sea, and this sea he was now to cross. But no doubt he also dreaded a Conference where the subject of the Lord's Supper was to be discussed. A pastor of that place had spilt some wine, of which Melanchthon sarcastically remarked, "What a misfortune!" However, this journey was not undertaken; but another took its place. He wrote to Camerarius: "The Court would now prefer it, if I should go to the Rhine. But we shall remain here until new letters from Court order us to go, which is not at all disagreeable to me, because I look upon my stay here as a blessing." At last the orders arrived. He bade his hearers farewell on the 14th of August, in the following words: "I will not deliver any lectures to-day, because many poor students ask for letters of recommendation about the time of our departure. But I beseech the Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, who has said, 'I am the vine, ye are the branches,' that he would guide us. And I also conjure you, for the Lord's sake, to commend yourselves and us to him in devout prayers, and that you may become an ornament of the Church by your becoming conduct."