Voré de la Fosse, bearing letters from Francis I., William du Bellay, and other friends of the union, was going to Germany to try and bring it to a successful issue. De la Fosse was not such a distinguished ambassador as those who figured at London and at Rome, and the power to which he was accredited was a professor in a petty town of Saxony. But Germany called this professor her ‘master,’ and De la Fosse considered his mission a more important one than any that had been confided to dukes and cardinals. Christendom was weakened by being severed into two parts; he was going to re-establish unity, and revive and purify the old member by the life of the new one. The Christian Church thus strengthened would be made capable of the greatest conquests. On the success of the steps that were about to be taken depended, in the opinion of De la Fosse and his friends, the destiny of the world.
The envoy of Francis I. arrived at Wittemberg on the 4th of August, 1535, and immediately paid Melancthon a visit, at which he delivered the letters intrusted to him, and warmly explained the motives which ought to induce the reformer to proceed to France. De la Fosse’s candor, his love for the Gospel, and his zeal gained the heart of Luther’s friend. By degrees a sincere friendship grew up between them; and when Melancthon afterwards wanted to justify himself in the eyes of the French, he appealed to the testimony of the ‘very good and very excellent Voré.’[[717]] But if the messenger pleased him, the message filled his heart with trouble: the perusal of the letters from the king, Du Bellay, and Sturm brought the doubts of this man of peace to a climax. He saw powerful reasons for going to France and equally powerful reasons for staying in Germany. To use the expression of a reformer, there were two batteries firing upon him by turns from opposite quarters, now driving him to the right, now to the left. What would Charles V. say, if a German should go to the court of his great adversary? Besides, what was to be expected from the Sorbonne, the clergy, and the court? Contempt.... He would not go. On the other hand, Melancthon had before him a letter from the king, pressing him to come to Paris. An influential nation might be gained to the Gospel, and carry all the West along with it. When the Lord calls, must we allow ourselves to be stopped by fear?... He hesitated no longer: he would depart. Voré de la Fosse was delighted. But erelong other thoughts sprang up to torment the doctor’s imagination. What was there not to be feared from a prince who had sworn, standing before the stake at which he was burning his subjects, that to stop heresy he would, if necessary, cut off his own arm and cast it into the fire?... In that terrible day of the strappadoes, a deep gulf had opened in the midst of the church. Was it his business to throw himself, Curtius-like, into the abyss, in order that the gulf should close over him?... Melancthon would willingly leave to the young Roman the glory of devoting himself to the infernal gods.
De la Fosse visited the illustrious professor daily, and employed every means to induce him to cross the Rhine.[[718]] ‘We will do whatever you desire,’ he said. ‘Do you wish for royal letters to secure to you full liberty of going to France and returning? You shall have them. Do you ask for hostages as guarantees for your return? You shall have them also. Do you want an armed guard of honor to escort you and bring you back? It shall be given you.[[719]] We will spare nothing. On your interview with the king depends not only the fate of France, but (so to speak) of the whole world.[[720]] Hearken to the friends of the Gospel who dwell in Paris. Threatening waves surround us, they say by my mouth; furious tempests assail us; but the moment you come, we shall find ourselves, as it were, miraculously transported into the safest of havens.[[721]] If, on the contrary, you despise the king’s invitation, all hope is lost for us. The fires now slumbering will instantly shoot forth their flames, and there will be a cruel return of the most frightful tortures.[[722]] It is not only Sturm, Du Bellay, and other friends like them who invite you, but all the pious Christians of France. They are silent, no doubt—those whom the cruellest of punishments have laid among the dead, and even those who, immured in dungeons, are separated from us by doors of iron; but, if their voices cannot reach you, listen at least to one mighty voice, the voice of God himself, the voice of Jesus Christ.’[[723]]
Melancthon A Man Of God.
When Melancthon heard this appeal, he was agitated and overpowered.[[724]] What an immense task! These Frenchmen are placing the world on his shoulders! Can such a poor Atlas as he is bear it? How must he decide? What must he do? In a short time his perplexity was again increased. The French gentleman had hardly left the room when his wife, Catherine daughter of the Burgomaster of Wittemberg, her relations, her young children, and some of his best friends surrounded him and entreated him not to leave them. They were convinced that, if Melancthon once set foot in that city ‘which killeth the prophets,’ they would never see him again. They described the traps laid for him; they reminded him that no safe-conduct had been given him; they shed tears, they clung to him, and yet he did not give way.
Melancthon was a man of God, and prayed his heavenly Father to show him the road he ought to take; he thoroughly weighed the arguments for and against his going. ‘The thought of myself and of mine,’ he said, ‘the remoteness of the place to which I am invited, and fear of the dangers that await me ought not to stop me.[[725]] Nothing should be more sacred to me than the glory of the Son of God, the deliverance of so many pious men, and the peace of the Church troubled by such great tempests. Upon that all my thoughts ought to be concentred; but this is what disturbs me: I fear to act imprudently in a matter of such great importance, and to make the disease still more incurable through my precipitancy. Will not the French, while giving way on some trivial points which they must necessarily renounce, retain the most important articles in which falsehood and impiety are especially found?[[726]] Alas! such patchwork would produce more harm than good.’
There was much truth in these fears; but De la Fosse, returning to his friend, sought to banish his apprehensions, and assured him that the disposition of Francis I. was excellent at bottom. ‘Yes,’ replied Luther’s friend, ‘but is he in a position to act upon it?’[[727]] He expected nothing from a conference with fanatical doctors. Besides, the Sorbonne refused all discussion. ‘The king,’ he said, ‘is not the Church. A council alone has power to reform it; and therefore the prince ought to set his heart upon hastening its convocation. All other means of succoring afflicted Christendom are useless and dangerous.’
De la Fosse turned Melancthon’s objection against him. ‘At least we must prepare the way for the council,’ he said; ‘and it is just on that account that the King of France wishes to converse with you.’ Then, desiring to strike home, the envoy of Francis I. continued: ‘The king never had anything more at heart than to heal the wounds of the Church: he has never shown so much care, anxiety, and zeal.[[728]] If you comply with his wishes, you will be received with more joy in France than any stranger before you. Will you withhold from the afflicted Church the hand that can save her? Let nothing in the world, I conjure you, turn you aside from so pure and sacred an enterprise.’[[729]] De la Fosse was agitated. The idea of returning to Paris without Melancthon—that is to say, without the salvation he expected—was insupportable. ‘Depart,’ he exclaimed, ‘if you do not come to France!... I shall never return there.’[[730]]
Melancthon’s Character.
Melancthon was touched by these supplications. He thought he heard (as they had told him) the voice of God himself. ‘Well, then,’ he said, ‘I will go. My friends in France have entertained great expectations and apply to me to fulfil them: I will not disappoint their hopes.’ Melancthon was resolved to maintain the essential truths of Christianity, and hoped to see them accepted by the catholic world. Francis I. and his friends had not rejected Luther’s fundamental article,—justification solely by faith in the merits of Christ, by a living faith, which produces holiness and works. According to the most eminent and most Christian orator of the Roman Church, Melancthon combined learning, gentleness, and elegance of style, with singular moderation, so that he was regarded as the only man fitted to succeed in literature to the reputation of Erasmus.[[731]] But he was more than that: his convictions were not to be shaken; he knew where he was, and, far from seeking all his life for his religion—as Bossuet asserts—he had found it and admirably explained it in his Theological Commonplaces.[[732]] Still he constantly said to his friends: ‘We must contend only for what is great and necessary.’[[733]]