Theodore Vitus, (Dietrich de Weit,) a distinguished theologian, friend of Luther and Melanchthon, preached the Gospel with great success in the city of Nuremberg, his native place, and was worthy of the esteem and affection of Calvin, not more on account of his learning than his moderation. He died in 1549. Melanchthon wrote, at the foot of his portrait, the following verses:
Ingenii monumenta sui, sed plura Lutheri
Edidit; his poterunt secla futura frui.
—[Melch. Adam, Vitæ Theol. Germ. pp. 199, 200.]
[37] The following is the passage of the letter of Vitus to Calvin to which he here refers:—"I have read your short address to the people on the Sacrament of the Supper, and I approve of your calling the bread and wine signs in such a sense that the things signified are in reality present. Would that they who leave only the naked signs, might be led by you to adopt that view!"—Calv. Epist. et Resp., Amst., p. 37.
[38] This desire was happily realized some years afterwards, by the adoption of a common symbol on the Supper, approved alike by the theologians of Zurich and Geneva.
[39] Vitus lent useful aid to Luther in the revision of his different writings, and rendered a real service to the Church by collecting and offering to the public the Commentaries of Luther on the Prophet Micah, and the first eleven chapters of Genesis.—Melch. Adam, Vitæ Theol. Germ.
[40] The Conference opened by the Emperor at Ratisbon, and to which Bucer had been summoned, was a mere feint to divert men's minds, and to transfer the decision of the points at issue to the Council of Trent.
[41] Viret, yielding to the entreaties of Calvin, went to Geneva towards the end of March, and there received the most honourable marks of public affection. We read in the Registers of Council, of date the 2d April 1546,—"Grand reception given to Farel and Viret, who had just arrived at Geneva."
[42] On the back, in the handwriting of M. de Falais,—Received the 16th of April 1546.
[43] A new diet had been assembled at Ratisbon, for the pacification of the religious troubles of Germany. That assembly opened in the month of June 1546, in presence of the Emperor, and like those which had preceded, concluded without any result whatsoever.