onious
action.

[Sidenote: Hopes of reunion in the church.]

Not so, however, thought many sincere persons on both sides, and not
less on the side of the Reformation than on that of the Roman Catholic
Church. True, the claims of the papacy were insupportable, and the most
flagrant abuses prevailed; but many of the reformers believed it quite
within the bounds of possibility that the great body of the supporters
of the church might be brought to recognize and renounce these abuses,
and break the tyrannical yoke that had, for so many centuries, rested
upon the neck of the faithful. The ancient fabric of religion, they
said, is indeed disfigured by modern additions, and has been brought, by
long neglect, to the very verge of ruin. But these tasteless
excrescences can easily be removed, the ravages of time reverently
repaired, and the grand old edifice restored to its pristine symmetry
and magnificence. In a word, it was a general _reformation_ that was
contemplated--no radical reconstruction after a novel plan. And the
future _council_, in which all phases of opinion would be freely
represented, was to provide the adequate and sufficient cure for all the
ills afflicting the body politic and ecclesiastic.

By some of the more sanguine adherents of both parties these flattering
expectations were long entertained. With others the attempt to effect a
religious reconciliation seems to have served merely as a mask to hide
political designs; and at this distance of time it is among the most
difficult problems of history to determine the proportion in which
earnest zeal and rank insincerity entered as factors into the measures
undertaken for the purpose of reconciling theological differences.
Especially is this true respecting the overtures made by the French
monarch to Philip Melanchthon, which now claim our attention.

[Sidenote: Melanchthon and Du Bellay.]

[Sidenote: A plan of reconciliation.]

Early in the spring of the year 1534 Melanchthon received a courteous
visit at Wittemberg from an agent of the distinguished French
diplomatist, Guillaume du Bellay-Langey, envoy to the Protestant princes
of Germany. The interview paved the way for a long correspondence
between Melanchthon and Du Bellay himself, in which the latter threw out
suggestions of the practicability of some plan for bringing the
intelligent and candid men in both countries to adopt a common ground in
respect to religion. Finally, in response to Du Bellay