views of free
will and original sin. He did, indeed, insist upon the rejection of the
worship of saints, and advocate expunging from the ritual all appeals
for their assistance. So, too, monks ought to be allowed to forsake the
cloister, and monastic establishments could then be advantageously
turned into schools of learning. The celibacy of the clergy should, in
like manner, be forthwith granted. There was, however, in his view, one
point that bristled with difficulties. How to remove them Melanchthon
confessed himself unable to suggest. The question of the popish mass was
the Gordian knot which must be reserved for the future council of the
church to untie or cut.[329]

[Sidenote: His own misgivings.]

A faint suspicion seems, however, to have flitted through the Wittemberg
reformer's mind, that possibly, after all his large admissions, his
attempt was but labor lost! For, in a letter to Martin Bucer, written on
the very day he despatched his communication to Du Bellay, he more than
hinted his own despair of effecting an agreement with the Pope of Rome,
and excused himself for his apparently lavish proffers, on the plea that
he was desirous of making his good French friends comprehend the chief
points of controversy![330]

[Sidenote: A favorable impression made on Francis.]

Melanchthon's articles, faithfully transmitted by Du Bellay, produced on
the mind of Francis a favorable impression. The ambitious monarch
welcomed the prospect of a speedy removal of the doctrinal differences
that had previously marred the perfect understanding he wished to
maintain with the Protestant princes of Germany. Whether, however, any
higher motives than considerations of a political character weighed with
him, may well be doubted.

Meantime, an unexpected occurrence for the time dispelled all thought of
that harvest of conciliation and harmony which the more moderate
reformers looked for as likely to spring up from the seed so liberally
sown by Melanchthon.

[Sidenote: Indiscreet partisans of reform.]

If, among the advocates of the purification of the church, there was a
party which, with Melanchthon, seemed ready to jeopard some of the most
vital principles of the great moral and religious movement, in the vain
hope of again cementing an unnatural union with the Roman system, there
was another faction, to which moderation and half-way measures were
utterly repulsive. Its partisans believed themselves warranted in
resorting t