Concerning
the Lord's Supper_. The timely reappearance of this book, which
Melanchthon, in 1530, had directed against the Zwinglians, was most
embarrassing to him as well as to his friend Calvin. The latter,
therefore, now urged him to break his silence and come out openly
against his public assailants. But Melanchthon did not consider it
expedient to comply with this request. Privately, however, he answered,
October 14, 1554: "As regards your admonition in your last letter that I
repress the ignorant clamors of those who renew the strife concerning
the bread-worship, know that some of them carry on this disputation out
of hatred toward me in order to have a plausible reason for oppressing
me. _Quod me hortaris, ut reprimam ineruditos clamores illorum, qui
renovant certamen peri artolatreias, scito, quosdam praecipue odio mei
eam disputationem movere, ut habeant plausibilem causam ad me
opprimendum_." (8, 362.)

Fully persuaded that he was in complete doctrinal agreement with his
Wittenberg friend on the controverted questions, Calvin finally, in his
_Last Admonition_ (_Ultima Admonitio_) _to Westphal_, 1557, publicly
claimed Melanchthon as his ally, and implored him to give public
testimony "that they [the Calvinists and Zwinglians] teach nothing
foreign to the _Augsburg Confession, nihil alienum nos tradere a
Confessione Augustana_." "I confirm," Calvin here declared, "that in
this cause [concerning the Lord's Supper] Philip can no more be torn
from me than from his own bowels. _Confirmo, non magis a me Philippum
quam a propriis visceribus in hoc causa posse divelli_." (_C. R._ 37
[_Calvini Opp_. 9], 148. 149. 193. 466; Gieseler 3, 2, 219, Tschackert,
536.) Melanchthon, however, continued to preserve his sphinxlike
silence, which indeed declared as loud as words could have done that he
favored the Calvinists, and was opposed to those who defended Luther's
doctrine. To Mordeisen he wrote, November 15, 1557: "If you will permit
me to live at a different place, I shall reply, both truthfully and
earnestly to these unlearned sycophants, and say things that are useful
to the Church." (_C. R._ 9, 374.)

After the death of Melanchthon, Calvin wrote in his _Dilucida
Explicatio_ against Hesshusius, 1561: "O Philip Melanchthon! For it is
to you that I appeal, who art living with Christ in the presence of God
and there waiting for us until we shall be assembled with you into
blessed rest. A hundred times you have said, when,