specially if men of learning,
who can give the matter from Holy Scripture, are inclined that way, and
we know that many scholars now adhere to Zwingli."

It is clear that the Swiss were regarded by the Saxons as radical
stormers, unprincipled innovators, who, amid their mountains and their
republican affairs had forgotten all respect for law and order. "I am
sick;" wrote Melanchton to one friend, "an indescribable anguish of
soul torments me; I can scarcely breathe. Thou knowest wherefore. The
Elbe has fearfully overflowed its banks. Even in Hesse I saw a great
stone torn out of the side-walk of a church by the might of the floods,
as though done by the contrivances of art. Still other signs happen.
Christ defend us!" and to another: "Rather would I die, than live to
see this Zwinglian affair pollute our just cause." Luther spoke thus
against the _landgrave_ himself: "I know well what the devil is after.
God grant I may be no prophet; for if it were not a false trick, but a
real purpose among them to seek peace, they would not attempt it in
such a glorious fashion through great and mighty princes; for we, by
God's grace, are not so savage and wild, that they could not long ago
have tendered to us, as they yet can, the humble endeavors for peace,
of which they boast; but I know that I will not basely give way to
them. I cannot; because I am so fully persuaded that they err, and are
themselves, moreover, unsettled in their opinions." At last, Melanchton
made the proposal to invite some Papists to the Conference as
witnesses, though in fact rather to pave the way for their final
consent; and for a long while yet, both he and Luther wished to have
[OE]colampadius as an opponent, and protested against the appearance of
Zwingli.

But such spectres were not visible to the _landgrave_ Philip. He was
one of those princes, who, conscious of their own power and of love to
their people, by whom in turn they are beloved, can look without fear
even on republican affairs; a man in whom faith lived, and who without
hesitation, therefore, suffered the spirit to live; and, acting thus,
hoped, with youthful assurance, to calm down the violent combatants by
his influence, if he could only get a personal interview with them.
This appears best from his own words: "Dear Master Erhard," so he wrote
some years after this period, to another of the zealots in the
Eucharistic controversy, the Wuertemberg preacher, Erhard Schnepf, "I
hear that yo