SOURCE: Hildebrandt, Franz. “Prelude: The Friendship Between Luther and Melanchthon.” In Melanchthon: Alien or Ally, pp. xv-xxvii. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1946.

In the following essay, Hildebrandt examines the relationship between Melanchthon and Luther and discusses their opinions of each other.

The puzzle is not so much the mutual attraction of two very different tempers, but the entry by, and reception of, Melanchthon into the headquarters of the Reformation; we are not concerned with the dramatic narrative of ‘how they got on with each other’ during the thirty years of their common residence in Wittenberg, but with the riddle of how their doctrines could ‘mix’; with the astonishing fact that ever since they figure as joint partners of the firm ‘Luther and Melanchthon’ in such a way as none other of Luther's many colleagues could claim to be associated with him (the only conceivable comparison would be ‘Luther and...