SOURCE: Wengert, Timothy. “‘We Will Feast Together in Heaven Forever’: The Epistolary Friendship of John Calvin and Philip Melanchthon.” In Melanchthon in Europe: His Work and Influence beyond Wittenberg, edited by Karin Maag, pp. 19-44. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Books, 1999.

In the following essay, Wengert provides a corrective to earlier analyses of the relations between Melanchthon and Calvin.

In 1842, as the ninth and final volume of Melanchthon's correspondence in the Corpus Reformatorum rolled off the Schwetschke presses in Halle, researchers had at their disposal only six letters between the leading Reformers in Wittenberg and Geneva.¹ Within a generation the number had grown considerably as the addendum to Melanchthon's correspondence, edited by Heinrich Bindseil and published in 1874, contributed fourteen and Calvin's correspondence in the Corpus Reformatorum an additional four.² Counting descriptions of one letter and one conversation with Melanchthon contained in letters to William Farel and the mention of...