Philip Melanchthon

Philip Melanchthon was born Philipp Schwartzerdt in 1497 at Bretten in the Palatinate; his great-uncle, the scholar Johann Reuchlin, gave him the Greek form of his surname. A brilliant student of Greek at Heidelberg and Tübingen, he was appointed professor of Greek at Wittenberg in 1518 at the age of twenty-one and quickly became Martin Luther's closest ally. His Loci Communes (1521) was the first systematic Protestant theology. In 1530 he drafted the Augsburg Confession, presented to Emperor Charles V as a statement of Lutheran belief, and soon afterwards its Apology. Gentler than Luther, he sought agreement with Catholics and with Reformed theologians, which drew criticism from stricter Lutherans after Luther's death. A reformer of schools and universities across Protestant Germany, he was called the Teacher of Germany (Praeceptor Germaniae). He died in Wittenberg in 1560 and is buried beside Luther in the Castle Church. His Augsburg Confession remains the chief Lutheran statement of faith.

Philip Melanchthon is also an author in the library: author page and works.

Faith: Collaborator and friend of Martin Luther, whom he called his intellectual father in theology. Source: Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)

See also: Martin Luther