Philipp Melanchthon

MELANCHTHON, Philipp. b. Bretten, near Karlsruhe, 16 February 1497; d. Wittenberg, 19 April 1560. His family name was Schwartzerdt, ‘black earth’, which was turned into its Greek form, ‘Melan-chthon’, probably when he was still at school (cf. the Latinizing of German names in this period such as Hofer/Hoffer into Paul Speratus*). He was educated at the Latin school at Pforzheim, followed by the Universities of Heidelberg (BA, 1512) and Tübingen (MA, 1514). After some years lecturing at Tübingen, he was appointed professor of Greek at Wittenberg (1518), and then professor of theology (1526). Melanchthon was in many ways the philosopher of the Reformation, a humanist like Erasmus, but...