Melanchthon

Melanchthon (1497-1560), German scholar and religious reformer. Born Philipp Schwarzert in Bretten (now in Baden), he was educated at the universities of Heidelberg and Tübingen. When he entered Heidelberg at the age of 12, he changed his real surname on the advice of his uncle, the German humanist and Hebraist Johann Reuchlin, to Melanchthon (the Greek equivalent of his surname, meaning “black earth”). Through his uncle's influence he was elected (1518) to the chair of Greek at the University of Wittenberg; his inaugural address attracted the interest of Martin Luther, by whom he was so profoundly influenced that he turned to the study of theology and obtained a bachelor's degree in that field the following year. In 1521 his Loci Communes Rerum Theologicarum (Commonplaces of Theology) contributed logical, argumentative force to the Reformation, and after Luther's confinement in the castle of Wartburg the same year, he replaced Luther as leader of the Reformation cause at Wittenberg. In 1526 he became professor of theology and was sent with 27 other commissioners to make the constitutions of the reformed Churches of Germany uniform.

As leading representative of the Reformation at the Diet of Augsburg in 1530, Melanchthon presented the Augsburg Confession , consisting of 21 articles of faith that he had drawn up with Luther's advice. The tone of this creed was so conciliatory that it surprised even Catholics. His Apology, published a year later, vindicated the Confession, and his Variata (Variations, 1540) further modified the Confession by generalizing specific statements. Melanchthon served as a peacemaker because of his desire for harmony between Protestantism and Roman Catholicism or for at least a union of Protestant factions, but his views were regarded as heretical by strict Lutherans. The breach was widened by his willingness to compromise with the Catholics for the sake of avoiding civil war. He secured tolerance for evangelical doctrine; for a time he retained most of the Roman ceremonies as adiaphora (Greek, “things indifferent”), matters not of great consequence and therefore best tolerated. Melanchthon died praying “that the Churches might be of one mind in Christ”.