Terry Melancthon, Philip 1497–1560 religious reformer Philip Melancthon was a key Lutheran reformer.. He worked very closely with Martin Luther and was the author of many of the major Re
Trang 1Social History of the Ottoman Empire, 1300–1914
Cam-bridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994; Runciman, Steven
The Great Church in Captivity: A Study of the Patriarchate
of Constantinople from the Eve of the Turkish Conquest to
the Greek War of Independence Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1968
Janice J Terry
Melancthon, Philip
(1497–1560) religious reformer
Philip Melancthon was a key Lutheran reformer He
worked very closely with Martin Luther and was
the author of many of the major Reformation
docu-ments, including the Augsburg Confession Philip
Melancthon was born Philip Schwarzerd on February
16, 1547, in Bretten, Germany A brilliant boy, he was
tutored in Greek and Latin and entered the University
of Heidelberg just before his 13th birthday in 1509,
graduating at age 14 The university would not allow
him to study for his master’s at such a young age, so
Philip moved to Tübingen, studying both philosophy
and humanistic thought He completed his master’s
de-gree in 1514 at age 17 He was offered a position as an
instructor at Tübingen and taught there until 1518
During his time at Tübingen as an instructor,
Mel-ancthon began to study theology and continued his
studies of Greek, producing a Greek grammar in 1518
Offered a position at Wittenberg as a professor of Greek
in 1518, Melancthon eagerly accepted It was there he
met another professor, the monk Martin Luther, who
had posted his 95 Theses on October 31, 1517, on the
church door at Wittenberg Melancthon was an early
supporter of Luther, attending the debates that
preced-ed Luther’s excommunication from the Roman
Catho-lic Church By the time of his publishing a defense of
Luther against Johann Maier von Eck in 1519,
Mel-ancthon was considered a part of the Lutheran camp
AuGSBuRG CONFESSION
Melancthon was the primary author of the Augsburg
Confession, written in 1530 This is a key Reformation
document, explaining the Lutheran position on various
theological issues Written in Melancthon’s clear and
lucid style, it represented the Lutheran position in a
manner that many hoped would bring about
reconcilia-tion between the Lutherans and Roman Catholics
Mel-ancthon would prove always to take the more moderate
position in the various Reformation controversies
Melancthon worked closely with Luther on many
of Luther’s writings He assisted in Luther’s translation
of the Bible into German, revised many of Luther’s commentaries on the Bible, and assisted Luther in some of the Luther’s most important polemical works Yet Melancthon would not always agree with Luther
In 1537, at a meeting in Smalcald, Luther had previ-ously prepared what are commonly called the Smalcald Articles (a part of the Book of Concord), attacking the pope virulently Melancthon, writing his own “Treatise
on the Primacy and the Power of the Pope,” persuaded the others present to adopt his more moderate position Melancthon married Katharina Krapp, daughter of the mayor of Wittenberg, in 1520 They had four children and their marriage lasted 37 years until Katharina’s death in 1557 They lived in Wittenberg throughout their marriage
Melancthon had many roles at the University of Wittenberg He gave immensely popular lectures in over 100 courses to thousands of students (some of his most popular lectures had over 2,000 in attendance) His lectures included theology, philosophy, philology, and world history He served as rector and academic dean at various times, helping to establish the university
as a leading educational institution
Melancthon published many books His most
famous book, a systematic theology called the Loci communes, was first published in 1521 and revised
several times by Melancthon
Melancthon reached out to many church and pub-lic figures including Henry VIII, king of England; King Francis I of France; and the patriarch of Constantino-ple He also counted as friends many Calvinists, includ-ing Oecolampadius, Bucer, and John Calvin himself This would leave him open to later charges of being a crypto-Calvinist
The most tragic event in Melancthon’s life was his role in the document called the Leipzig Interim Soon after Luther’s death in 1546, Emperor Charles
V invaded the German area of Saxony and forced the defeated princes to adopt a document that was designed
to be an interim document until the theological mat-ters were settled by the Council of Trent, which had begun recently The authors of the document were two Roman Catholic bishops and Luther’s old nemesis, John Agricola The resulting document so favored Roman Catholicism that the defeated princes refused to sign
it Melancthon was asked to improve the document to make it more palatable This he did, but just barely The document compromised on justification by faith, a key Lutheran tenet, and Melancthon’s association with
4 Melancthon, Philip