Philip Melanchthon
Philip Melanchthon[a] (born Philipp Schwartzerdt;[b] 16 February 1497 – 19 April 1560) was a German Lutheran reformer, collaborator with Martin Luther, the first systematic theologian of the Protestant Reformation, an intellectual leader of the Lutheran Reformation, and influential designer of educational systems.
"Melanchthon" redirects here. For the Indian Lutheran priest, see G. D. Melanchthon. For other uses, see Melancthon (disambiguation).
Philip Melanchthon
19 April 1560 (aged 63)
German
He stands next to Luther and John Calvin as a reformer, theologian, and shaper of Protestantism.[1]
Early life and education[edit]
He was born Philipp Schwartzerdt on 16 February 1497 at Bretten, where his father Georg Schwarzerdt (1459–1508) was armorer to Philip, Count Palatine of the Rhine.[2] His mother was Barbara Reuter (1476/77-1529). Bretten was burned in 1689 by French troops during the War of the Palatinate Succession. The town's Melanchthonhaus was built on the site of his place of birth in 1897.
In 1507 he was sent to the Latin school at Pforzheim, where the rector, Georg Simler of Wimpfen, introduced him to the Latin and Greek poets and to Aristotle. He was influenced by his great-uncle Johann Reuchlin, a Renaissance humanist, who suggested Philipp follow a custom common among humanists of the time and change his surname from "Schwartzerdt" (literally 'black earth'), into the Greek equivalent "Melanchthon" (Μελάγχθων).[3]
Philipp was 11 years old in 1508 when both his grandfather (d. 17 October) and father (d. 27 October) died within eleven days of each other.[4] He and a brother were brought to Pforzheim to live with his maternal grandmother, Elizabeth Reuter, sister of Reuchlin.[5]
The next year he entered the University of Heidelberg, where he studied philosophy, rhetoric, astronomy, and astrology, and became known as a scholar of Greek thought.[6] Denied the master's degree in 1512 on the grounds of his youth, he went to Tübingen, where he continued humanistic studies but also worked on jurisprudence, mathematics, and medicine.[7] While there, he was also taught the technical aspects of astrology by Johannes Stöffler.[8]
After gaining a master's degree in 1516, he began to study theology. Under the influence of Reuchlin, Erasmus, and others, he became convinced that true Christianity was something different from the scholastic theology taught at the university. He became a conventor (repentant) in the contubernium and instructed younger scholars. He also lectured on oratory, on Virgil and Livy.
His first publications included a number of poems in a collection edited by Jakob Wimpfeling (c. 1511),[9] the preface to Reuchlin's Epistolae clarorum virorum (1514), an edition of Terence (1516), and a book of Greek grammar (1518).
Controversies in the 1530s[edit]
Melanchthon played an important role in discussions concerning the Lord's Supper which began in 1531. He approved of Bucer's Wittenberg Concord and discussed the question with Bucer in Kassel in 1534. He worked for an agreement on this question, as his patristic studies and the Dialogue (1530) of Johannes Oecolampadius had made him doubt the correctness of Luther's doctrine.
Zwingli's death and the change of the political situation changed his earlier stance in regard to a union. Bucer did not go so far as to believe with Luther that the true body of Christ in the Lord's Supper is bitten by the teeth, but admitted the offering of the body and blood in the symbols of bread and wine. Melanchthon discussed Bucer's views with Luther's adherent, but Luther himself would not agree to a veiling of the dispute.Melanchthon's relationship with Luther was not changed by his mediation work, although for a time Luther suspected that Melanchthon was "almost of the opinion of Zwingli".[17]
During his time in Tübingen in 1536 Melanchthon was heavily criticised by Cordatus, preacher in Niemeck, as he had taught that works are necessary for salvation. In the second edition of his Loci (1535), he abandoned his earlier strict doctrine of determinism and instead taught what he called Synergism. He repudiated Cordatus' criticism in a letter to Luther and his other colleagues, stating that he had never departed from their common teachings on this subject and in the Antinomian Controversy of 1537 Melanchthon was in harmony with Luther.[17]
Views on the Virgin Mary[edit]
Melanchthon viewed any veneration of saints rather critically but he developed positive commentaries about Mary.
In his Annotations in Evangelia, he wrote a study on Luke 2:52, and discussed Mary's faith. He noted that "she kept all things in her heart" which to him was a call to the church to follow her example.[21][22] He believed that Mary was negligent when she lost her son in the temple, but she did not sin.[22] He also believed that Mary was conceived with original sin like every other human being, but she was spared the consequences of it. As such, he opposed the feast of the Immaculate Conception, which at the time, was not dogma, but was celebrated in several cities and had been approved at the Council of Basel in 1439.[23] He declared that the Immaculate Conception was an invention of monks.[21] He saw Mary as a representation (Typus) of the church and believed that in the Magnificat, Mary spoke for the whole church. Standing under the cross, Mary suffered like no other human being; as such, he believed that Christians have to unite with her under the cross, in order to become Christ-like.[21]
Views on natural philosophy[edit]
In lecturing on the Librorum de judiciis astrologicis of Ptolemy in 1535–1536, Melanchthon expressed to students his interest in Greek mathematics, astronomy and astrology. He considered that a purposeful God had reasons to exhibit comets and eclipses.[24] He was the first to print a paraphrased edition of Ptolemy's Tetrabiblos in Basel, 1554.[25] Natural philosophy, in his view, was directly linked to Providence, a point of view that was influential in curriculum change after the Protestant Reformation in Germany.[26] In the period 1536-1539 he was involved in three academic innovations: the refoundation of Wittenberg along Protestant lines, the reorganization at Tübingen, and the foundation of the University of Leipzig.[27]
