1497–1560

Introduction

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Born: Feb­ru­ary 16, 1497, Bret­ten, Un­ter­pfalz (now Bad­en-Würt­tem­berg), Ger­ma­ny.

Died: Ap­ril 19, 1560, Wit­ten­berg, Ger­ma­ny.

Buried: Schloss­kirche, Wit­ten­berg, Ger­ma­ny.

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Biography

Philipp was the son of Ge­org Scharz­ert, ar­mor­er to Elect­or Phil­ipp of the Pa­la­ti­nate.

He at­tend­ed the La­tin school at Pforz­heim, al­rea­dy be­ing called, by Jo­hann Reuch­lin, Me­lanch­thon (the Greek form of Black Earth, his sur­name).

In Oc­to­ber 1509, he en­tered the Uni­ver­si­ty of Hei­del­berg (BA 1511), and on Sep­tem­ber 17, 1512, ma­tri­cu­lat­ed at Tüb­ing­en (MA 1514), where he stayed un­til 1518 as pri­vate lec­tur­er in the phi­lo­so­phy fa­cul­ty.

On Au­gust 29, 1518, he was ap­point­ed pro­fes­sor of Greek at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Wit­ten­berg, and in Ja­nu­ary 1526, Pro­fess­or of Theo­lo­gy.

Melanchthon is best known as one of the lead­ers of the Ger­man Re­for­ma­tion, as a theo­lo­gian, and the fram­er of the fa­mous Con­fess­ion pre­sent­ed to the Di­et of Augs­burg in 1530.

His po­ems and hymns were in La­tin, so he had lit­tle ap­pre­ci­able in­flu­ence on Ger­man lang­uage hym­no­dy.

Works

Sources

Lyrics