Philip Melanchthon

Philip Melanchthon (born Philipp Schwartzerdt; 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. He stands next to Luther and John Calvin as a reformer, theologian, and shaper of Protestantism. Melanchthon was born in Baden in 1497. He was educated at Heidelberg University and Tübingen University and later taught Greek language and Bible studies. He met Luther in 1518 and started a life-long collaboration with him. Luther, Melanchthon and many others worked to reform the Catholic Church, which ultimately led to the creation of the Protestant Church. He introduced many reforms in school and university education in Saxony which became a model for other countries. Melanchthon published the Loci communes in 1521 and the Augsburg Confession in 1530. After Luther died, he became the head of the Reformation in Germany until his own death in 1560. Melanchthon and Luther were committed to following Christ, but saw many problems within the Catholic Church. They denounced what they believed was the exaggerated cult of the saints and what they considered to be the coercion of the conscience in the sacrament of penance (confession and absolution). They believed this could not offer certainty of salvation; instead, they asserted justification by faith. Both rejected the doctrine of transubstantiation, i.e. that the bread and wine of the eucharist are converted by the Holy Spirit into the flesh and blood of Christ. However, they affirmed that Christ's body and blood are present with the elements of bread and wine in the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. This Lutheran view of sacramental union contrasts with the understanding of the Catholic Church that the bread and wine cease to be bread and wine at their consecration (while retaining the appearances of both). Melanchthon made his difference between the law and the gospel the core of Evangelical Lutheranism.