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Philip Melanchthon

Philip Melanchthon

1497 CE–1560 CE · Bretten

Philip Melanchthon (1497–1560) was a German humanist scholar and theologian who became Martin Luther's closest intellectual collaborator and the principal systematizer of Lutheran doctrine. His Loci Communes of 1521 was the first comprehensive exposition of Lutheran theology and went through numerous revised editions throughout his life. He was the principal author of the Augsburg Confession (1530), the foundational confessional document of Lutheranism presented to Emperor Charles V. A prodigiously learned Hellenist who reorganized the German university curriculum, Melanchthon earned the title Praeceptor Germaniae ("Teacher of Germany") for his transformative influence on Protestant education.

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Stop 1 of 51497–1509Born

BrettenGermany

What they did here

Born on 16 February 1497 in Bretten, Baden, into a family with scholarly connections through his great-uncle Johann Reuchlin.

About Bretten

Bretten, a town in Baden, southwestern Germany. It was the birthplace of the reformer Philip Melanchthon (1497), Luther's close colleague and author of the Augsburg Confession.

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In the same place & time

Sages whose lives overlapped with Philip Melanchthon’s in the same cities, drawn from their recorded journeys.

In the same tradition

Martin Luther

The world in their lifetime

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