Melanchthon, Philipp
Melanchthon, Philipp
German theologian, ally of Martin Luther, and early leader of the Protestant Reformation in Germany. Born in the town of Bretten in the Palatine, Melanchthon studied the Latin and Greek classics and, at the age of thirteen, was admitted to the University of Heidelberg. Too young to earn a degree, he moved to the University of Tubingen in 1512, and took up the study of philosophy, astrology, and mathematics. He became a lecturer in rhetoric and poetry. He became a professor of Greek at the University of Wittenberg, where he inspired a large following and won the friendship of Martin Luther. He defended Luther's challenge to the Catholic hierarchy, at the risk of his own life, and helped to write the Augsburg Confession, which Luther presented at the Diet of Augsburg in 1530.