Philipp Melancthon

Collaborator and friend of Luther, born at Bretten (in Unterpfalz, 
now Baden), 16 February, 1497; died at Wittenberg, 19 April, 1560. 

(1) His Rearing and Education 

Melancthon was of respectable and well-to-do parentage. His 
father, Georg Schwarzerd (Schwarzert) was a celebrated armourer, 
while his pious and intelligent mother was the daughter of Reuter, 
the burgomaster of Bretten. He received his first instruction at 
home from a private tutor, and in 1507 he went to Pforzheim, where 
he lived with his grandmother Elizabeth, sister of the great 
humanist, Johann Reuchlin. Here the rector, Georg Simler, made him 
acquainted with the Greek and Latin poets, and with the philosophy 
of Aristotle. But of greater influence still was his intercouirse 
with Reuchlin, his grand-uncle, who gave a strong impetus to his 
studies. It was Reuchlin also who persuaded him to translate his 
name Schwarzerd into the Greek Melancthon, (written Melanthon 
after 1531). In 1509 Melancthon, not yet 13 years of age, entered 
the University of Heidelberg. This institution had already passed 
its humanistic prime under Dalberg and Agricola (see HUMANISM). It 
is true that Pallas Spangel, Melancthon's eminent teacher, was 
also familiar with humanists and humanism, but he was nonetheless 
an able scholastic and adherent of Thomism. Melancthon studied 
rhetoric under Peter Gunther, and astronomy under Conrad 
Helvetius, a pupil of Caesarius. Meanwhile he continued eagerly 
his private studies, the reading of ancient poets and historians 
as well as of the neo-Latins, grammar, rhetoric, and dialectics. 
He obtained the baccalaureate in 1511, but his application for the 
master's degree in 1512 was rejected because of his youth. He