Philipp Melanchthon
- Lived
- 1497–1560
- Era
- Reformation
- Where
- Wittenberg, Saxony
- Tradition
- Lutheran
The Augsburg Confession
A prodigy of Greek scholarship, professor at Wittenberg at twenty-one, and the temperamental opposite of Luther — conciliatory where Luther was combative, and the one sent to negotiate.
Why it matters
He wrote the Augsburg Confession of 1530, the first Protestant confession and still the Lutheran standard, and the Loci Communes, the first systematic Protestant theology. His willingness to compromise on the eucharist and on free will made him suspect to hardliners after Luther's death and set off decades of Lutheran infighting. He also reorganised German schooling so thoroughly that he is called the teacher of Germany.
In the record
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1517 AD Reform
The Reformation begins
Wrote the Augsburg Confession that stated its case
All the figures, from the apostolic age to the present, or the timeline they stand in.