§ 389. Melanchthon’s Training.
On the twenty-fifth day of August, 1518, ten months after the publication of Luther’s Theses, when he most needed a learned helper in his work, and two years before the papal excommunication, a modest but highly gifted youth arrived in Wittenberg, as professor of philosophy and Greek literature, who was predestinated to become the second leader of the Lutheran Reformation, and the “Teacher of Germany.” ἢ
Philip Melanchthon, or Melanthon,? was born of honest and pious parents, at Bretten in the Palatinate, Feb. 16, 1497, fourteen years after Luther, twelve years before Cal-
1 “ Preceptor Germanie.” Luther was the * Reformator Germanie.”’ This is the shortest expression of the difference of the two.
2 He spelled his name Melanchthon (from μέλαν and χθών), but after 1531 Melanthon, for the sake of brevity and euphony. Bretschneider and Bindseil have adopted the latter form; but the older is more usual, and preserves the etymology. His original name was Schwarzerd, i.e., Blackearth, which his grand-uncle Reuchlin changed, according to the literary fashion of the age, into the corresponding Greek. See Forstemann, Die Schwarzerde, oder Zusammenstellung der Nachrichten tiber Melanchthon’s Geschlecht, in the “‘Theol. Studien und Kritiken’’ for 1880, p. 119 sqq. D. Fr. Strauss conjectures that Mel.’s original name was not Schwarzerd, but Schwarzert or Schwarzer, i.e., Black, and has nothing to do with the earth, any more than kindred names derived from color, as Weissert, Grunert, Gelbert. (Gesammelte Schriften, ed. by Zeller, vol. ii. 8337, and Ulrich v. Hutten, p. 18.) But Reuchlin must have known better.
186 THE GERMAN REFORMATION. A.D. 1517 To 1530.
vin. In his theology, as in age, he stood a mediator between the two. His father was a skillful manufacturer of arms for the Elector Philip and the Emperor Maximilian I.; his mother a niece of the celebrated Hebraist Reuchlin, who presented him with a Bible, and directed his studies at Pforzheim, Heidelberg, and Tubingen.
He was one of those rare scholars who mature early, and yet continue their productive labors in undiminished vigor to old age. He mastered all the branches of knowledge, especially classical philology, and graduated as Master of Arts in Tibingen, Jan. 25, 1514, when only seventeen years of age. He wrote and spoke Greek and Latin better than his native German, and composed poetry in those languages. He began his public career in the University of Tubingen, as lecturer on ancient literature, and editor of the comedies of Terence (1516), and translator of Aratus, and Plutarch (1518). He made preparations for a correct edition of Aristotle, who had been “mutilated, barbarously translated, and become darker than the sibylline oracles,” though he never carried it out. In 1518 he published a Greek grammar, which passed through many editions.
Erasmus, the first scholar of his age, and best judge of literary merit, foresaw the future significance of this precocious youth, and paid him, in 1516, a glowing tribute of admiration for eminence in the classics, acumen in demonstration, purity and elegance of style, rare learning and comprehensive reading, tenderness and refinement.! Melanchthon wrote
1 In his Com. on Thessal. (Annotat. in N. Test., Basel, 1515, p. 555): “6 At Deum immortalem, quam non spem de se preebet admodum etiam adolescens ac pene puer Philippus ille Melanchthon, utraque literatura pene ex equo suspiciendus [not suscipiendus]! Quod inventionis acumen! . Que sermonis puritas [et elegantia]! Quanta reconditarum rerum memoria! Quam varia lectio! Quam verecundice regiewque prorsus indolis festivitas!” Erasmus dates the preface of these Annotationes from 1515, but they were not published till 1516, together with the first edition of his Greek Testament. In the second ed. of the Annot., Bas. 1520, and in the ed. of 1522, as well as in vol. vii. of his Opera, Bas. 1540, the eulogy on Melanchthon is
§ 39. MELANCHTHON’S TRAINING. 187
a eulogy on Erasmus in Greek verse (September, 1516), and never forgot his eminent services to classical and biblical studies. A modern Catholic historian, notwithstanding his doctrinal objections, calls Melanchthon “the most brilliant phenomenon which proceeded from the Erasmian school, equal to his master Erasmus in many respects, superior to him in others. Riches of knowledge, the choicest classical culture, facility of expression, versatility of composition, rhetorical fullness and improvisation, united to untiring industry, —this rare combination of excellences fitted him above all others for the literary leadership of the mighty movement.” 3
Melanchthon embraced theology in his encyclopedic studies, without having the priesthood in view, but was rather repelled by the dry scholasticism which then prevailed in Tubingen. He quietly and naturally grew into his theological position, without violent changes and struggles like those of Luther. His experience was that of John rather - than of Paul. He had received a pious training at home; he delighted in public worship, the lives of saints, and especially in the careful study of the Bible, which accompanied him even on his walks. His eyes were opened to the abuses in the Church, and the need of reform. His classical tastes and his intimacy with Reuchlin, the noble champion of Hebrew learning against monkish ignorance and obscurantism, predisposed him in favor of the evangelical movement which had broken out at Wittenberg a few months before he left Tubingen.
omitted. (I examined these various editions in the Royal Library of Berlin, July, 1886, to verify conflicting and inaccurate statements of historians.) In a letter to Melanchthon, April 22, 1519, Erasmus shows a little sensitiveness, but still professes great admiration for him, and hopes that he may more than fulfill that most favorable expectation which Germany had formed of his genius and piety. ‘‘ Corp Ref.,’’ I. 16 sq.; comp. Mel.’s letter to Erasmus, ibid. fol. 59 sq. 1 Dr. Déllinger, Die Reformation (1846), vol. i. 849,