Philipp Melanchthon

Philipp Melanchthon (1497–1560) was a German humanist and theologian, the closest collaborator of Martin Luther. A great-nephew of the scholar Johann Reuchlin, he became professor of Greek at Wittenberg at twenty-one and wrote the Loci Communes, the first systematic statement of Lutheran theology. In 1530 he drew up the Augsburg Confession, the founding statement of faith of the Lutheran churches. Known as the Teacher of Germany, he reformed schools and universities, and his conciliatory approach to disputes with Catholics and other Protestants made him both respected and controversial.