page_title: Philip Melanchthon
section_title: Professor at Wittenberg
hierarchical_section_title: Philip Melanchthon / Professor at Wittenberg
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Martin Luther, Philipp Melanchthon sowie Kreuzigungsdarstellung, historisches Gemälde in der Kreuzkirche in Bretten
context_page_description: Philip Melanchthon was a German Lutheran reformer, collaborator with Martin Luther, the first systematic theologian of the Protestant Reformation, intellectual leader of the Lutheran Reformation, and an influential designer of educational systems. He stands next to Luther and John Calvin as a reformer, theologian, and moulder of Protestantism.
  Melanchthon along with Luther denounced what they believed was the exaggerated cult of the saints, asserted justification by faith, and denounced what they considered to be the coercion of the conscience in the sacrament of penance, which they believed could not offer certainty of salvation. Both rejected the doctrine of transubstantiation, i.e. that the bread and wine of the eucharist are converted by the Holy Spirit into the flesh and blood of Christ; however, they affirmed that Christ's body and blood are present with the elements of bread and wine in the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. This Lutheran view of sacramental union contrasts with the understanding of the Roman Catholic Church that the bread and wine cease to be bread and wine at their consecration.
context_section_description: Opposed as a reformer at Tübingen, he accepted a call to the University of Wittenberg from Martin Luther on the recommendation of his great-uncle, and became professor of Greek there at the age of 21. He studied the Scriptures, especially of Paul, and Evangelical doctrine. Attending the disputation of Leipzig (1519) as a spectator, he nonetheless participated with his comments. After his views were attacked by Johann Eck, Melanchthon replied based on the authority of Scripture in his Defensio contra Johannem Eckium (Wittenberg, 1519).
  Following lectures on the Gospel of Matthew and the Epistle to the Romans, together with his investigations into Pauline doctrine, he was granted the degree of bachelor of theology, and transferred to the theological faculty. He married Katharina Krapp (Katharina article from the German Wikipedia), (1497–1557) daughter of Wittenberg's mayor, on 25 November 1520. They had four children: Anna (Anna article from the German Wikipedia), Philipp, Georg, and Magdalen.
caption: Melanchthon and Luther with Christ crucified in the middle
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