Philipp Melanchthon

Philipp Melanchthon (1497 to 1560), born Philipp Schwartzerdt at Bretten, was a German scholar and Lutheran reformer who worked beside Martin Luther and is remembered as an influential designer of educational systems. He studied at Heidelberg and Tübingen under the influence of Johann Reuchlin and Erasmus, and in 1518 became professor of Greek at the University of Wittenberg at the age of 21. His school and university manuals were quickly introduced into schools and kept their place for more than a century, and he wrote many treatises on education and learning. He held that a classical education served moral and religious formation, and his work earned him the title teacher of Germany.