Melanchthon, Philip

me-lank'thon, Philip (1497-1560), a German reformer. His original name was Schwarzerde, meaning black earth, which, by translation into Greek, becomes Melanchthon. He was educated at the University of Tubingen. He became professor of Greek at Wittenberg in 1518, and was a co-laborer of Luther. He had a prominent hand in drawing up the Augsburg Confession, the creed of the Lutheran churches. He took part in numerous conferences between the Catholics and the Lutherans. He was a man of scholarship and peace, ever reluctant to adopt extreme measures. As illustrative of the different temperaments of the two men, Luther and Melanchthon are said to have expounded the words, "He descended into Hell," quite differently. Melanchthon suggested that it was "to talk with Plato, Socrates, and the other wise ancients"; Luther boldly asserted that it was "to grapple in a hand-to-hand conflict with Satan himself."