Philipp Melanchthon

Melanchthon, Philipp (1497–1560), German scholar and humanist, second to Luther in initiating and leading the Protestant Reformation in Germany. His Loci communes rerum theologicarum (1521), a systematic statement of Lutheran beliefs, was the first great Protestant work on religious doctrine; and his Augsburg Confession (1530) was one of the principal statements of faith in the Lutheran Church.

See also: Reformation.