Melanchthon

There is a motto meticulously rendered on the lid of the portrait case: “Behold Melanchthon’s features, almost as if alive.”

In the same year as Ziegler’s book, there appeared at Wittenberg an edition of Sacrobosco with an introduction by the leading Lutheran theologian and educator, Melanchthon.

Luther and fellow reformer Philipp Melanchthon are buried inside just under the pulpits.

The saying is, in fact, a shoddy repackaging of a letter Martin Luther wrote to Philipp Melanchthon in the 16th century, but its meaning is nonetheless clear: don’t be lukewarm.

“Learning perished where Luther reigned,” said Erasmus, and in proof of it we find the Reformer agreeing with his coadjutor, Melanchthon, in permitting no tampering with the written Word.