CONCORDIA THEOLOGICAL MONTHLY VOL. XXXI Melallchthon as Educator and Humanist CARL S. MEYER Melanchthon the Confessor ARTHUR CARL PIEPKORN The International StudentTest of a Living Church WILLIAM J. DANKER Brief Studies Homiletics Theological Observer Book Review September 1960 ARCHIVES No.9 Melanchthon as Educator and Humanist M ELANCHTHON, it seems, lacked a sense of humor. Tactful, careful, intent on weighing the pros and cons of each question, working all day even on Sunday, grubbing and grinding, this was Melanchthon according to Martin Luther,1 who had ample opportunity to observe his friend and colleague. These were his candid observations; some were made in admiration. Melanchthon sounds to us like a prissy scholar intent on teaching, research, and publication. Yet he has been hailed as praeceptor Germaniae, and in recognition of the 400th anniversary of his birth (Feb. 16, 1897) a monograph was published, Philipp Melanchthon, Deutschlands Lehrer.2 Can we speak of Melanchthon as humanist and educator? He was both. His humanism, moreover, conditioned his educational theories. As humanist he perpetuated "the medieval ideal of true religion rooted in sound learning." 3 1 E. Harris Harbison, The Christian Scholar in the Age of the Ref01·mation (New York: Charles Schribner's Sons, 1956), pp. 115, 116, with references to TR, WA, IV, nos. 4577, 4907, 5054, 5091, 5124. 2 Ferdinand Cohrs, Philipp Melanchthon, Deutschlands Lehrer (Halle: Verein fur Reformationsgeschichte, 1897). Karl Hartfelder, Philipp Melanchthon as Praeceptor Germaniae (Berlin, 1889). Hill regards Melanchthon as "one of the greatest religious geniuses in the history of the Christian Church since the days of St. Augustine." Charles 1. Hill, The Loci Communes of Philip Melanchthon. (Boston: Meador Publishing Co., 1944), p. 32. 3 The phrase, not applied to Melanchthon, is borrowed from May McKisack, The Fourteenth Century, 1307-99, Vol. IV in The Oxford History of England, ed. Sir. George By CARL S. MEYER Melanchthon is par excellence the evangelical, Lutheran humanist, as Franz Lau calls him, whose humanistic influence pervades Lutheranism to the present day.4 Bainton calls humanism "a wanderer between the camps" 5 of Romanism and Lutheranism. Perhaps it should be regarded as a bond between Romanists and Lutherans and between Calvinists and Lutherans, a common devotion to bonae literae. Melanchthon was the tie; his reputation was universal, equal to, if not greater than, that of Erasmus.6 Erasmus and Melanchthol1 remained close friends; Manschreck's judgment that Erasmus' controversy with Luther extinguished "the spark of friendship" between the two is too harsh, although the earlier freedom between them was now gone.7 Clark (Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1959), p.507. 4 Franz Lau, Luther, Sammlung Goschen, Band ll87 (Berlin: Walter De Gruyter & Co., 1959), pp.20f. 5 Roland H. Bainton, The Reformation of the Sixteenth Century (Boston: The Beacon Press, 1952), p. 69. 6 Already in 1518 Reuchlin found only Erasmus surpassing the twenty-one year old Melanchthon. Corpus Reformatorum, ed. C. G. Bretschneider (I-Ialle, Saxony: C. A. Schwetscke and Son, 1834 ff.), I, 34, No. 17. Hereafter cited as C. R. 7 Clyde 1. Manschreck, Melanchthon, the Quiet Reformer (New York and Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1958), p. 121. Bainton, pp. 68 f., is correct in his position of the lasting ties between Erasmus and Melanchthon. See also Louis Bouyer, Erasmus and His Times (Westminster, Md.: The Newman Press, 1960), p.135. Melanchthon's letter to Erasmus, Sept. 30, 1524, is full of warmth. Preserved Smith and 534 MELANCHTHON AS EDUCATOR AND HUMANIST Erasmus in 1528 addressed Melanchthon as doctissimus et eruditissimus vir.s Guillaume Postel, altogether differing with Melanchthon on the papacy, tried very hard to reconcile his views with those of the Lutheran humanist.u Jacopo Sadoleto, humanist, papal secretary, bishop of Carpentras, and cardinal, wrote him, supposing that personal contact might be established for the reunion of Western Christendom.10 }.1elanchthon was held in high regard in England, in the England both of Henry VIII and of Edward VI, as humanist, scholar, educator, theologian. In the 1520s William Paget lectured on Melanchthon at Cambridge's Trinity Hall.11 It was at Cambridge in 1524, it is true, that Hugh Latimer, in partial fulfillment for the requirements for his B. D. degree, delivered an oration against Magister Philippus, or as he put it, ". . . when I should be made Charles M. Jacobs, eds., Luther's Correspondence and Other Contemporary Letters, 1521-30 (Philadelphia: Lutheran Publication Society, 1918), II, 253-255, ep. 637. In a letter to Joachim Camerarius, April 11, 1526, Melanchthon calls Erasmus a "viper" because of his bitter attack in the Hyperaspites. Ibid., II, 370, ep. 730. By Oct. 21, 1527, he was advising Luther not to use "bitter words" in his answer to Erasmus. Ibid., II, 415, ep. 775. 8 Otto Clemen, "Briefe aus der Reformationszeit," Zeitschrift fUr Kirchengeschichte, XXXI (1910),88, No.4. 9 William J. Bouwsma, Concordia Mundi: The Career and Thought of Guillaume Postel (1510-81), (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard Universiry Press, 1957), p. 177. 10 Bouyer, p. 218. Richard M. Douglas, lacopo Sadoleto, 1477-1547, Humanist and Reformer (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1959), pp. 117-123. 11 H. C. Porter, Reformation and Reaction in Tudor Cambridge (Cambridge: At the University Press, 1958), p. 84. bachelor of divinity, my whole oration went against Philip Melanc[h}thon and against his opinions." 12 By 1533, it can be noted, rumors were rife in the court circles -these were the days when Henry was dissolving his bonds with Rome and with Catherine of Aragon -that Philip Melanchthon had come to England,13 In fact, he had been seen by a friend of the Venetian ambassador -so the ambassador said.14 These rumors confirm, for the present purposes, the great reputation of the learned Lutheran in England. In the curriculum reorganization at Cambridge in 1535 by royal injunctions, both Aristotle and Me1anchthon were listed as prescribed authors (i. e., required read ing) .15 In the dispute at Cambridge regarding the proper pronunciation of Greek, Melanchthon and Reuchlin were cited in favor of the current Byzantine pronunciation.16 Roger Ascham, the English educator and humanist, in a letter to John Sturm, the humanist and educator of Strassburg, laments the death of 12 Sermons by Hug.h Latimer, ed. George Corrie for the Parker Society, (Cambridge: the University Press, 1844), p.334. 13 Span. Cal., IV ii (1531-33), no. 1043, p. 583; Yen. Cal., IV (1527-33), no. 846, pp. 376 f. 14 Yen. Cal., IV (1527-33), no. 858, p. 383. See also the letter of Chapuys to Charles V, Span. Cal., IV. ii (1531-33), no. 1053, p. 610. Both letters were written on Feb. 23, 1533; both reported that Melanchthon was in England. 15 Porter, p. 50. 16 Stephen Gardiner to Thomas Smith, Sept. 18, 1542, in Elizabeth M. Nugent, ed. The Thought and Culture of the English Renaissance: An Anthology of Tudor Prose, 1481 to 1555 (Cambridge: The Universiry Press, 1956), pp. 100-104; James A. Muller, Stephen Gardiner and the Tudor Reaction (London: SPCK, 1926), p. 122. MELANCHTHON AS EDUCATOR AND HUMANIST 535 the most learned MelanchthonP William Turner, another Englishman, speaks of him as one of the most erudite men and one of the best expositors of the Scriptures in all Europe.18 Thomas Cranmer addressed him as "most learned Melanc[h}thon." Melanchthon, he believed, had to be included in a gathering of "pious and learned men" or "wise and godly men" 19 (note the humanistic coupling of concepts), those "who excel others in erudition and judgment." ~ o Also to be included was John Calvin. Calvin, too, humanist and theologian, according to Theodore Beza in his "Life of Calvin," numbered Melanchthon with Martin r ter Martyr among his "dearest friends," 21 17 Roger Asch , Lundon, April 11) 15(,2) ':'.'.;,; ~ ; : : ; ... ,-:_,,";fjl'ui. Series, 1558-1602), ed. Hastings Robinson for the Parker Society (Cambridge: The University Press, 1845), p. 71, no. XXIX. 18 William Turner to Henry Bullinger, July 23, 1566, ibid., p. 125, no. LI. 19 Thomas Cranmer to Philip Melanchthon, Feb. 19, 1549, Original Letters Relative to the English Reformation, 1537-58, ed. Hastings Robinson for the Parker Society (Cambridge: The University Press, 1846), pp. 21, 22, no. XII. 20 Thomas Cranmer to Philip I\1clanchthon, March 27, 1552, ibid., p.26, no. XV. Miscellaneous U7ritings and Letters of Tbonzas Cranmer, ed. James Cox for the Parker Society (Cambridge: The University Press, 1846), pp. 433, 434, no. CCXCVIII. See also Thomas Cranmer to John Laski, July 4, 1548, ibid., pp. 420--422, no. CCLXXV; and Thomas Cranmer to John Calvin, March 20, 1552, ibid., pp. 431--433, no. CCXCVII. 21 John Calvin, Tracts and Treatises on the Re/0i1n,1tio1't of the Church) trans. Henry Beveridge and ed. Thomas F. Torrance (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1958), I, lxxxviii. See Calvin's emotional outbreak in his treatise "Clear Explanation and Sound Doctrine concerning the True Partaking of the Flesh and Blood of Christ in the Holy Supper in order to I have stressed this aspect of Me1anchthon as a "bridge" between Lutherans and Romanists and between Lutherans and Reformed because Christian humanism had an ethical and an esthetic content rather than an exclusively theological one. Mason, in a survey of English humanism, remarks: The Humanists' duty was rather to remind people like himself of what the demands of faith and reason were: namely, to condemn if not to remedy the social abuses of Christianity in Christendom: to promote a longing for a better order: to prevent oblivion of the standards: to keep continuity with the primitive teaching of the early Church.n Christian humanism involves more than studia huma1zitatis et Ziterm'um to use Cicero's phrase that p o e t r ~ / J paint! [.&.6, and ' V v ~ , ; . ~ , ; . ~ o ~ ~ n r n ~ 7 brought unto" -to employ a clause of Machiavelli -or a crass imitation of the Greeks and Romans. It includes a return to the sources, ad fontes.23 Erasmus, the dissipate the mists of Tileman Heshusius," John Calvin, Tracts and Tl'eatises on the Doctrine 0/ Worship of the Church, trans. Henry Beveridge and ed. Thomas F. Torrance (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Will. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1958), II, 489 f.: "0 PHILIP MELANCHTHON! for I appeal to thee who art living in the presence of beatific rest: Thou hast said a hundred times, when, weary with labour and oppressed with sadness, thou didst lay thy head familiarly on my bosom, Would, would that I could die on this bosom! Since then, I have wished a thousand times that it had been our lot to be together! Certainly, thou hadst been readier to maintain contests, and stronger to despise obloquy, and set at nought false acCllsation." 22 H. A. Mason, Humanism and Poetry in the Early Tudor Period: An Essay (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1959), p. 126. 23 Johan Huizinga, "The Problem of the Renaissance," i'v.fen an.d Idea'S: History, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance (New York: Meridian Books, Inc., 1959), p.246. 536 MELANCHTHON AS EDUCATOR AND HUMANIST prince of the Christian humanists, said: "My whole purpose in life has always been twofold: to stimulate others to cultivate bonae literae and to bring the study of bonae literae into harmony with theology." 24 Juan Vives, in the preface of his De disciplinis, has one of the best expositions of the task of the Christian humanist. A training in Greek and Latin, a knowledge of classical authorities purged of impiety and illumined with Christian "daylight," a pursuit of rational inquiry, these -the Christian frame of reference seemed self-evident -were his goals.25 A Ratio discendi by Philip Melanchthon of 1522 recommended the study of the humanities under religious auspices; the languages, he said, were necessary for the Gospel.26 Melanchthon was in full agreement with Sir (or Saint) Thomas More, that belles-lettres taught in good schools made for the complete person and made for the Almost without exception the older humanists remained in the Roman Catholic Church; the younger humanists became followers of Luther. The ad fontes appeal was recognized by them in Luther's sola Scriptura. Von Bernd Moeller, "Die deutschen Humanisten und die Anfange der Reformation," Zeitschrift fUr Reformationsgeschichte, LXX (1959), 46-61. 24 Quoted by Mason, p.88, from ep. 1581. See Luther's concern for faith and morals, literature and learning, in his letter to Melanchthon, Oct. 11, 1518. Preserved Smith, ed., Lu.ther's Correspondence and OtiJe'r CO'i'J,tetrtporary Letters, 1507-21 (Philadelphia: Lutheran Publication Society, 1913), I, 118, ep. 84. 25 Quoted by Mason, pp. 258-261. 26 Karl Hartfelder, "Dber Melanchthons Ratio discendi," Zeitschrift fiir Kirchengeschichte, XII (July 24, 1891), 562-566. For the earlier concepts see Erich Koenig, "Studia humanitatis und verwandte Ausdriicke bei den deutschen Friihhumanisten," in 1. Fischer, Beitriige ZUf" Geschichte der Renaissance und Reformation (Munich and Freising: E. P. Dat· terer & Cie., 1917), pp. 202-207. civilized state.27 He, therefore, congratulated students of theology (in the preface to Luther's Operationes in psalmos in 1519) on the scholarship of that day, a day in which Erasmus, Reuchlin, Capito, Oecolampadius, and Carlstadt were luminaries. He asked them to bring pure minds to it, that is, to lay aside "all human prejudices; in short, to read Christ's book under Christ's guidance." 28 With the ethical and esthetic appreciation of good letters, Melanchthon combined a keen appreciation of art, at least to judge from his comments on Durer's works.29 Letters and grammar and rhetoric and Aristotle for the sake of the Gospel-this sums up the educational philosophy of Philip Melanchthon, humanist and educator. He wrote a refutation of Pico della Mirandola's argument that philosophy is superior to rhetoric, arguing that wisdom must be transmitted, not merely contemplated.30 Wisdom is the revelation of God in the Word of God, that is, in the Incarnation and in the Scriptures. "For wisdom," Melanchthon continues, "is not only the Word of God revealed in the creation, in the salvation of man in the Church, but also the Law and the Gospel." This wisdom 27 Mason, p. 48. 28 Smith, ed., Luther's Correspondence, I, 173 f., ep. 138. 29 Huizinga, "Renaissance and Realism," Men and Ideas, pp. 302 f. 30 Quirinus Breen, "The Subordination of Philosophy to Rhetoric in Melanchthon," Archiv fUr Reformationsgescbichte, XLIII (1952) , 13-27. Most of the German humanists were Platonists. Wimpheling, Melanchthon, and a few others were the exceptions. Lewis W. Spitz, Conrad Celtis: The German Arch-Humanist (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1957), p.107. MELANCHTHON AS EDUCATOR AND HUMANIST 537 conforms to the wisdom and will of God.31 Sapientia ca-rnalis and sapientia rati01zis are not enough to insure man's well-being.B2 In an autographed inscription of a Bible (1542) Melanchthon emphasized: We should not regard this command as insignificant, to learn, read, and consider with great earnestness the Word of God revealed by the prophets and Apostles. For without this Word the human heart is full of blindness and falls miserably into the devil"s snare and error and sin. May God preserve us therefrom.s3 In a letter to the mayor and council of Halle in Saxony (1544) Melanchthon pleaded that the saLuies of s c h o o l t e a c h e r ~ be not reduced. Such a reduction would mean a downgrading of thc [caching profession, he said. All are obligated to support Christian instruction in --'1001 and church, especially the magistrates. The older generation is living for the sake of the younger generation. Its first concern must be to teach the youth correct doctrine and the knowledge of God, "dass die jugend zu rechter lahr und erkentnuss gottes aufgezogen werde." God, he argued, revealed His hidden will about Christ and the forgiveness of sins in a book, "dass soH 31 Eugene F. Rice, Jr., The Renaissance Idea of Wisdom (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1958), p.132, with reference to Melanchthon's Opera (1562), 11,886 f.; IV, 437, 439. 32 Rice, pp. 139f. 33 Otto Waltz, "Episwlae Reformatorum I," Zeitschrift IIW Kirchetzgeschichte, I (1877), 148, no. 26. Translated by this author. The original reads: "Dieses gebot sollen wir nit gering achten, gottes wort dutch die propheten und Aposteln geotfenbaret mit grossem ernst zu lernen, lesen, und betrachten. Denn one dises wort ist das menschlich hertz vall blintheit und fellt grewlich in des teuffels strick und Irthumb und sunde. Dafiir uns gott beware." man lesen, horen und lemen." The study of the Christian religion is eminently necessary. Not only universities but also grammar schools must be maintained; hence, to reduce the salaries of school teachers would harm the GospeP4 Luther had emphasized that the study of plants and animals and minerals and geography and history aided the understanding of the Bible. Melanchthon, Karl Holl reminds us, embodied this iilsight into the 'iYlittenberg Statutes and oriented the pretheological studies in the college of liberal arts toward this goal.35 Melanchrhon's greatest service to education came .in 1528. Only the year bdore, according to Pelikan, IVfela!lchthon had rethuled to his humunistic concerns.ss This .............. ~ ~ . J . . " ... ut, however, ~ 0 JU.VL "-{uite a c c u r a t e ~ for Melanchthon did not lose his humanism in the period between 152l and 1527, as Melanchthon's Latin preface to the translation of Luther's Weckruf of 1524 makes evident.37 However, the "Unterricht der Visitatorn an die pfarhern ym Kur-34 Karl Hartfelder, "Nachtrag zum Corpus Reformatorum," Zeitschrift lUi" ]Grche·ngeschichte, VII (May 5, 1885), 454-456, no. 7. 35 Karl Hall, The Cultural Significance of the Refo;'mation, trans. Karl and John H. Lichtblau (New York: Meridian Books, Inc., 1959), pp.l16[, 36 Jaroslav Pelikan, Prom Luther to Kierkegaard (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1950), pp. 29-3l. 37 James W. Richard, Philip Melachthon: The Protestant Preceptor of Germany (New aDd London: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1907), p. 130; E. G. Schwiebert, Luther and His Times: The Reformation from a New Perspective (Saim Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1950), p. 677; Manschreck, p.133. In 1524 and 1525 his Latin and Greek chrestomathies appeared. Hill, p. 42. 538 MELANCHTHON AS EDUCATOR AND HUMANIST furstenthum zu Sachssen" 38 is his greatest single contribution to education. In the plan for the organization of schools he proposed the establishment of schools to meet the needs of the church and the state. It is not enough for a preacher that he is able to speak German, he said. Whoever must teach others, must himself be well taught. Not material gain but the command of God should motivate parents to send their children to school. "Warumb thun wir Gott nicht die ehre, das wir vmb seines befehls willen lernen?" God has promised those priests who teach correctly ("die recht leren") that He will not farget them. Other vocations are richly rewarded by God. Because there are many abuses in the schools, Melanchthon said, he set forth these instructions. For one thing he would confine the instruction in the languages on this level to Latin -not German or Greek or Hebrew. Again, he said, the children ought not to be burdened with too many books. Thirdly, it is necessary to divide the children into divisions. The first divisioll-we shall use the English word "form" for "hauffen" instead of "class" or "grade" -has as its function 38 Robert Stupperich, ed., Melanchthons W erke i 1 ~ Auswahl (Giitersloh: C. Bertelsmann Verlag, 1951), I, 215-271; see especially pp.265-271. Hans Lietzmann, ed., De.,. Unterricht der Visitatoren, 1528 (Bonn: A. Marcus & E. Webers Verlag, 1912), pp.42 to 47 especially. Richard Laurence, ed., The Visitation of the Saxon Reformed Church in the Years 1527 and 1528 (Dublin: R. Milliken, 1839), pp.136-144. C. R., XXVI, 90-95. For a discussion of Melanchthon's articles see especially Cohrs, pp. 49-55; Richards, pp. 134 to 136; Manschreck, pp. 13 7-143; Ernst C. Helmreich, Religious Education in German Schools: An Historical Approach (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1959), pp. 13-15. to teach the children to read. They should learn to read their reading manuals, the alphabet, the Prayer of our Lord, the Creed, and other prayers. Donatus, the standard grammar for centuries, is to be the chief textbook. Cato is to be expounded daily, a verse or two a day, so that the children acquire a vocabulary. Slow learners should go through Donatus and Cato twice. Besides learning to read, the children are also to learn to write. They should also learn to sing. Above all they must acquire an ample Latin vocabulary. The second form-or division-was devoted to grammar. The fables of Aesop, the Paedologia of Mosellanus,39 the colloquies of Erasmus, Terence, and Plautus ("etliche fabulas Plauti die rein sind") were required reading. The function of this form was to teach grammar. "Es soHen auch die kinder solche regulas grammatice auswendig auff sagen, das sie gedrungen und getrieben werden die Grammatica wol zu lernen." What about religion? Some teachers, Melanchthon complained, taught nothing out of the Scriptures; some taught nothing but the Scriptures. The pupils must learn the foundations of a Christian and pious life. The Prayer of our Lord, the Creed, and the Decalog should be recited regularly. The schoolmaster should explain them carefully to the boys in this form. He should also teach them some of the psalms, easy psalms (in Latin, of course) in which are contained summaries of the Christian life, in other words, those that teach about the fear of God, faith, and good works. Ps. llI, Ps.34, Ps.I28, Ps.I2S, Ps.I27, 39 The Paedologia of the Leipzig humanist Peter Schade (Mosellanus) was a popular book of Latin exercises; it was published in 1518. See Stupperich, ed., I, 268 n. MELANCHTHON AS EDUCATOR AND HUMANIST 539 Ps. 133, are listed. The Gospel According to St. Matthew, the two letters of Paul to Timothy, the First Epistle of St. John, and the Proverbs of Solomon should be taught, but not Isaiah, Romans, the Gospel According to St. John, or other difficult books of the Bible. Melanchthon spelled out the curriculum. The details of the course of study, however, down to a listing of the textbooks, should not obscure the philosophy of Christian humanism that was basic to Melanchthon's educational program. Melanchthon did not even shrink from the details of school management. These details -the administrative mind is concerned about class schedules -are illustrative, however, not only of the day-by-day routine of the second form but also of the philosophy of Christian humanism in action. Not all the details will be noted. Noteworthy, however, is the fact that an hour was set aside on five days a week for a divine service, and on five days a week an hour was devoted to music. The Holy Gospel for the coming day was studied on each Saturday morning. The school day began at 5: 30 A. M. during the summer and ended at 4:00 P.M.; during the winter the day began at 6:30 A.M. No classes were held on Wednesday afternoons; they were held on Saturday afternoons.4o The third form -the boys in this form were subject to the same rigorous routine -continued the study of etymology, syntax, and prosody taught in the second form. To this were added the writing of Latin verse ("Metricam"), dialectic, and rhetoric. Vergil, Ovid, and Cicero were required reading in this form. The boys in the third 40 Cohrs, p.55, drew up the schedule in table form. form were required, too, to speak Latin; the teachers, too, so far as possible, were to do all of their instructing in Latin -I take it that the "so viel miiglich" means in so far as it is possible for the students to follow the Latin and not in so far as the teachers were able to use the Latin. This does not tell the complete story of Melanchthon as humanist and educator. It does not tell about the textbooks he wrote and edited. Let me give only one example here. The English humanist, Thomas Linacre, wrote his De emendata structura Latini sermonis in 1524. The book gives the rules of Latin grammar and illustrates each rule, usually with a quotation from Cicero. Melanchthon edited one of the eight editions of this work that was printed on the Continent, an edition published in 1531.41 We are told of Melanchthon: He wrote textbooks on Latin and Greek Grammar, Dialectic, Rhetoric, Psychology, Physics, Ethics, History, and Religion. From 1518 to 1544 his Greek Grammar passed through seventeen editions, and from 1545 to 1622, twenty-six editions were published. Fifty-one editions of his Latin Grammar were published from 1525 to 17 3 7, and to the year 17 3 7 it was used in all the Saxon schools. His Elements of Rhetoric and Dialectic passed through numerous editions and reprints. Several of his textbooks were long used in Roman Catholic 5choo15.42 Again this does not tell of the corre· spondence that he had with the humanists and teachers of his day and, what is even 41 Nugent, ed., p. 109. 42 Richards, p. 136. See C. R., XX, for rescripts of his Greek and Latin grammar, rhetoric, historical and geographical writings. Volumes XVI to XIX con· tain his introductions and notes to classical authors he treated during his university career. 540 MELANCHTHON AS EDUCATOR AND HUMANIST more significant, of the correspondence he had with magistrates and officials of 50 or more towns regarding their schools. Constantly he urged the necessity of promoting learning, studia literarum.43 His life calling was to teach. God had appointed him to instruct the youth, therefore he is not meddling, he said, when he writes to the council of Halle, for instance, about school matters.44 His recommendations of candi-' dates for various openings in the schools of Germany were in terms of their fitness for the position, their learning, and their piety.45 Also here Melanchthon was the Christian humanist and educator. He delivered various orations or declamations on educational topics. In 1517 at Tuebingen he orated De artibus liberalibtts.46 On Aug. 29, 1518, his inaugural address at Wittenberg dealt with De corrigendis adolescentiae studiis.47 In 1520 he unburdened himself of an Adhortio (ul christianae doctrinae, per Paulum proditae, studium,48 and in the following year De 43 E. g., Melanchthon to the Council of Reval, Wittenberg, Aug. 8, 1532. Otto Waltz, "Epistolae Reformatorurn I," Zeitschrift fur Kirchengeschichte, I (July 1, 1877), 136, no. 15. 44 So in a letter to the mayor and council of Halle in Saxony, Wittenberg, May 6, 1544. See n. 34 above. 45 E. g., the recommendation of Friedrich Duelbaum von Wuerzburg, Wittenberg, Oct. 21, 1545. Kari Hartfelder, "Nachtrag zum Corpus Reformatorum," Zeitschrift /fir Kirchengaschichte, VII (May 5, 1885), 458, 459, no. 10. 46 C. R., XI, 5-14, no. l. 47 C. R., XI, 15-24, no. 2. 48 C. R" XI, 34-41, No.4, studiis theologicis.49 An Encomium eloquentiae 50 in 1523, an Oratio in laudem n(jvae scholae in Nuernberg 51 in 1526, an Oratio de miseriis paedagogorum,52 his De dialectica 53 of 1528, and especially his De studiis adolescentum54 [l529?}, all ought to be included in the present study. The variety of the topics he treated can be seen from the following titles: De ordine discendi (1531) ,55 De gradibus in thealogia (1533) ,56 De studio linguarum (1533) ,57 De laude vitae scholasticae (1536) ,58 De dignitate studio rum theo-10 gicorum (1537) ,59 De utilitate studiorum eloquentiae (1538) ,60 and De restituendis scho/is (1540) .61 There are others, but these make a list that is impressive enough, Whatever his failings may have been as a theologian, or as a teacher (his lack of a sense of humor, for instance), or as a humanist, Melanchthon deserves our tribute in this 400th anniversary year of his death as the pre-eminent humanist and educator of the 16th century. 49 C. R., XI, 41-50, no. 5. 50 C. R., XI, 50-66, no. 6. 51 C. R., XI, 106-111, no. 12. 52 C. R., XI, 122-150, no. 15. 53 C. R., XI, /59-163, no. 19. 54 C. R., XI, 182-191, no. 22. 55 C. R., XI, 210-214, no. 26. 56 C. R., XI, 227-231, no. 50. 57 C. R., XI, 231-239, no. 5l. 58 C. R., XI, 298-306, no.4l. 59 C. R., XI, 324-329, no. 44. 60 C. R., XI, 364-373, no. 50. 61 C. R., XI, 489-495, flO. (i2. St. Louis, Mo.