This week in Christian history: Protestant Reformer born, Italian sect gets legal rights; Billy Graham dies

By Michael Gryboski, Mainline Church Editor Sunday, February 16, 2020

Philipp Melanchthon born – Feb. 16, 1497

This week marks the anniversary of when notable Protestant Reformation leader Philipp Melanchthon was born in Bretten, Palatinate, located in modern Germany.

A friend of Martin Luther, Melanchthon was the principle author of the Augsburg Confession, an important and influential statement of faith for the Lutheran Church.

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“Melanchthon's importance for the Reformation lay essentially in the fact that he systematized Luther's ideas, defended them in public, and made them the basis of a religious education,” stated the Christian Classics Ethereal Library at Calvin College.

“Beside Luther's heroism of faith, Melanchthon's many sidedness and calmness, his temperance and love of peace, had a share in the success of the movement.”