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

Protestant Reformer Philipp Melanchthon (1497-1560). | (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

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.

“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.”