Philipp Schwartzerdt (literally "black earth", Hellenized Melanchthon) was born in Bretten, a city in the German Palatinate, on February 16, 1497. In Melanchthon, the Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth century had one of its most prominent protagonists. A close collaborator of Martin Luther, he knew how to integrate the humanist tradition, in which he was formed and cultivated, into his thought with the new evangelical theology born in Wittenberg, which he creatively assimilated and helped to develop. Melanchthon had a remarkable influence on the ordering of evangelical ecclesial life. At the same time, he made substantial contributions in various fields of knowledge, first and foremost in education, which earned him the call of the "teacher of Germany".