This is Communio Sanctorum, the history of the Christian Church, season two.

This episode is titled 500 Years Part 4, Black Earth.

His family name was Black Earth, as in the rich, fertile soil around his

hometown. In German, it's Schwarzerd. His first name was Philip. He was born in February of 1497

at Breton in southwest Germany. His father was an armorer for an important German count. Though tiny for his age,

Philip was brilliant. It seemed that his body put all of its energy into the development of his

mind rather than his increasingly misshapen body. So at the age of only 10, he joined the scholars

at the school at Forgeim, where he learned Latin,

Greek, and was introduced to classical philosophy. When it became clear that Philip was something

of a prodigy, his well-known humanist uncle, Johann Ruslin, took a hand in his education as well.

It was he who suggested that the burgeoning young scholar follow the humanist

fashion of the time and translate his German last name of Schwarzert into the Greek Melanchthon.

When at the age of 11, both his father and grandfather died within a few days of each other,

Philip moved in with his maternal grandmother.

The next year, at the age of 12, he entered the University of Heidelberg, where he studied philosophy,

rhetoric, and astronomy. He quickly made his mark as a scholar in Greek, but was denied his master's degree for being too young. Shifting to the school at Tubingen, he continued his studies in law,

mathematics, and medicine. He was finally granted his master's, and when he turned 19, began the

study of theology. Under the influence of humanists like his uncle and Erasmus, Malenckin

became convinced that true Christianity was something very different

from the dry scholasticism of the academics. When his attempts at reform were opposed there in

Tubigen, he accepted a call from Martin Luther to teach in the university at Wittenberg. At the ripe old age of

21, he took on the role of professor of Greek. As he studied

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