Melanchthon's Role in the Reformation of the University of Tübingen

Abstract

When Ulrich, Duke of Württemberg, regained his ducal throne in May of 1534, he immediately took steps to institute the Reformation in Württmberg. Probably because of his own divided loyalties, he asked both Lutherans and Swiss-Reformed Protestants to come to Württemberg. From the outset, however, their mutual opposition, combined with determined Roman Catholic resistance in some areas, led to difficulties beyond Ulrich's expectations. The ducal commissioners for the Reformation in the southern half of Württemberg was Ambrosius Blarer, the reformer of Constance and a firm ally of both Martin Bucer and Zurich. Part of his responsibility was the University of Tübingen, a center of particularly strong Roman Catholic opposition to the Reformation. Blarer appealed to Duke Ulrich for assistance, asking for the Basel Greek scholar Simon Grynaeus, another Swiss partisan. Ulrich, however, took far more dramatic steps to reform the University of Tübingen. Under instructions from Ulrich, Chancellor Knoder and Erhard Schnepff, Blarer's counterpart in northern Württemberg, wrote to Philip Melanchthon, requesting that he return to his homeland to teach in the University of Tübingen, his alma mater.

:Rebirth, Reform and Resilience: Universities in Transition 1300-1700

“…These physical treatises were roughly contemporaneous with the logical treatises, and some of them are, in fact, a blend of the two worlds within the arts curricu lum. It is difficult to say whether the exploration of these problems was a development of logic, as would be suggested by the structure and content of Heytesbury's Regulae solvendi sophismata (1335), 23 or whether the interests in the new physics determined the content and direction of logic. In any event, what we find by 1335 is a logic particularly suited to the analysis of problems in physics and math ematics and a mathematical physics that depends heavily upon language analysis.…”

“…The Bishop of Lincoln, in whose diocese both Oxford and Stam ford lay, was himself a university graduate, although it is doubtful he had studied at Oxford. 23 The Queen had apparently already shown interest in the university; in their letter to her, the masters of Oxford refer to "de grantz biens et honneurs qe vus avez sovent fet a vostre petite Universite de Oxenford." 24 Both were asked to assist the university against the Stamford rebels.…”

“…The struggle originated over the Lutheran Formula of Concord and in particular the Condemnamus portion of the docu ment, according to which subscribers condemned all opinions con trary to orthodox Lutheranism. 23 In March 1578 Johann Pappus, a member of the theological faculty who was to become Marbach's successor as president of the Company of Pastors, published and defended certain theses on whether in principle the church could condemn false teachings without contravening the law of love. Upon hearing of it, Sturm charged Pappus with failing to secure the required approval from the Dean of the Academy two weeks before publishing and defending his theses.…”

“…However, this task is nearly impossible in so far as it concerns the secular clergy, unless a miracle happens and God Almighty himself inter venes." 23 What rings of despair in a general reformation is belief in a reform pars pro toto for the whole corpus christianum by the Observ ant Mendicants, and what seems to have bypassed the universities did not in fact do so. The old university professor is a member of the reformed Augustinians who emphasized in their Constitutiones the special importance of their studium generate in Erfurt and Wit tenberg.…”

“…Basel was reformed in 1532, and in the fall of 1536 Melan chthon introduced university reform to Tubingen. 23 That prolific second generation reformer Joachim Camerarius drew up the new statutes for the university arts faculty. This same Camerarius in 1543 completed the reform of the University of Leipzig begun in 1539 after the principality of Luther's old enemy Duke George of Saxony had turned evangelical.…”