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THE UNIVERSITY OF THE REFORMATION
classical languages (Latin, Greek, and Hebrew) to incoming students. Ihe other
two professorships, again in Greek and Hebrew, were, with God’s help, to be
filled soon (Table 9). This emphasis on languages is a clear indication of Hu¬
manist influence. To the Greek chair a young Tiibingen scholar by the name
of Philip Melanchthon was invited in the summer, who arrived with a reform
programme, boldly announced in his inaugural speech.” It took a few more
years before those proposals could be implemented, and the intervening time
left its mark on the project.
Table 9 New Humanist professorships in the Faculty of Arts (1518)
App. Chair Text (Author) Funding
11 Logic Aristotle (new translation) Elector
16 & 13 Physics and metaphysics Aristotle (new translation) Elector
21 & 18 Zoology and Rhetoric Aristotle and Quintilian Elector
7 Greek [Language and literature] Elector
8 Hebrew [Language and literature] Elector
15 Elementary Latin/Greek/Hebrew [Language] Elector
15 Elementary Latin/Greek/Hebrew [Language] Elector
What we see here is an addition of new faculty positions to the already extant
pool and, hence, an enrichment of the course offerings in the spirit of Human¬
ism.** What we do not see is a cancellation of the conventional late medieval
teaching material or a change in the examination system. The formal require¬
ments remained scholastic. That was not for a lack of initiative, but institutional
change needs time. There was pressure mounting both from professors, under
Luther’s leadership, and students to do away with requirements that were in¬
creasingly felt outdated and detrimental to the study of theology.*® Yet we know
that scholastic courses continued unbroken into the early 1520s as did the
conferral of degrees.*° Heinz Scheible identified this first stage of reform of the
13 KEEN, Ralph (trans.), On Correcting the Studies of Youth’ in A Melanchthon Reader, New York
etc., Peter Lang, 1988, 47-57.
44 All of the chairs established in 1518 were filled by 1520 (UBW 1:99-100, No. 82).
15 Cf. WA Br 1:160, No. 66 (31 March 1518, to Staupitz); 1:174, No. 75 (18 May 1518); 1:196, No.
90 (2 Sep 1518); 1:262, No. 117 (9 Dec 1518); 1:325, No. 144 (7 Feb 1519, all four letters to
Spalatin), 1:349-350, No. 155 (23 Feb 1519, to Frederick the Wise); 1:359, No. 161 (13 March
1519, to Spalatin). Georg Spalatin (1484-1545), court chaplain and secretary to the Elector
since 1512 as wellas an early and influential supporter of Luther’s cause, was the key contact
person at the court for those pushing for university reform.
16 "This can be clearly documented from the sources (cf. e.g. UBW 1:89-118, Nos. 71-109), and
the reconstruction has been carefully done by KATHE, Philosophische Fakultät, 70-71 and
App., esp. Nos. 1, 3, 11, 13, 14), and SCHEIBLE, Aristoteles, 133-138. See also Table 10, below.
+ 23 +