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GÁBOR ITTZÉS
RENEWAL (1523-1526)
The programme of renewal was outlined in Melanchthon’s 1523 oration com¬
monly known as Encomium eloquentiae,** which inaugurated what we might
call the third phase of reform. When he became Rector the following winter
semester, he quickly moved to put the proposal into practice and issued a new
order of study.” Matriculating students were to present themselves to the Rec¬
tor, who would assign them an advisor. It was the latter’s task to prescribe
a course of study for each student as seemed to fit him best. To replace the
practice of philosophical disputations, which he thought otherwise not useless
but which was now fallen by the wayside, Melanchthon instituted fortnightly
declamations to be delivered, in turn, by the professors of rhetoric and gram¬
mar, on the one hand, and the students, under the professors’ guidance, on the
other. This arrangement provided a unique opportunity for exercise. Disputa¬
tions also survived, however, in a renewed form. Their subject matter was from
now on not metaphysics but the natural sciences, mathematics and physics.
Professors of those subjects were also enjoined to offer monthly disputations.
Last but not least, Melanchthon emphasised the importance of eloquence and
the necessity of learning to speak well.
The material shift codified by Melanchthon’s reform, replacing logic with
rhetoric — that is, speculation with philology —, neatly embodies the contrast
between outgoing scholasticism and the new theology of the Reformation.
Melanchthon’s study plan was geared towards the training of public speakers
for the preaching ministry. It took about two years to introduce fully the new
programme,” but it proved a great success in the service of evangelical preach¬
ing and confessional debates. Melanchthon himself wrote hundreds of eloquent
speeches for academic and other occasions, many of which were delivered by
his friends and students rather than by himself.‘
MELANCHTHON, Philip, Praise of Eloquence, in S. Kusukawa — C. F. Salazar (eds.), Orations
on Philosophy and Education, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1999, 60-78.
5° UBW 1:128-130 (No. 131). On the university reforms of the 1520s, see also DINGEL, Irene,
Luther und Wittenberg, in A. Beutel (ed.), Luther-Handbuch, Tübingen, Mohr Siebeck, 2005,
168-178, here 170-171.
A proposal for the renewal of was made already in spring 1523 (UBW 1:124, No. 122), and two
rhetoricians were finally installed in 1525 (UBW 1:132-134, No. 139).
For a systematic catalogue of his speeches, see KOEHN, Horst, Philipp Melanchthons Reden:
Verzeichnis der im 16. Jahrhundert erschienenen Drucke, Archiv fiir Geschichte des Buchwesens
55 (1984) 1277-1496.
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