Oldal 31 [31]
THE UNIVERSITY OF THE REFORMATION
In 1526, Melanchthon penned a new ordinance for the Faculty of Arts.” It is
the completion of his work begun three years before. Great emphasis is placed
on a graded system of study. No higher learning is possible without proper
grounding. College education is divided into three levels, with their sequence
to be strictly observed. The first, primarily situated in the context of the peda¬
gogium, has the acquisition of a solid command of Latin for its goal. It may lead
to a BA. The second level (MA) covers the full range of knowledge available,
which Melanchthon refers to as the encyclopaedia, at a deeper level. Natural
sciences play an important, though by no means exclusive, role. Greek and, for
future theologians, Hebrew are also taught here. The pedagogical goal is con¬
cerned with personal and intellectual formation rather than sheer knowledge.
The third level serves the preparation for the higher faculties, each according
to its specific requirements. The transition between different levels is defined
more in terms of skills acquired than in terms of formal credit points gathered.
Melanchthon also names some authors and texts (e.g. Terence, Cicero, Virgil,
Erasmus, Proclus, Quintilian) who should serve as the content of teaching. The
curriculum is thus thoroughly modernised from that of 1507-1516.
The founder of Wittenberg University did not live to see these developments.
By the time Melanchthon wrote up this document, John the Steadfast (1468,
1525-1532) had succeeded his elder brother Frederick as Elector of Saxony.
A few months after his accession, the Elector introduced financial reforms
at the university." Faculty received significant pay raises,°* with professors of
languages (in line with the trend we have observed before) receiving the highest
remuneration (Table 12). Melanchthon’s salary was doubled to 200 guilders a
year, something of a stellar payment. He was also made a university reformer,
a high standing administrative official. Luther, hitherto unpaid as a monk but
now newly wed, henceforth received similar compensation. They were also es¬
tablished as distinguished university professors (as they would be called today),
with the freedom to choose whatever they wanted to lecture on. All this was
financed by the secularisation of the All Saints’ endowment. The Collegiate
Church’s community once numbered 81, but now there were barely more than
15 members left. Incomes had fallen into arrears, but their reorganisation for
the purposes of the university provided much of the necessary funds.
© UBW 1:146-147 (No. 148).
® UBW 1:132-145 (Nos. 139-147).
64 Previous incumbents of now obsolete scholastic positions such as Jakob Premsel and, appar¬
ently, Johann Reuber, or frail emeritus professors such as Thomas Eschaus, were given amodest
stipend of 20 to 30 guilders each (UBW 1:136, No. 139, and 1:43, No. 145).
The raise was apparently a token of appreciation of his personal merit; the chair itself contin¬
ued to be subsidised with 100 guilders.
65
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