1056. PHILIP MELANCHTHON (1497 - 1560) German professor and theologian, a key leader of the Lutheran Reformation, a friend and associate of Martin Luther and a father of the Lutheran Church. Melanchthon was the principal author of the Augsburg Confession, considered perhaps the most significant document of the Protestant Reformation and the primary confession of faith of the Lutheran Church. Melanchthon's importance for the Reformation lay essentially in the fact that he systematized Luther's ideas, defended them in public, and made them the basis of a religious education. Excessively rare A.D.S., 1p. 7" x 1 1/2", [n.p.], 1539, three lines in Latin boldly penned in black ink and signed "Philippus Melanchthon" within the text. Very light foxing, else near fine. Matted and framed. $4,000 - 5,000