Philip Melanchthon (1497-1560), colleague and ally of Martin Luther, is well known for his educational reforms in Protestant lands. Melanchthon reformed traditional scholastic teachings of Aristotelian philosophy in the arts curriculum along Lutheran principles. For instance, the Lutheran distrust in human reason meant that a posteriori arguments were employed in Melanchthon's natural philosophy in order to prove that absolutely everything in this world was created by God. This, in turn, was to serve as the starting point of his moral philosophy, in which he argued that the specific purpose for which humans were created by God was that they obeyed civil governments. Melanchthon's students and followers similarly saw natural philosophy as serving a Christian purpose. Instead of marking a moment of separation between science and religion, Melanchthon's reforms meant that natural philosophy effectively served a Christian purpose.Kusukawa Sachiko. The natural philosophy of Melanchthon and his followers. In: Sciences et religions. De Copernic à Galilée (1540-1610) Actes du colloque international - Rome 12-14 décembre 1996. Rome : École Française de Rome, 1999. pp. 443-453. (Publications de l'École française de Rome, 260
