Philip Melanchthon
He was born Philipp Schwartzerdt on 16 February 1497, at Bretten where his father Georg Schwarzerdt was armorer to Philip, Count Palatine of the Rhine. His birthplace, along with almost the whole city of Bretten, was burned in 1689 by French troops during the War of the Palatinate Succession. The town's Melanchthonhaus was built on its site in 1897.
Body of Doctrine
It was a term first used by Philipp Melanchthon, a collection of whose confessional writings was published as the "Corpus Doctrinae Philippicum" or the "Corpus Doctrinae Misnicum". Melanchthon had conceived the notion of assembling his most important theological writings, along with the ecumenical creeds, into a single book called a "corpus doctrinae", or body of doctrine. The Leipzig printer, Ernst Vögelin, published it with Melanchthon’s preface around the time of the reformer’s death in April 1560.