German theologian and educator Philip Melanchthon, who had assumed the leadership of the reform movement after Luther's death in 1546, has bowed too easily to compromise in the interest of peace and has become embroiled in dogmatic controversies with the staunch Lutheran party.

He dies on April 19, 1560, at the age of sixty-three.

The only care that had occupied him until his last moment was the desolate condition of the Church.

The immediate cause of death was a severe cold which he had contracted on a journey to Leipzig in March, 1560, followed by a fever that had consumed his strength, weakened by many sufferings.

His body is laid beside Luther's in the Schlosskirche in Wittenberg.