Ozment, Steven E. The Age of Reform: 1250-1550 : An Intellectual and Religious History of Late Medieval and Reformation Europe. New Haven, Conn. ; London: Yale University Press, 1980. Kindle Electronic Edition.
Chapter 8, “Humanism and the Reformation” pp. 290-317. Part 3, “Protestantism and Humanist Educational Reforms” pp. 309-317.
Ozment reminds us that Luther, in his studies at Erfurt, was at “the most humanistically progressive German university at the time” (Ozment 1980, 309). The early Protestants tended to accept some humanist reforms and play them against the Scholastics. “Luther had been exposed to a humanism that encouraged the study of ancient languages, especially Greek, and criticized scholastic theology on the basis of the Bible and the writings of the church fathers” (Ozment 1980, 309). Luther was familiar with, though not accepting of, the great works of Scholastics. Wittenberg University made attempts to address all the major philosophies of its time.
After 1518 Melanchthon, having joined the faculty, continued efforts to broaden studies of source texts and improve standards. Greek, mathematics, sacred studies, rhetoric and dialectic were studied with increasing vigor (Ozment 1980, 311). By Melanchthon’s middle age, he was well known as an educational reformer (Ozment 1980, 314).
[William] “Bowsma believed that Renaissance rhetoric, conceived broadly as the union of virtue, wisdom, and the art of persuasion, was the ideal behind Reformation preaching and stress on the Word of God” (Ozment 1980, 314). Yet there were differences between the Reformers and the humanists. “While the reformers set the humanist curriculum in place of the scholastic, doctrine was always the rider and humanities the horse” (Ozment 1980, 315). Ozment also observes that the conservative Protestants generally did not allow humanist ethics to make moral judgments on their doctrine (Ozment 1980, 315).