Albrecht Dürer famously declared that even his expert hand could not flesh out the mind of Melanchthon. In many ways Melanchthon’s thought has remained similarly elusive to modern scholars. The protégé of Johannes Reuchlin, whose precocious talents in the humanities much impressed Erasmus, seems by pedigree and training to embody the classicizing concerns and values of a humanist. Indeed, his influential educational reforms of schools and universities (for which he earned the title Praeceptor Germaniae, 'teacher of Germany') were firmly based on the study of the classical languages, rhetoric, and dialectic. As a colleague and ally of Luther, he also elucidated Reformation principles in the Loci communes, conducted church visitations and diplomatic missions, and composed the public declaration of Lutheran doctrine, the Augsburg Confession. Despite his mild and irenic demeanour, he openly supported capital punishment of heretics such as the Anabaptists and Michael Servetus. He could also be a fierce and devastating polemicist, leading Erasmus to exclaim that he was 'more Lutheran than Luther himself'. And yet, that was precisely what Melanchthon’s erstwhile pupils and colleagues disputed in the last years of his life - for the 'gnesio-Lutherans' such as Nikolaus von Amsdorf and Matthias Flacius Illyricus, Melanchthon was no follower of Luther.