§ 75. The Peasants’ War. 1523–1525.
§ 75. The Peasants’ War. 1523–1525.
I. Luther: Ermahnung zum Frieden auf die zwölf Artikel der Bauernschaft in Schwaben (1525); Wider die mörderischen und raüberischen Rotten der Bauern (1525); Ein Sendbrief von dem harten Büchlein wider die Bauern (1525). Walch, Vols. XVI. and XXI. Erl. ed., XXIV. 257–318. Melanchthon: Historic Thomae Münzers (1525), in Walch, XVI. 204 sqq. Cochlæus (Rom. Cath.), in his writings against Luther.
II. Histories of the Peasants’ War, by Sartorius (Geschichte des deutschen Bauernkriegs, Berlin, 1795); Wachsmuth (Leipzig. 1834); Oechsle (Heilbronn, 1830 anti 1844); Bensen (Erlangen, 1840); Zimmermann (Stuttgart, 1841, second edition 1856, 3 Vols.); Jörg (Freiburg, 1851); Schreiber (Freiburg, 1863–66, 3 vols.); Stern (Leipzig, 1868); Baumann (Tübingen, 1876–78); L. Fries, ed. by Schäffler and Henner (Würzburg, 1876, 1877); Hartfelder (Stuttgart, 1884).
III. Monographs on Thomas Münzer by Strobel (Leben, Schriften und Lehren Thomae Müntzers, Nürnberg and Altdorf, 1795); Gebser (1831); Streif (1835); Seidemann (Dresden, 1842); Leo (1856); Erbkam (in Herzog2, Vol. X. 365 sqq.).
IV. Ranke: II. 124–150. Janssen: II. 393–582. Häusser: ch. VII. Weber: Weltgesch., vol. X. 229–273 (second edition, 1886).
The ecclesiastical radicalism at
Wittenberg was the prelude of a more dangerous political and social radicalism,
which involved a large portion of Germany in confusion and blood. Both
movements had their roots in crying abuses; both received a strong impetus from
the Reformation, and pretended to carry out its principles to their legitimate
consequences; but both were ultra- and pseudo-Protestant, fanatical, and revolutionary.
Carlstadt and Münzer are the connecting links between the two movements, chiefly the latter. Carlstadt never went so far as Münzer, and afterwards retraced his steps. Their expulsion from Saxony extended their influence over Middle and Southern Germany.564
Condition of the Peasants.
The German peasants were the beasts of burden for society, and in no better condition than slaves. Work, work, work, without reward, was their daily lot, even Sunday hardly excepted. They were ground down by taxation, legal and illegal. The rapid increase of wealth, luxury, and pleasure, after the discovery of America, made their condition only worse. The knights and nobles screwed them more cruelly than before, that they might increase their revenues and means of indulgence.
The peasants formed, in self-protection, secret leagues among themselves: as the "Käsebröder" (Cheese-Brothers), in the Netherlands; and the "Bundschuh,"565 in South Germany. These leagues served the same purpose as the labor unions of mechanics in our days.
Long before the Reformation revolutionary outbreaks took place in various parts of Germany,—a.d. 1476, 1492, 1493, 1502, 1513, and especially in 1514, against the lawless tyranny of Duke Ulrich of Würtemberg. But these rebellions were put down by brute force, and ended in disastrous failure.566
In England a communistic insurrection of the peasants and villeins occurred in 1381, under the lead of Wat Tyler and John Balle, in connection with a misunderstanding of Wiclif’s doctrines.
The Reformation, with its attacks upon the papal tyranny, its proclamation of the supremacy of the Bible, of Christian freedom, and the general priesthood of the laity, gave fresh impulse and new direction to the rebellious disposition. Traveling preachers and fugitive tracts stirred up discontent. The peasants mistook spiritual liberty for carnal license. They appealed to the Bible and to Dr. Luther in support of their grievances. They looked exclusively at the democratic element in the New Testament, and turned it against the oppressive rule of the Romish hierarchy and the feudal aristocracy. They identified their cause with the restoration of pure Christianity.
Thomas Münzer.
Thomas Münzer, one of the Zwickau Prophets, and an eloquent demagogue, was the apostle and travelling evangelist of the social revolution, and a forerunner of modern socialism, communism, and anarchism. He presents a remarkable compound of the discordant elements of radicalism and mysticism. He was born at Stolberg in the Harz Mountain (1590); studied theology at Leipzig; embraced some of the doctrines of the Reformation, and preached them in the chief church at Zwickau; but carried them to excess, and was deposed.
After the failure of the revolution in Wittenberg, in which he took part, he labored as pastor at Altstädt (1523), for the realization of his wild ideas, in direct opposition to Luther, whom he hated worse than the Pope. Luther wrote against the "Satan of Altstädt." Münzer was removed, but continued his agitation in Mühlhausen, a free city in Thuringia, in Nürnberg, Basel, and again in Mühlhausen (1525).
He was at enmity with the whole existing order of society, and imagined himself the divinely inspired prophet of a new dispensation, a sort of communistic millennium, in which there should be no priests, no princes, no nobles, and no private property, but complete democratic equality. He inflamed the people in fiery harangues from the pulpit, and in printed tracts to open rebellion against their spiritual and secular rulers. He signed himself "Münzer with the hammer," and "with the sword of Gideon." He advised the killing of all the ungodly. They had no right to live. Christ brought the sword, not peace upon earth. "Look not," he said, "on the sorrow of the ungodly; let not your sword grow cold from blood; strike hard upon the anvil of Nimrod [the princes]; cast his tower to the ground, because the day is yours."
The Program of the Peasants.
At the beginning of the
uprising, the Swabian peasants issued a program of their demands, a sort of
political and religious creed, consisting of twelve articles.567
Professing to claim nothing inconsistent with Christianity as a religion of justice, peace, and charity, the peasants claim: 1. The right to elect their own pastors (conceded by Zwingli, but not by Luther). 2. Freedom from the small tithe (the great tithe of grain they were willing to pay). 3. The abolition of bond-service, since all men were redeemed by the blood of Christ (but they promised to obey the elected rulers ordained by God, in every thing reasonable and Christian). 4. Freedom to hunt and fish. 5. A share in the forests for domestic fuel. 6. Restriction of compulsory service. 7. Payment for extra labor above what the contract requires. 8. Reduction of rents. 9. Cessation of arbitrary punishments. 10. Restoration of the pastures and fields which have been taken from the communes. 11. Abolition of the right of heriot, by which widows and orphans are deprived of their inheritance. 12. All these demands shall be tested by Scripture; and if not found to agree with it, they are to be withdrawn.
These demands are moderate and reasonable, especially freedom from feudal oppression, and the primitive right to elect a pastor. Most of them have since been satisfied. Had they been granted in 1524, Germany might have been spared the calamity of bloodshed, and entered upon a career of prosperity. But the rulers and the peasants were alike blind to their best interests, and consulted their passion instead of reason. The peasants did not stick to their own program, split up in parties, and resorted to brutal violence against their masters. Another program appeared, which aimed at a democratic reconstruction of church and state in Germany. Had Charles V. not been taken up with foreign schemes, he might have utilized the commotion for the unification and consolidation of Germany in the interest of an imperial despotism and Romanism. But this would have been a still greater calamity than the division of Germany.
Progress of the Insurrection.
The insurrection broke out in
summer, 1524, in Swabia, on the Upper Danube, and the Upper Rhine along the
Swiss frontier, but not on the Swiss side, where the peasantry were free. In
1525 it extended gradually all over South-Western and Central Germany. The
rebels destroyed the palaces of the bishops, the castles of the nobility,
burned convents and libraries, and committed other outrages. Erasmus wrote to Polydore
Virgil, from Basel, in the autumn of 1525: "Every day there are bloody
conflicts between the nobles and the peasants, so near us that we can hear the
firing, and almost the groans of the wounded." In another letter he says:
"Every day priests are imprisoned, tortured, hanged, decapitated, or
burnt."
At first the revolution was successful. Princes, nobles, and cities were forced to submit to the peasants. If the middle classes, which were the chief supporters of Protestant doctrines, had taken sides with the peasants, they would have become irresistible.
But the leader of the Reformation threw the whole weight of his name against the revolution.
Luther advises a wholesale Suppression of the Rebellion.
The fate of the peasantry depended upon Luther. Himself the son of a peasant, he had, at first, considerable sympathy with their cause, and advocated the removal of their grievances; but he was always opposed to the use of force, except by the civil magistrate, to whom the sword was given by God for the punishment of evil-doers. He thought that revolution was wrong in itself, and contrary to Divine order; that it was the worst enemy of reformation, and increased the evil complained of. He trusted in the almighty power of preaching, teaching, and moral suasion. In the battle of words he allowed himself every license; but there he stopped. With the heroic courage of a warrior in the spiritual army of God, he combined the humble obedience of a monk to the civil authority.
He replied to the Twelve Articles of the Swabian peasants with an exhortation to peace (May, 1525). He admitted that most of them were just. He rebuked the princes and nobles, especially the bishops, for their oppression of the poor people and their hostility to the gospel, and urged them to grant some of the petitions, lest a fire should be kindled all over Germany which no one could extinguish. But he also warned the peasants against revolution, and reminded them of the duty of obedience to the ruling powers (Rom. 13:1), and of the passage, that "They that take the sword shall perish with the sword" (Matt. 26:52). He advised both parties to submit the quarrel to a committee of arbitration. But it was too late; he preached to deaf ears.
When the dark cloud of war rose up all over Germany, and obscured the pure light of the Reformation, Luther dipped his pen in blood, and burst out in a most violent manifesto "against the rapacious and murderous peasants." He charged them with doing the Devil’s work under pretence of the gospel.568 He called upon the magistrates to "stab, kill, and strangle" them like mad dogs. He who dies in defence of the government dies a blessed death, and is a true martyr before God. A pious Christian should rather suffer a hundred deaths than yield a hair of the demands of the peasants.569
So fierce were Luther’s words, that he had to defend himself in a public letter to the chancellor of Mansfeld (June or July, 1525). He did not, however, retract his position. "My little book," he said, "shall stand, though the whole world should stumble at it." He repeated the most offensive passages, even in stronger language, and declared that it was useless to reason with rebels, except by the fist and the sword.570
Cruel as this conduct appears to every friend of the poor peasants, it would he unjust to regard it as an accommodation, and to derive it from selfish considerations. It was his sincere conviction of duty to the magistrate in temporal matters, and to the cause of the Reformation which was threatened with destruction.
Defeat of the Rebellion.
The advice of the Reformer was only too well executed by the exasperated princes, both Protestant and Roman Catholic, who now made common cause against the common foe. The peasants, badly armed, poorly led, and divided among themselves, were utterly defeated by the troops of the Landgrave Philip of Hesse, Duke Henry of Brunswick, the Elector Jolin, and the Dukes George and John of Saxony. In the decisive battle at Frankenhausen, May 25, 1525, five thousand slain lay on the field and in the streets; three hundred were beheaded before the court-house. Münzer fled, but was taken prisoner, tortured, and executed. The peasants in South Germany, in the Alsace and Lorraine, met with the same defeat by the imperial troops and the forces of the electors of the Palatinate and Treves, and by treachery. In the castle of Zabern, in the Alsace (May 17), eighteen thousand peasants fell. In the Tyrol and Salzburg, the rebellion lasted longest, and was put down in part by arbitration.
The number of victims of war far exceeded a hundred thousand.571 The surviving rebels were beheaded or mutilated. Their widows and orphans were left destitute. Over a thousand castles and convents lay in ashes, hundreds of villages were burnt to the ground, the cattle killed, agricultural implements destroyed, and whole districts turned into a wilderness. "Never," said Luther, after the end of the war, "has the aspect of Germany been more deplorable than now."572
The Peasants’ War was a complete failure, and the victory of the princes an inglorious revenge. The reaction made their condition worse than ever. Very few masters had sufficient humanity and self-denial to loosen the reins. Most of them followed the maxim of Rehoboam: "My father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions" (1 Kings 12:14). The real grievances remained, and the prospect of a remedy was put off to an indefinite future.
The cause of the Reformation suffered irreparable injury, and was made responsible by the Romanists, and even by Erasmus, for all the horrors of the rebellion. The split of the nation was widened; the defeated peasantry in Roman Catholic districts were forced back into the old church; quiet citizens lost their interest in politics and social reform; every attempt in that direction was frowned down with suspicion. Luther had once for all committed himself against every kind of revolution, and in favor of passive obedience to the civil rulers who gladly accepted it, and appealed again and again to Rom. 13:1, as the popes to Matt. 16:18, as if they contained the whole Scripture-teaching on obedience to authority. Melanchthon and Bucer fully agreed with Luther on this point; and the Lutheran Church has ever since been strictly conservative in politics, and indifferent to the progress of civil liberty. It is only in the nineteenth century that serfdom has been entirely abolished in Germany and Russia, and negro slavery in America.
The defeat of the Peasants’ War marks the end of the destructive tendencies of the Reformation, and the beginning of the construction of a new church on the ruins of the old.
De Wette, I. 588.
De Wette, I. 589, 600.
See his letter to Spalatin, May 14, in De Wette, II. 6.
On my last visit, July 31, 1886, I saw only scratches and disfigurements on the wall where the ink-spot was formerly pointed out. "No old reporter," says Köstlin, I. 472 sq., "knows any thing about the spot of the inkstand on the wall; the story arose probably from a spot of a different sort." Semler saw such an ink-spot at Coburg. The legend, however, embodies a true idea.
In Goethe’s Faust, Mephistopheles appears in the disguise of a poodle, the canis infernus, and is conjured by the sign of a cross:
"Bist du, Geselle,
Ein Flüchtling der Hölle?
So sieh diess Zeichen,
Dem sie sich beugen
Die schwarzen Schaaren ."
"Verachtung kann der stolze hoffährtige Geist nicht leiden."Tischreden. (LX. 75. Erl.-Frkf. ed.)
In the alphabetical index of the Erlangen-Frankfurt edition of Luther’s German Works, the title Teufel fills no less than ten closely printed pages (vol. LXVII. 243-253). His Table-Talk on the Devil occupies about 150 pages in vols. LIX. and LX. It is instructive and interesting to read it through. Michelet devotes a whole chapter to this subject (pp. 219-234). For a systematic view, see Köstlin, Luther’s Theologie, vol. II. 313 sq.; 351 sqq.
"Der Teufel ist ein trauriger Geist," he says in his Table-Talk (LX. 60), "und macht traurige Leute; darum kann er Fröhlichkeit nicht leiden. Daher kommt’s auch, dass er von der Musica aufs Weiteste fleuget; er bleibt nicht, wenn man singt, sonderlich geistliche Lieder. Also linderte David mit seiner Harfen dem Saul seine Anfechtung, da ihn der Teufel plagte."
Ein Polter-und Rumpel-Geist.
"Solche Wechselbälge [or Wechselkinder, changelings] und Kielkröpfe supponit Satan in locum verorum filiorum, und plaget die Leute damit. Denn diese Gewalt hat der Satan, dass er die Kinder auswechselt und einem für sein Kind einen Teufel in die Wiegen legt." Erl. ed., LX. 41.
De Wette, II. 21 sq.
"Bibliam Graecam et Hebraicam lego." To Spalatin, May 14 (De Wette, II. 6).
See Preface to the St. Louis ed. of Walch, XI. (1882), p. 1 sqq., and Köstlin, I. 486-489.
Both letters in Walch, XIX. 656 sqq.; Luther’s letter in De Wette, II. 112-115. Comp. Köstlin, I. 485 sq. The usual opinion that Albrecht revived the traffic in indulgences at Halle seems at least doubtful, and is denied by Albrecht Wolters in his Easter Program, Hat Cardinal Albrecht von Mainz im J. 1521 den Tetzel’schen Ablasshandel erneuert? Bonn, 1877 (pp. 24). He concludes: "Somit war der ’Abgott,’ welchen Luther bekämpfte, nicht die Erneuerung des Tetzel’schen Ablasshandels, sondern die Wiederaufrichtung der in Sachsen theils erloschenen, theils erlöschenden alten Ablasslehre, welche der Cardinal durch Ausstellung seiner mit Ablass begnadigten Reliquien zur Hebung des neuen Stifts und in der Stiftskirche zu Halle im Jahr 1521 versucht hat."
The testimony of the great philosopher Hegel is worth quoting. He says in his Philosophie der Geschichte, p. 503: "Luther hat die Autorität der Kirche verworfen und an ihre Stelle die Bibel und das Zeugniss des menschlichen Geistes gesetzt. Dass nun die Bibel selbst die Grundlage der christlichen Kirche geworden ist, ist von der grössten Wichtigkeit; jeder soll sich nun selbst daraus belehren, jeder sein Gewissen daraus bestimmen können. Diess ist die ungeheure Veränderung im Principe: die ganze Tradition und das Gebäude der Kirche wird problematisch und das Princip der Autorität der Kirche umgestossen. Die Uebersetzung, welche Luther von der Bibel gemacht hat, ist von unschätzbarem Werthe für das deutsche Volk gewesen. Dieses hat dadurch ein Volksbuch erhalten, wie keine Nation der katholischen Welt ein solches hat; sie haben wohl eine Unzahl von Gebetbüchlein, aber kein Grundbuch zur Belehrung des Volks. Trotz dem hat man in neueren Zeiten Streit deshalb erhoben, ob es zweckmässig sei, dem Volke die Bibel indie Hand zu geben; die wenigen Nachtheile, die dieses hat, werden doch bei weitem von den ungeheuren Vortheilen überwogen; die äusserlichen Geschichten, die dem Herzen und Verstande anstössig sein können, weiss der religiöse Sinn sehr wohl zu unterscheiden, und sich an das Substantielle haltend überwindet er sie." Froude (Luther, p. 42) calls Luther’s translation of the Bible "the greatest of all the gifts he was able to offer to Germany."
Hence repeatedly published from the remaining fragmentary MSS. in Upsala (Codex Argenteus, so called from its silver binding), Wolfenbüttel and Milan, by H. C. von Gabelenz and J. Loebe (1836), Massmann (1857), Bernhardt (1875), Stamm (1878), Uppström (1854-1868, the most accurate edition), R. Müller and H. Hoeppe (1881), W. W. Skeat (1882). Comp. also Jos. Bosworth, The Gothic and Anglo-Saxon Gospels in Parallel Columns with the Versions of Wycliffe and Tyndale, London, 2d ed., 1874 (with a fac-simile of the Codex Argenteus).
By P. Philipp Klimesch (librarian of the convent), Der Codex Teplensis, enthaltend "Die Schrift des newen Gezeuges." Aelteste deutsche Handschrift, welche den im 15 Jahrh. gedruckten deutschen Bibeln zu Grunde gelegen. Augsburg and München, 1881-1884, in 3 parts. The Codex contains also homilies of St. Augustin and St. Chrysostom, and seven articles of faith. The last especially have induced Keller and Haupt to assign the translation to Waldensian origin. But these Addenda are not uncatholic, and at most would only prove Waldensian or Bohemian proprietorship of this particular copy, but not authorship of the translation. See Notes below, p. 353.
See Dr. M. Rachel’s Gymnasial program: Ueber die Freiberger Bibelhandschrift, nebst Beiträgen zur Gesch. der vorlutherischen Bibelübersetzung, Freiberg, 1886 (31 pages).
This apocryphal Epistle was also included in the Albigensian (Romance) version of the 13th century, in a Bohemian version, and in the early English Bibles, in two independent translations of the 14th or 15th century, but not in Wiclif’s Bible. See Forshall and Maddan, Wycliffite Versions of the Bible (1850), IV. 438 sq.; Anger, Ueber den Laodicenerbrief (Leipzig, 1843); and Lightfoot, Com. on Ep. to the Colossians (London, 1875), p. 363 sq. On the other hand, the same pseudo-Pauline Epistle appears in many MSS. and early editions of the Vulgate, and in the German versions of Eck and Dietenberger. It can therefore not be used as an argument for or against the Waldensian hypothesis of Keller.
Ninety-seven editions of the Vulgate were printed between 1450 and 1500,—28 in Italy (nearly all in Venice), 16 in Germany, 10 in Basel, 9 in France. See Fritzsche in Herzogii, vol. VIII. 450.
In the royal library of Munich there are 21 MSS. of German versions of the Gospels and Epistles. The Gospels for the year were printed about 25 times before 1518; the Psalter about 13 times before 1513. See besides the works of Panzer, Kehrein, Keller, Haupt, above quoted, Alzog, Die deutschen Plenarien im 15. und zu Anfang des 16. Jahrh., Freiburg-i-B., 1874.
Luther’s use of the older German version was formerly ignored or denied, but has been proved by Professor Krafft of Bonn (1883). He adds, however, very justly (l.c. p. 19): "Es gereicht Luther zum grössten Verdienst, dass er auf den griechischen Grundtext zurückgegangen, den deutschen Wortschatz zunächst im N. T. wesentlich berichtigt, dann aber auch mit seiner Genialität bedeutend vermehrt hat." See Notes below, p. 352.
"Ich kann," he says in his Tischreden, "weder griechisch noch ebraeisch, ich will aber dennoch einem Ebraeer und Griechen ziemlich begegnen. Aber die Sprachen machen für sich selbst keinen Theologen, sondern sind nur eine Hülfe. Denn soll einer von einem Dinge reden, so muss er die Sache [Sprache?] zuvor wissen und verstehen." Erl.-Frkf. ed., vol. LXII. 313.
Under the title: Das Newe Testament Deutzsch. Wittemberg. With wood-cuts by Lucas Cranach, one at the beginning of each book and twenty-one in the Apocalypse. The chapter division of the Latin Bible, dating from Hugo a St. Caro, was retained with some paragraph divisions; the versicular division was as yet unknown (Robert Stephanus first introduced it in his Latin edition, 1548, and in his Greek Testament of 1551). The order of the Epistles is changed, and the change remained in all subsequent editions. Some parallel passages and glosses are added on the margin. It contained many typographical errors, a very curious one in Gal. 5:6: "Die Liebe, die durch den Glauben thaetig ist," instead of "Der Glaube, der durch die Liebe thätig ist."
A copy of this rare edition, without the full-page Apocalyptic pictures, but with the error just noticed, is in the Union Seminary Library, New York. It has the famous preface with the fling at the "rechte stroern Epistel" of St. James, which was afterwards omitted or modified.
The woodcuts were also changed. The triple papal crown of the Babylonian woman in Rev. 17 gave place to a simple crown.
Fritzsche (l.c., p. 549): "Vom N. T. sind von 1522-1533 ziemlich sicher 16 original Ausgaben nachgewiesen ... Die Nachdrucke belaufen sich auf ungefähr 54, wobei Augsburg mit 14, Strassburg mit 13, und Basel mit 12 vertreten ist."
Under the title: Biblia, das ist die gantze Heilige Schrift, Deutsch. Auffs neu zugericht. D. Mart. Luther. Wittemberg. Durch Hans Lufft, M.D.XLV. fol. with numerous woodcuts. A copy in the Canstein Bibelanstalt at Halle. The Union Theol. Seminary in New York has a copy of the edition of 1535 which bears this title: Biblia das ist die /gantze Heilige /Schrifft Deutsch./ Mart. Luth./ Wittemberg./ Begnadet mit Kür-/ furstlicher zu Sachsen /freiheit. /Gedruckt durch Hans Lufft./ M. D. XXXV. The margin is ornamented. Then follows the imprimatur of the Elector John Frederick of Saxony, a preface of Luther to the O. T., and a rude picture of God, the globe and paradise with Adam and Eve among trees and animals.
Republished with the greatest care by Bindseil & Niemeyer. See Lit., p. 340.
See Note at the end of the next section.
De Actis et Scriptis M. Lutheri ad Ann. 1522. Gieseler (IV. 65 sq.) quotes the whole passage in Latin.
The last edition of Dr. Eck’s Bible appeared in 1558, at Ingolstadt, Bavaria.
Ed. of 1535: der.
Ed. of 1535: nicht.
Later eds.: eine … schelle.
He could say with perfect truth: "Ich habe meine Ehre nicht gemeint, auch keinen Heller dafür genomen, sondern habe es zu Ehren gethan den lieben Christen und zu Ehren einem, der droben sitzt."
"Interim Biblia transferam, quanquam onus susceperim supra vires. Video nunc, quid sit interpretari, et cur hactenus a nullo sit attentatum, qui proficeretur nomen suum. [This implies his knowledge of older German translations which are anonymous.] Vetus Testamentum non potero attingere, nisi vobis praesentibus et cooperantibus."
"Ach Gott! wie ein gross und verdriesslich Werk ist es, die hebräischen Schreiber zu zwingen deutsch zu reden; wie sträuben sie sich und wollen ihre hebräische Art gar nicht verlassen und dem groben Deutschen nachfolgen, gleich als wenn eine Nachtigall ... sollte ihre liebliche Melodei verlassen und dem Kukuk nachsingen." Walch, XVI. 508. Comp. his letter to Spalatin about the difficulties in Job, Feb. 23, 1524, in De Wette, II. 486.
Luther’s copy of the Hebrew Bible is preserved in the Royal Library at Berlin. The editio princeps of the whole Hebrew Bible appeared 1488 (Soncino: Abraham ben Chayin de’ Tintori). A copy in possession of Dr. Ginsburg in England. See Stevens, l.c. p. 60. Portions had been printed before.
A copy of the Lyons ed. of 1519, and one of the Basel ed. of 1509, now in possession of the Brandenburg Provincial Museum at Berlin. Grimm, Gesch. d. luther. Bibelübers., p. 8, note.
Lyra acquired by his Postillae perpetuae in V. et N. Test. (first published in Rome, 1472, in 5 vols. fol., again at Venice, 1540) the title Doctor planus et utilis. His influence on Luther is expressed in the well-known lines:—
"Si Lyra non lyrasset,
Lutherus non saltasset ."
Greek and Latin, 2 vols. folio. The first part contains Preface, Dedication to Pope Leo X., and the Ratio seu Compendium verae Theologiae per Erasmum Roterodamum (120 pages); the second part, the Greek Text, with a Latin version in parallel columns, with brief introductions to the several books (565 pages). At the end is a Latin letter of Frobenius, the publisher, dated "Nonis Fehr. Anno M.D.XIX." A copy in the Union Theol. Seminary, New York. - Some say that Luther made use of Gerbel’s reprint of Erasmus, 1521. But Dr. Reuss of Strassburg, who has the largest collection and best knowledge of Greek Testaments, denies this. Gesch. der h. Schriften des N. T., 5th ed., II. 211, note.
See Schaff, Companion to the Greek Testament, etc., New York, 3d ed., 1888, pp. 229 sqq., and the facsimile of the Erasmian ed. on p. 532 sq. Tyndale’s English version was likewise made from Erasmus.
O. von Gebhardt, in his Novum Test. Graece et Germanice, Preface, p. xvi., says of the second ed. of Erasmus: "Die Zahl der Druckfehler ist so gross, dass ein vollständiges Verzeichniss derselben Seiten füllen würde." Comp. Scrivener, Introd. to the Criticism of the N. T., 3d ed. (1883), p. 432 sq.
It first appeared in the Frankfort edition of Luther’s Bible, 1574. The revised Luther-Bible of 1883 strangely retains the passage, but in small type and in brackets, with the note that it was wanting in Luther’s editions. The Probebibel departs only in a few places from the Erasmian text as followed by Luther: viz., Acts 12:25; Heb. 10:34; 1 John 2:23; Rev. 11:2. In this respect the German revision is far behind the Anglo-American revision of 1881, which corrects the Textus Receptus In about five thousand places.
He says in his Tischreden (Erl. ed., vol. lxii. 313): "Ich habe keine gewisse, sonderliche eigene Sprache im Deutschen [i.e., no special dialect], sondern brauche der gemeinen deutschen Sprache, dass mich Oberländer und Niederländer verstehen mögen. Ich rede nach der sächsischen Canzelei, welcher nachfolgen alle Fürsten und Könige in Deutschland. Alle Beichstädte, Fürstenhöfe schreiben nach der sächsischen und unseres Fürsten Canzelei, darumb ists auch die gemeinste deutsche Sprache. Kaiser Maximilian und Kurfürst Friedrich, Herzog zu Sachsen, etc., haben im römischen Reich die deutschen Sprachen [dialects] also in eine gewisse Sprache gezogen." Formerly the Latin was the diplomatic language in Germany. Louis the Bavarian introduced the German in 1330. The founder of the diplomatic German of Saxony was Elector Ernst, the father of Elector Friedrich. See Wilibald Grimm, Gesch. der luth. Bibelübersetzung (Jena, 1884), p. 24 sqq.
The same word silverling occurs once in the English version, Isa. 7:23, and is retained in the R. V. of 1885. The German Probebibel retains it in this and other passages, as Gen. 20:16; Judg. 9:4, etc.
See Grimm, Luther’s Uebersetzung der Apocryphen, in the "Studien und Kritiken" for 1883, pp. 376-400. He judges that Luther’s version of Ecclesiasticus (Jesus Sirach) is by no means a faithful translation, but a model of a free and happy reproduction from a combination of the Greek and Latin texts.
"Luther’s Sprache," says Jakob Grimm, In the Preface to his German Grammar, "muss ihrer edeln, fast wunderbaren Reinheit, auch ihres gewaltigen Einflusses halber für Kern und Grundlage der neuhochdeutschen Sprachniedersetzung gehalten werden, wovon bis auf den heutigen Tag nur sehr unbedeutend, meistens zum Schaden der Kraft und des Ausdrucks, abgewichen wordenist. Man darf das Neuhochdeutsche in der That als den protestantischen Dialekt bezeichnen, dessen freiheitathmende Natur längst schon, ihnen unbewusst, Dichter und Schriftsteller des katholischen Glaubens überwältigte. Unsere Sprache ist nach dem unaufhaltsamen Laufe der Dinge in Lautverhältnissen und Formen gesunken; was aber ihren Geist und Leib genährt, verjüngt, was endlich Blüten neuer Poesie getrieben hat, verdanken wir keinem mehr als Luthern." Comp. Wetzel, Die Sprache Luthers in seiner Bibel, Stuttgart, 1850. Heinrich Rückert, Geschichte der neu-hochdeutschen Schriftsprache, II. 15-175. Opitz, Ueber die Sprache Luthers, Halle, 1869. Dietz, Wörterbuch zu Luther’s deutschen Schriften, Leipzig, 1870 sqq. Lehmann, Luthers Sprache in seiner Uebersetzung des N. T., Halle, 1873.
Annotationes des hochgel. und christl. doctors Hieronymi Emsers über Luthers neuw Testament, 1523. I have before me an edition of Freiburg-i.-B., 1535 (140 pages). Emser charges Luther with a thousand grammatical and fourteen hundred heretical errors. He suspects (p. 14) that he had before him "ein sonderlich Wickleffisch oder Hussisch Exemplar." He does not say whether he means a copy of the Latin Vulgate or the older German version. He finds (p. 17) four errors in Luther’s version of the Lord’s Prayer: 1, that he turned Vater unser into Unser Vater, against the German custom for a thousand years (but in his Shorter Catechism he retained the old form, and the Lutherans adhere to it to this day); 2, that he omitted der du bist; 3, that he changed the panis supersubstantialis (überselbständig Brot!) into panis quotidianus (täglich Brot); 4, that he added the doxology, which is not in the Vulgate. In our days, one of the chief objections against the English Revision is the omission of the doxology.
Das gantz New Testament: So durch den Hochgelerten L. Hieronymum Emser seligen verteutscht, unter des Durchlauchten Hochgebornen Fürsten und Herren Georgen Hertzogen zu Sachsen, etc., ausgegangen ist. Leipzig, 1528. The first edition appeared before Emser’s death, which occurred Nov. 8, 1527. I find in the Union Seminary four octavo copies of his N. T., dated Coln, 1528 (355 pp.), Leipzig, 1529 (416 pp.), Freiburg-i.-B. 1535 (406 pp.), Cöln, 1568 (879 pp.), and a copy of a fol. ed., Cologne, 1529 (227 pp.), all with illustrations and marginal notes against Luther. On the concluding page, it is stated that 607 errors of Luther’s are noted and corrected. The Cologne ed. of 1529 indicates, on the titlepage, that Luther arbitrarily changed the text according to the Hussite copy ("wie Martinus Luther dem rechten Text, dem huschischen Exemplar nach, seins gefallens ab und zugethan und verendert hab"). Most editions contain a Preface of Duke George of Saxony, in which he charges Luther with rebellion against all ecclesiastical and secular authority, and identifies him with the beast of the Apocalypse, Rev. 13 ("dass sein Mund wol genannt werden mag der Mund der Bestie von welcher Johannes schreibet in seiner Offenbarung am dreizehnten").
Dr. Döllinger, in his Reformation, vol. III. 139 sqq., 156 sqq., goes into an elaborate proof. In his Luther, eine Skizze (Freiburg-i. -B., 1851), p. 26, he calls Luther’s version "ein Meisterstück in sprachlicher Hinsicht, aber seinem Lehrbegriffe gemäss eingerichtet, und daher in vielen Stellen absichtlich unrichtig und sinnentstellend." So also Cardinal Hergenröther (Lehrbuch der allg. Kirchengesch., vol. III. 40, third ed. of 1886): "Die ganze Uebersetzung war ganz nach Luthers System zugerichtet, auf Verbreitung seiner Rechtfertigungslehre berechnet, oft durch willkührliche Entstellungen und Einschaltungen seinen Lehren angepasst."
By older and more recent Romanists, as Ward, Errata of the Protestant Bible, Dublin, 1810. Trench considers the main objections in his book on the Authorized Version and Revision, pp. 165 sqq. (in the Harper ed. of 1873). The chief passages objected to by Romanists are Heb. 13:4 (where the E. V. translates "Marriage is honorable in all" for "Let marriage be honorable among all"); 1 Cor. 11:27 ("and" for "or"); Gal. 5:6 ("faith which worketh by love;" which is correct according to the prevailing sense of ejnergei'sqai, and corresponds to the Vulgate operatur, against the Roman view of the passive sense, "wrought by love," in conformity with the doctrine of fides formata), and the rendering of eijdwlon by image, instead of idol. The E. V. has also been charged with a Calvinistic bias from its connection with Beza’s Greek text and Latin notes.
But he omitted allein in Gal. 2:16, where it might be just as well justified, and where the pre-Lutheran Bible reads "nur durch den Glauben." However correct in substance and as an inference, the insertion has no business in the text as a translation. See Meyer on Rom. 3:28, 5th ed., and Weiss, 6th ed. (1881), also my annotations to Lange on Romans (p. 136).
In his Sendbrief vom Dolmetschen, in the Erl.-Frkf. ed., vol. LXV., p. 107 sqq. It was published in September, 1530, with special reference to Emser, whom he does not name, but calls "the scribbler from Dresden" ("der dresdener Sudler").
The Revisers of the Probebibel retained the interpolated allein in Rom. 8:28, the nur in 4:15, and the incorrect rendering in 3:25,26,—a striking proof of Luther’s overpowering influence even over conscientious critical scholars in Germany. Dr. Grimm, the lexicographer (l.c., p. 48), unjustly censures Meyer and Stier for omitting the word allein. I have an old copy of Luther’s Testament, without titlepage, before me, where the word allein is printed in larger type with a marginal finger pointing to it.
The Prefaces are collected in the 7th volume of Bindseil’s edition of the Luther Bible, and in the 63d volume of the Erlangen ed. of Luther’s works. The most important is his preface to the Epistle to the Romans, and his most objectionable that to the Epistle of James.
He adds in the marginal note on Rev. 17: "Hie zeiget er die römische Kirche in ihrer Gestalt und Wesen, die verdammt soll werden." His friend Cranach, in the accompanying picture in the first ed., and also in the ed. of 1535, represents the harlot as riding on a dragon with a triple crown on her head.
Biblia beider Allt unnd Newen Testamenten, fleissig, treulich vn Christlich nach alter inn Christlicher Kirchen gehabter Translation, mit Ausslegung etlicher dunckeler ort und besserung vieler verrückter wort und sprüch ... Durch D. Johan Dietenberger, new verdeutscht. Gott zu ewiger ehre unnd wolfarth seiner heil. Christlichen Kirchen … Meynz, 1534, fol. From a copy in the Union Seminary (Van Ess library). Well printed and illustrated.
I have before me three copies of as many folio editions of Eck’s Bible, 1537, 1550, and 1558, bearing the title: Bibel Alt und New Testament, nach dem Text in der heiligen Kirchen gebraucht, durch Doctor Johan Ecken, mit fleiss, auf hochteutsch verdolmetscht, etc. They were printed at Ingolstadt, and agree in the number of pages (1035), and vary only in the date of publication. They contain in an appendix the Prayer of Manasseh, the Third Book of Maccabees, and the spurious Epistle of Paul to the Laodiceans.
There is an Italian proverb that translators are traitors (Traduttori traditori). Jerome speaks of versiones which are eversiones. As Trench says, there are in every translation "unavoidable losses inherent in the nature of the task, in the relations of one language to the other, in the lack of accurate correlations between them, in the different schemes of their construction."
Hence the stiffness of literalism and the abundance of Latinisms in the Rhemish Version of the N. T. (first published in 1582, second ed. 1600, third ed. at Douay, 1621), such as "supersubstantial bread" for daily or needful bread (Jerome introduced supersubstantialis for the difficult ejpiouvsio" in the Lord’s Prayer, Matt. 6:11, but retained quotidianus in Luke), transmigration of Babylon, impudicity, coinquinations, postulations, agnition, cogitation, prepuce, pasche, exinanite, contristate, domesticals, exemplars of the coelestials, etc. Some of them have been silently removed in modern editions. The notes of the older editions abound in fulminations against heretics.
Under the title: Loci communes rerum theologicarum seu hypotyposes theologicae, Wittenberg, 1521. Bindseil puts the publication in December. I have a copy of the Leipzig ed. of M.D.LIX., which numbers 858 pages without indices, and bears the title: Loci Praecipui Theologici. Nunc denuo cura et diligentia summa recogniti, multisque in locis copiose illustrati, cum appendice disputationis de conjugio, etc.
See his ethical writings in vol. XVI. of his Opera, in the "Corp. Reform.," and a discussion of their merits in Wuttke’s Handbuch der christl. Sittenlehre, 3d ed. (1874), I. 148 sqq.
See his letters to his friend Camerarius, 2 Sept. 1535 ("Corp. Ref." II. 936), and Dec. 24, 1535 (ib. II. 1027): "Ego nunc in meis Locis multa mitigavi." ... "In Locis meis videor habere deutevra" frontivda"." His letters are interspersed with Greek words and classical reminiscences.
Loc. Theol., 1521 A.7: "Quandoquidem omnia quae eveniunt, necessario juxta divinam praedestinationem eveniunt, nulla est voluntatis nostrae libertas." He refers to Rom. 9 and 11 and Matt. 10:29.
In his Com. in Ep. ad Roman., 1524, cap. 8: "Itaque sit haec certa sententia, a Deo fieri omnia tam bona quam mala ... Constat Deum omnia facere non permissive sed potenter,—ita ut sit ejus proprium opus Judae proditio, sicut Pauli vocatio." Luther published this commentary without Melanchthon’s knowledge, and humorously dedicated it to him.
Invictus libellus non solum immortalitate, sed quoque canone ecclesiastico dignus."In the beginning of De Servo Arbitrio (1525), against Erasmus.
He says in his Tischreden (Erl. ed., LIX. 278 sq.): "Wer itzt ein Theologus will werden, der hat grosse Vortheil. Denn erstlich hat er die Bibel, die ist nu so klar, dam er sie kann lesen ohne alle Hinderung. Darnach lese er darzu die locos communes Philippi; die lese er fleissig und wohl, also dass er sie gar im Kopfe habe. Wenn er die zwei Stücke hat, so ist er ein Theologus, dem weder der Teufel noch kein Ketzer etwas abbrechen kann, und ihm stehet die ganze Theologia offen, dass er Alles, was er will, darnach lesen kann ad aedificationem. Und wenn er will, so mag er auch dazu lesen Philippi Melanchthonis Commentarium in Epistolam Pauli ad Romanos. Lieset er alsdenn darzu meinen commentarium in Epistolam ad Galatas und in Deuteronomium, so gebe ich ihm denn eloquentiam et copiam verborum. Ihr findet kein Buch unter allen seinen Büchern, da die summa religionis oder die ganze Theologia so fein bei einander ist, als in den locis communibus. Leset alle Patres und Sententiarios, so ist es doch Alles nichts dagegen. Non est melior liber post scripturam sanctam, quam ipsius loci communes. Philippus ist enger gespannet denn ich; ille pugnat et docet; ich bin mehr ein Rhetoricus oder ein Wäscher [Deutscher?]"
Eck’s Loci Communes adversus Lutheranos, Landshut, 1525, passed through many editions.
Melanchthon was simply professor, first of Greek, then of theology. Calvin was destined by his father for the clerical profession, and he received the tonsure; but there is no record of his ordination for the priesthood.
Kampschulte, l.c., II. 117 sqq., gives a full account of this Pfaffenstum and its consequences.
See his letters to Melanchthon and Spalatin, in De Wette, II. 7sq., 31. To the latter he wrote: "Erfordiae Satanas suis studiis nobis insidiatus est, ut nostros mala fama inureret, sed nihil proficiet: non sunt nostri, qui haec faciunt."
Letter to Lange, March 28, 1522, in De Wette, II. 175.
Libellus de Canonicis Scripturis, Wittenb. 1520; also in German: Welche Bücher heilig und biblisch seind. Comp. Weiss, Einleitung in’s N. T. (1886), p. 109, and Reuss, Histoire du Canon (1863), 357 sqq. (Hunter’s translation, p. 336 sq.)
Marcus (Marx) Thomä and Stübner are not two distinct persons, but identical. See Köstlin’s note, vol. I. 804 sq.
In De Wette, II. 137-141. De Wette calls the letter "ein bewunderungswürdiges Denkmal des hohen Glaubensmuthes, von welchem Luther erfüllt war."
De Wette, II. 141-144.
Published by Bernet, Joh. Kessler genannt Athenarius, St. Gallen, 1826, and more fully by E. Götzinger in Kessler’s Sabbata, St. Gallen, 1866 and 1868, 2 parts. See a good account in Hagenbach’s Ref. Gesch., pp. 141 sqq. In the Schwarze Bär hotel at Jena, where I stopped a few days in July, 1886, the "Lutherstube" is still shown with the likeness of Luther an old Bible, and Kessler’s report.
See the description of Mosellanus, p. 180.
"Mit tiefen, schwarzen Augen und Braunen blinzend und zwitzerlnd wie ein Stern, dass die nit wohl mögen angesehen werden."
Köstlin, I. 536, with references, p. 805.
The ajlhqeuvein ejn ajgavph/, Eph. 4:15.
Erl. ed., XXVIII. 219 and 260 (second sermon). The allusion to the drinking of "Wittenbergisch Bier mit meinem Philippo und Amsdorf" (p. 260) is omitted in the shorter edition, which has instead: "wenn ich bin guter Dinge gewesen" (p. 219).
Luther speaks favorably of him, and recommended him to a pastoral charge at Altenburg. See his letters in De Wette, II. 170, 183, 184.
He published at Nürnberg, 1524, a self-defense "Wider das geistlose sanftlebende Fleisch zu Wittenberg," and called Luther an "Arch-heathen," "Arch-scamp," "Wittenberg Pope," "Babylonian Woman," "Dragon," "Basilisk," etc.
Nevertheless, in 1526 he invited Luther and his wife, Melanchthon and Jonas, as sponsors at the baptism of a new-born son in the village of Segren near Wittenberg. He lived after his return from exile in very humble circumstances, barely making a living from the sale of cakes and beer.
His writings against Carlstadt, in Walch, X., XV., and XX., and in Erl. ed., LXIV. 384-408. His book Wider die himmlischen Propheten (1525) is chiefly directed against Carlstadt. In the Table Talk (Erl. ed., LXI. 911 he calls Carlstadt and Münzer incarnate devils.
Ranke (Päpste, I. 60): "Adrian war von durchaus unbescholtenem Ruf: rechtschaffen, fromm, thätig; sehr ernsthaft, man sah ihn nie anders als leise mit den Lippen lächeln; aber voll wohlwollender, reiner Absichten: ein wahrer Geistlicher. Welch ein Gegensatz, als er nun dort einzog, wo Leo so prächtig und verschwenderisch Hof gehalten! Es existirt ein Brief von ihm, in welchem er sagt: er möchte lieber in seiner Propstei zu Löwen Gott dienen als Papst sein." Pallavicino calls him "ecclesiastico ottimo, pontifide mediocre."
"Ut primum curia haec, unde forte omne hoc malum processit, reformetur." See the instruction in Raynaldus, ad ann. 1522, Tom. XI. 363. Luther published it with sarcastic comments. Pallavicino charges Adrian with exaggeration and want of prudence, which he thought was "often more important for the public good than personal holiness." See Hergenröther, III. 43.
See details in Ranke, II., 108 sqq. and in Janssen, II., 336 sqq.
Pallavicino and Hergenröther (III. 41) show that Leo conferred the title in a bull of Oct. 11, 1521, and that Clement confirmed it in a bull of March 5, 1523.
Especially in the German edition of his reply, where Henry is styled not only a gekrönter Esel (crowned donkey) and elender Narr (miserable fool), but even a verruchter Schurke, unverschämter Lügner, Gotteslästerer, etc ."I say it before all the world, that the King of England is a liar and no gentleman (ein Unbiedermann)." He makes fun of his title "Defender of Faith." The papists who deny Christ may need such a defender; but "the true church disdains a human patron, and sings, ’Dominus mihi adjutor’ (Ps. 9:10), and ’Nolite confidere in principibus’ (Ps. 118:8, 9)." In conclusion he apologizes for his violence, because he had to deal with "unvernünftigen wilden Ungeheuern." Card. Hergenröther (Kirchengesch. III. 41, 3d, 1886) says: "Luther antwortete in der gemeinsten und boshaftesten Weise, die Grobheit zur Classicität ausbildend."
Wider Hanswurst, 1541.
He wrote in March: "Ego jam alteris literis in Angliam vocor" (Op. II 708).
His double name is a Latin and Greek translation of his father’s Christian name Gerard (Roger), or Gerhard = Gernhaber or Liebhaber,i.e., Beloved, in mediaeval Latin Desiderius, in Greek Erasmus, or rather Erasmius from jEravsmio" Lovely. He found out the mistake when he became familiar with Greek, and accordlingly gave his godson, the son of his publisher Froben, the name John Erasmius (Erasmiolus). In dedicating to him an improved edition of his Colloquies (1524), he calls this book "ejravsmion, the delight of the Muses who foster sacred things." " He was equally unfortunate in the additional epithet Roterodamus, instead of Roterodamensis. But he was innocent of both mistakes.
Drummond (II. 337) calls Erasmus "the greatest luminary of his age, the greatest scholar of any age." But his learning embraced only the literature in the Greek and Latin languages.
His father was ordained a priest after the birth of Erasmus; for he says that he lived with Margaret "spe conjugii," and became a priest in Rome on learning from his parents, who were opposed to the marriage, the false report that his beloved Margaret was dead.
He says in his autobiographical sketch: "Natus Roterodami vigilia Simonis et Judæ circa annum 67, supra millesimum quadringentesimum." His friend and biographer, Beatus Rhenanus, did not know the year of his birth. His epitaph in Basel gives 1466; the inscription on his statue at Rotterdam gives 1467; the historians vary from 1464 to 1469. Bayle, Burigny, Müller, and Drummoud (I. 3 sq.) discuss the chronology.
He calls himself, in his autobiographical sketch, "dignitatum ac divitiarum perpetuus contemptor."
J. H. Lupton: A Life of John Colet, D. D., Dean of St. Paul’s and Founder of St. Paul’s School. London, 1887.
He dictated these lines to his friend Amerbach on departing:
"Jam Basilea vale! qua non urbs altera multis
Annis exhibuit gratius hospitium.
Hinc precor omnia laeta tibi, simul illud,
ErasmoHospes uti ne unquam tristior adveniat ."
"O Jesu, misericordia; Domine, libera me; Domine, fac finem; Domine, miserere mei;" and in German or Dutch, Lieber God (Gott)!—Beatus Rhenanus, in Vita Er.
Drummond, II. 338-340, gives the document in full.
See the interesting description of his face by Lavater in his Physiognomik, quoted by Ad. Müller, p. 108, and Hagenbach, K. Gesch., III. 50. There are several portraits of him,—by Matsys (1517), Dürer (1523), and, the best, by Holbein who painted him repeatedly at Basel.
In thanking Archbishop Warham of Canterbury for the present of a horse, he thus humorously describes the animal: "I have received the horse, which is no beauty, but a good creature notwithstanding; for he is free from all the mortal sins, except gluttony and laziness; and he is adorned with all the virtues of a good confessor, being pious, prudent, humble, modest, sober, chaste, and quiet, and neither bites nor kicks." To Polydore Virgil, who sent him money to procure a horse, he replied, "I wish you could give me any thing to cure the rider." ("Dedisti quo paretur equus, utinam dare possis quo reparetur eques." —Op. III. 934.)
… "ne cui sit ansa calumniandi. Tametsi suspicor codicem illum ad nostros esse correctum."—Opera, VI. 1080. The Codex Montfortianus, now in Dublin, was probably written between 1519-1522, and the disputed passage interpolated with the purpose of injuring the reputation of Erasmus. See J. R. Harris, The Origin of the Leicester Codex of the N. Test., London and Cambridge, 1887, p. 46 sqq.
De genuina verborum Domini: Hoc est corpus meum, etc., juxta vetustissimos auctores expositione liber. Basil., 1525.
.. See the Preface to his edition of St. Hilary on the Trinity, published at Basel, 1523.
"Fortasse latius se fundit spiritus Christi quam nos interpretamur, et multi sunt in consortio sanctorum qui non sunt apud nos in catalogo."—Coll., in the conversation entitled Convivium Religiosum.
He himself alludes to this saying: "Ego peperi ovum, Lutherus exclusit" (Op. III. 840), but adds, "Egoposui ovum gallinaceum, Lutherus exclusit pullum longe dissimillimum."
Des. Erasmi Epistola ad quosdam impudentissimos Graculos (jackdaws). Op. IX. Pars II. (or vol. X.), p. 1745; Drummond, II. 265 sq.
On this see the critical introductions to the New Testament; Scrivener’s Introd. to the Criticism of the N. T., 3d ed., pp. 429-434; Schaff’s Companion to the Greek Test., 3d ed., pp. 229-232; and Drummond, I. 308 sqq.
The last edition before me, Adagiorum Chiliades ... ex officina Frobenia, 1536, contains 1087 pages folio, with an alphabetical index of the Proverbs. See vol. II. of the Leiden ed. For extracts see Drummond, I. ch. X.
Mwrivas jEgkwvmion, id est Stultitiae Laus, first printed 1510 or 1511. Op. IV. 405-507. There is a neat edition of the Encomium and the Colloquia by Tauchnitz, Leipzig, 1829. Drummond (I. 184 sqq.) gives a good summary of the contents.
The work which appeared in 1518 under this title, with a preface of Rhenanus, was disclaimed by Erasmus, except some portions which he had dictated more than twenty years previously to a pupil in Paris by way of amusement. He compared it to an ass in a lion’s skin. The Colloquia are printed in Opera, I. 624-908. I have an edition cum notis selectis variorum accurante Corn. Schrevelio. Lugd., Bat. Bailey’s translation, London, 1724, republished 1878, reproduces in racy colloquial English the idiomatic and proverbial Latinisms of the original.
In the dialogue Virgo misovgamo", the maiden Catharine, who had resolved to become a nun, is advised by her lover Eubulus that she may keep her chastity more safely at home; for the monks were by no means all " eunuchs,"but often do all they can to deserve their name " fathers."("Patres vocantur, ac frequenter efficiunt, ut hoc nomen vere competat in ipsos.") She is also told that " all are not virgins who wear the veil, unless there be many in our days who share the pecular privilege of the Virgin Mary, of being a virgin after childbirth."The maiden admits the force of her lover’s arguments, but refuses to be convinced. In the colloquy that follows, entitled Virgo poenitens, she acknowledges the wisdom of the advice when it was too late. She had scarcely been twelve days in the nunnery before she entreated her mother, and then her father, to take her home if they wished to save her life.
The Epistolae in Froben’s ed. of 1540, Tom. III. fol. (1213 pp.), with his preface, dated Freiburg, 1529; in Le Clerk’s ed., Tom. III. Pars I. and II. There is also a fine edition of the collected epistles of Erasmus, Melanchthon, Thomas More, and Lud. Vives, London, 1642, 2 vols. fol. 2146 and 116 pages, with a good portrait of Erasmus (a copy in the Union Seminary). Recent additions have been made by Horawitz (Erasmiana, 1883 sqq.). Jortin and Drummond give many extracts from the epistles.
Erasmus well defines it in the dedicatory preface ad Card. Grimanum, before the Pauline Epistles: "hiantia committere, abrupta mollire, confusa digerere, evoluta evolvere, nodosa explicare, obscuris lucem addere, hebraismum romana civitate donare ... et ita temperare paravfrasinne fiat parafrovnhsi", h. e. sic aliter dicere ut non dicas alia."
Opera, vol. V. 57 sqq.
Usually translated "The Manual of a Christian Soldier;" but ejgceirivdionmeans also a dagger, and he himself explains it, "Enchiridion, hoc est, pugiunculum."Op. V. 1-65. The first English translation (1533) is believed to be by William Tyndale, the translator of the New Testament. Another, with notes, which I have before me, is by Philip Wyatt Crowther, Esq., London, 1816, under the title "The Christian’s Manual," etc.
On the disputed date see Drummond, I. 122.
"Videor mihi fere omnia docuisse quae docet Lutherus, nisi quod non tam atrociter, quodque abstinui a quibusdam aenigmatibus et paradoxis." In Zwingli’s Opera, ed. Schuler and Schulthess, vol. VII. 310.
After the bull of excommunication, it required special permission to read the books of the heretic. In a letter to Bombasius, Sept. 23, 1521, Erasmus says that he begged Jerome Aleander for permission, but was denied unless he were to obtain it in express words from the Pope. Drummond, II. 85 sq.
Ems., Epist. 427. See the first letter of Luther (March 28, 1519), the reply of Erasmus (May 30), and a second letter of Luther (April, 1524), and the reply of Erasmus (May 5), in Latin in Er. Epist., in German in Walch, vol. XVIII., 1944 sqq., and in the Appendix to Müller’s Erasmus, pp. 385-395. The two letters of Luther to Erasmus are also given in Latin by De Wette, I. 247-249, and II. 498-501.
See p. 232.
The edict was passed May 26, 1521, but dated back May 8. (See p. 318.)
Erasmus had disowned the poor fugitive Hutten, who turned on him like a wild beast in his Expostulatio cum Erasmo, published at Strasburg, July, 1523. Erasmus wrote to Pirkheimer, "Emoriar si crediturus eram, in universis Germanis esse tantum inhumanitatis, impudentiae, vanitatis, virulentiae quantum habet unus libellus Hutteni." He answered by Spongia Erasmi adversus Adspergines Ulrici Hutteni, Basel, 1523. (Opera, vol. IX. Pars II. 1631-73). Luther judged: "I am not pleased with Hutten’s attack, but still less with Erasmus’s reply." The Expostulatio and the Spongia were also translated into German. See on this bitter personal controversy, Strauss, Ulrich von Hutten, pp. 448-484; and Drummond, II. 120 sqq.
Opera Zw., VII. 263.
He wrote him a very respectful letter, March 28, 1519, thanking him for his great services to the cause of letters, and congratulating him for being heartily abused by the enemies of truth and light. Even in his book against Erasmus (De Servo Arbitrio), he says at the beginning: "Viribus eloquentiae et ingenio me longissime superas." And towards the close: "Fateor, tu magnus es et multis iisque nobilissimis dotibus a Deo ornatus ... ingenio, eruditione, facundia usque ad miraculum. Ego vero nihil habeo et sum, nisi quod Christianum esse me glorier."Op. Lat. VII. 367 (Erl. Frcf. ed.).
See his letters to Lange and Spalatin in De Wette, I. 39 sq., 52; 87 sq. To Lange he wrote; "Ich fürchte, Erasmus breitet Christum und die Gnade Gottes nicht genug aus, von der er gar wenig weiss. Das Menschliche gilt mehr bei ihm als das Göttliche."
De Wette, II. p. 352 sqq.
In De Wette, II. 498 sq. Erasmus answered, May 5, 1524.
Köstlin (I. 773) says that it is not surpassed by any work of Luther, "for energy and acuteness." But Döllinger and Janssen (II. 379) judge that Luther borrowed it from the Koran rather than from the New Testament.
"Ipsa ratione teste nullum potest esse liberum arbitrium in homine vel angelo aut ulla creatura."Op. Lat. VII. 366.
"Multa facit Deus quae verbo suo non ostendit nobis, multa quoque vult, quae verbo suo non ostendit sese velle. Sic non vult mortem peccatoris, verbo scilicet, vult autem illam voluntate illa imperscrutabili." Vol. VII. p. 222. Erl. ed. Op. Lat. The scholastic divines made a similar distinction between the voluntas signi and the voluntas beneplaciti.
In 1537 he wrote to Capito, "Nullum agnosco meum justum librum nisi forte De Servo Arbitrio et Catechismum." De Wette, V. 70. In the Articles of Smalkald he again denied the freedom of the will as a scholastic error; and in his last work, the Commentary on Genesis vi:6, and xxvi, he reaffirmed the distinction of the secret and revealed will of God, which we are unable to harmonize, but for this reason he deems it safest to adhere to the revealed will and to avoid speculations on the impenetrable mysteries of the hidden will. "Melius et tutius est consistere ad praesepe Christi hominis; plurimum enim periculi in eo est, si in illos labyrinthos divinitatis te involvas." On Gen. 6:6, in the Erl. ed. of Exeg. Opera, II. 170.
Form. Conc., Art. II. and XI. See Schaff, Creeds of Christendom, I. 313 sq.
Ibid., I. 102 sqq. Among the condemned propositions of Quesnel are these: "The grace of Christ is necessary for every good work; without it nothing can be done.""The will of man, before conversion by prevenient grace, is capable of all evil and incapable of good."
When he heard of it in 1531, he wrote to a friend, "It is a good thing that two of their leaders have perished,—Zwingli on the battle-field, and Oecolampadius shortly after of fever and abscess."—Op. III. 1422.
He gives a deplorable picture of the demoralizing effects of the Reformation in a letter to Geldenhauer in 1526, Opera X. 1578-1580, quoted in full in Latin and German by Döllinger, Die Reformation, I. 13-15. The Strasburg preachers, Capito, Bucer, and Hedio, tried to refute the charges in 1530. Erasmus again came out with the charge, among others, that luxury was never greater, nor adulteries more frequent, than among the self-styled evangelicals, and appeals in confirmation to admissions of Luther, Melanchthon, and Oecolampadius. Some of his last letters, discovered and published by Horawitz (Erasmiana, 1885, No. IV. p. 44 sqq.), contain similar complaints.
In his letter to Link, March 7, 1529 (in De Wette, III. 426 sq.), he calls Erasmus "a[qeon, Lucianumque, Epicurum," and in a letter to his son John, 1533 (De Wette, IV. 497), he says: "Erasmus, hostis omnium religiorum et inimicus singularis Christi, Epicuri Lucianique perfectum exemplar et idea." Comp. his judgments in the Tischreden, LXI. 93-113 (Erl. ed.).
See his letter to Caspar Börner, professor of literature in Leipzig, May 28, 1522, in De Wette, II. 199-201. The letter was intended also for Erasmus, and printed under the title, "Judicium D. M. Lutheri de Erasmo Roterodamo. Epistola ad amicum 1522." He says that he would not provoke Erasmus, but was not afraid of his attack.
Döllinger gives, from the R. Catholic standpoint, a full account of these scholars in the first volume of his work on the Reformation (Regensburg, 1846). On Wizel we have an interesting university program of Neander: Commentatio de Georgio Vicelio. Berlin, 1840. Strauss notices several of them from the rationalistic standpoint, in his Ulrich von Hutten.
On his literary labors, see Karl Hagen, l.c., I. 280 sqq.
He tells in his narrative the following anecdote of a brave and quick-witted Swiss maiden. When asked by the imperial soldiers, "What are the Swiss guards doing on their post?" she replied, "Waiting for you to attack them." — "How strong is their number?" — "Strong enough to throw you all back." — " But how strong?" — "You might have counted them in the recent fight, but fright and flight made you blind." —" What do they live of?" — "Of eating and drinking." The soldiers laughed, but one drew his sword to kill her. "Verily," she said, "you are a brave man to threaten an unarmed girl. Go and attack yonder guard, who can answer you with deeds instead of words." Comp. Münch, W. P.’s Schweizerkrieg und Ehrenhandel. Basel, 1826. Drews, l.c., p. 10.
Unfortunately his moral character was not free from blemish. He became a widower in 1504, and lived in illicit intercourse with his servant, who bore him a son when he was already past fifty. Christoph Scheurl wrote: "I wish Melanchthon knew Pirkheimer better: he would then be more sparing in his praise. With the most he is in bad repute." See K. Hagen, l.c., I. 347, and Drews, l.c., 14 sq.
Eccius dedolatus (Der abgehobelte Eck). Auctore Ioanne Francisco Cottalambergio, Poëta Laureato. 1520. See p. 182.
Bilibaldi Birckheimheri de vera Christi carne et vero ejus sanguine, ad Ioan. Oecolampadium responsio. Norembergae, 1526. Bilibaldi Pirckheymeri de vera Christi carne, etc., reponsio secunda. 1527. I give the titles, with the inconsistencies of spelling from original copies in the Union Theol. Seminary. Pirkheimer calls Oecolampadius (his Greek name for Hausschein, House-lamp) "Coecolampadius" (Blindschein, Blind-lamp), and deals with him very roughly. Drews (pp. 89-110) gives a full account of this unprofitable controversy.
Comp. Döllinger, Die Reform. i. 174-182.
Hans Sachs (in his Gespräch eines evang. Christen mit einem katholischen, Nürnberg, 1524) warns the Nürnbergers against their excesses of intemperance, unchastity, uncharitableness, by which they brought the Lutheran doctrine into contempt. Döllinger, l.c., I. 174 sqq., quotes testimonies to the same effect from Konrad Wickner and Lazarus Spengler, both prominent Protestants in Nürnberg, and from contemporaries in other parts of Germany.
Döllinger, I. p. 533 sq., gives this letter in Latin and German, and infers from it that Pirkheimer died a member of the Catholic Church.
This is substantially also the judgment of Drews, his most recent biographer, who says (l.c., p. 123): "Pirkheimer ist jeder Zeit Humanist geblieben ... In der Theorie war er ein Anhänger der neuen, gewaltigen Bewegung; aber als dieselbe anfing praktisch zu werden, erschrak er vor den Gährungen, die unvermeidlich waren. Der Humanist sah die schönen Wissenschaften bedroht; der Patrizier erschrak vor der Übermacht des Volkes; der Staatsmann erzitterte, als er den Bruch mit den alten Verhältnissen als eine Notwendigkeit fühlte. Nur ein religiös fest gegründeter Glaube war im Stande, über diesen Kämpfen den Sieg und den Frieden zu sehen. Daran aber fehlte es gerade Pirkheimer; alles theologische Interesse vermag dieses persönliche religiöse Leben nicht zu ersetzen. Wohl besass er ein lebendiges Rechtsgefühl, einen ethischen Idealismus, aber es fehlte ihm die Kraft, im eignen Leben denselben zu verwirk-lichen. Ihm war das Leben ein heiteres Spiel, solange die Tage sonnenhell waren; als sie sich umdüsterten, wollten sich die Wolken weder hinwegscherzen, noch hinwegschmähen lassen. Ein religiös, sittlicher Charakter war Pirkheimer nicht, ’Vivitur ingenio, caetera mortis erunt,’ diese Worte hat er unter sein von Dürer gezeichnetes Bild (1524) gesetzt. Sie enthalten das Glaubensbekenntnis Pirkheimers, das Geheimnis seines Lebens."
564 Ranke (II. 126): "Dass Münzer und Karlstadt, und zwar nicht ohne Zuthun Luthers, endlich aus Sachsen entfernt wurden, trug zur Ausbreitung und Verstärkung dieser Bewegung ungemein bei. Sie wandten sich beide nach Oberdeutschland." Ranke attributes too much influence to Carlstadt’s false doctrine of the Lord’s Supper, which he published after his expulsion.
565 So called from the tied shoe which the peasants wore as a symbol of subjection, in contrast to the buckled shoe of the upper classes.
566 On the connection of the earlier peasants’ insurrections with the movements preparatory to the Reformation, compare Ullmann’s essay on Hans Böheim of Niklashausen, in his Reformatoren vor der Reformation, vol. I. 419-446.
567 They are given In German by Walch, Strobel, Oechsle, Gieseler, Weber. The authorship is uncertain. It is ascribed to Christoph Schappeler, a native Swiss, and preacher at Memmingen; but also to Heuglin of Lindau, Habmeier, and Münzer. See the note of Ranke, II. 135.
568 Kurzum, eitel Teufelswerk treiben sie, und insonderheit ists der Erzteufel, der zu Mühlhausen regiert [Münzer],und nichts denn Raub, Mord, Blutvergiessen anricht, wie denn Christus von ihm sagt, Joh. 8:44, dass er sei ein Mörder von Anbeginn."Erl. ed., XXIV. 288.
569 "Darum, lieben Herren, löset hie, rettet hie, erbarmet euch der armen Leute [i.e., not the peasants, but the poor people deluded by them]; steche, schlage, würge hie wer da kann. Bleibst du darüber todt: wohl dir, seliglicheren Tod kannst du nimmermehr überkommen. Denn du stirbst im Gehorsam göttlichs Worts und Befehls, Rom. 13:1." ... "So bitte ich nun, fliche von den Bauern wer da kann, als vom Teufel selbst."Ibid., xxiv. 294. In his explanatory tract, p. 307, this passage is repeated more strongly."Der halsstarrigen, verstockten, verblendeten Bauern erbarme sich nur niemand, sondern haue, steche, würge, schlage drein, als unter die tollen Hunde, wer da kann und wie er kann. Und das alles, auf dass man sich derjenigen erbarme, die durch solche Bauern verderbt, verjagt und verführt werden, dass man Fried und Sicherheit erhalte."
570 Ibid., 298, 303, 307. See preceding note.
571 Bishop Georg of Speier estimated the number of the killed at a hundred and fifty thousand. This does not include those who were made prisoners, beheaded, and hanged, or dreadfully mutilated. A hangman in the district of Würzburg boasted that he had executed by the sword three hundred and fifty in one month. Margrave George of Brandenburg had to remind his brother Casimir, that, unless he spared some peasants, they would have nothing to live on. Janssen, II. 563.
572 Letter of Aug. 16, 1525, to Brismann (in De Wette, III. 22): "Rusticorum res quievit ubique, caesis ad centum millia, tot orphanis factis, reliquis vero in vita sic spoliatis, ut Germaniae facies miserior nunquam fuerit. Ita saeviunt victores, ut impleant suas iniquitates."