Joachim Rogge insists that in the time prior to the August 1527 dispute, the friendship between Mela
Early Catechisms (Additions to the Work
of Ferdinand Cohrs)
The roman numerals in the following list reflect Cohrs. The letters for individual editions supplement Cohrs's lists. Those booklets not found in Cohrs are placed at the end and assigned arabic numbers in quotation marks.
XIII. "Eyn buchlin fur die leyen vnd die kinder"
1. Low German Editions
g. "Eyn Bo= I keschen vor de I leyen vn kinder. I De teyn Bade Gades I De loue mitt eyner with I leggynge. I Dat benedicite vn gratias I Van der Dope. I Van demn Sacramente I Van der Bycht. I De duodesche tal mit den I cifern. I Dat titell bokeschenn. I Wittemberch. 1 1526." Woodcut, 8'. No colophon [Erfurt: Loorsfeld]. [23] (+ 1 blank) leaves. HAB call no. QuH 169.4 (1); VD 16: B 6330.
h. = VD 16: B 6334.
i. = VD 16: B 6337.
j. = VD 16: B 6338
3. High German Editions
F. "Eyn buchlin fur I die leyen vnd I kinder. I Wittemberg. I MDXXV." Woodcut, 8'. No colophon [Wittenberg: Nicholas Schirlentz]. HAB call no. QuH 132.7 (5).
[4. Excerpts]
2. = B 9113.
XVI. John Agricola's "Elementa pietatis congesta: Christliche Kinderzucht"
2. German Editions
A*. = VD 16: A 976.
Cohrs C and E were both printed in Augsburg by Philip Ulhart, Sr.
F. "Eyn Christliche I Kinderzucht/ in Got= I tes wort vnd lere. I Ausz der Schuol zuo I Eiszleben. I M.D.XXviij." Woodcut, 8'. No colophon. [50] leaves. VD 16: A 978.
XX. Philip Melanchthon's "Spriiche"
2. Low German Editions
e. "Etlike spro I ke dar jnne dat gan= I tze Christlyke leuent I geuatet ys/ nutlick alle= I wege vor ogen tho heb I bende vnde tho be= I tra- chtende. I Philippus Mela[n]chthon I M.D.XXvij." Woodcut, 8'. Col ophon: "Gedrucket dorch Ludwich Dietz I des 14. dages Februarij." [Rostock or Lubeck.] [12] leaves.
XXI. John Agricola's "Hundertdreillig gemeine Fragestucke"
2. "Der Hundertsechsundfiinfzig Fragestucke"
1. = VD 16: A 990. Colophon: "Gedruckt zu Er= I ffurd durch Melchior Sach- I ssen/ ynn der Archa I Noe."
XXXVII. Martin Luther's "Fiinf Fragen vom Abendmahl"
Under this title Cohrs mentions a few examples of a catechism that could have been included in its own right.
B*. This is a slightly different printing of the volume listed in Cohrs 4:155. "Eyn trostlich I gesprech buchleyn auff I frag vnd antwort gestellet/ I den glauben vnd die lieb be I treffent/ Vnd wie eyner den I andern Christlich vnter= I weysen sol/ gantz ntitz I lich zu den artickeln I D. Vrbani Regij I vnd Gretzin I gers. I Wittemberg. 1 1525." Woodcut, 8°. No colophon [Wittenberg: Johann Rhau-Grunenberg]. [48] leaves. HAB call no. 1174.8 Th (4).
The following editions are not listed by Cohrs and do not contain Luther's "Five Questions."
1. High German First Edition (with call numbers from Munich's Staats- bibliothek)
a. Nuremberg: Jobst Gutknecht, 1524. SB Mun Katech 269.
b. Nuremberg: J. Gutknecht, 1525. SB Mun Katech 563.
c. Leipzig: Nikkel Schmitt, 1525. UB Mun 8°Theol 5216.
2. High German Second Edition (the edition to which Luther's "Five Questions" was later added)
a. "Ein trostliche di= I sputation/ auff frag vnd I antwort gestellet/ Von I zwayen Handtwercks I mennern/ den Glauben/ I vii die lieb/ auch andere I Christliche leer betref= I fen/ auch form wie einer I den andern Christenlich I vnderweysen sol/ gantz I nutzlich zu den artickeln I Doctoris Vrbani Regij I vnd Gretzingers. I New corrigiert vnd gemert. 1 1525." Woodcut, 8°. No colophon [Nuremberg: Jobst Gutknecht]. [60] leaves. HAB call no. Yv 589 Helmst. 8° (3).
b. "Eyn trostlich I gesprech buchleyn I auff frag vnd ant= I wort gestellet/ den glauben I vnd die lieb betreffent/ Vnd I wie eyner den andern Chri I stlich vnterweysen soil/ I gantz niitzlich zu den I artickeln D. I Vrbani I Regii vnd I Gretzingers. I Wittemberg." Woodcut, 8'. No colophon [Wittenberg: Joseph Klug, 1525 (the date is handwritten at the end of the HAB copy)]. [44] leaves. HAB call no. QuH 169.15 (2).
c. "Eyn trostliche I Disputation/ auff I frag vnd antwort I gestellet/ den glauben I vii die lieb betreffent/ I Vn wie eyner den an= I dern Christlich vnterwey I sen soil/ gantz nutzlich tzu I den Artickel D. Vrbani I Regij vnd Gretzin= I gers. 1 1525." Woodcut, 8°. Colophon: "1525" [Leipzig: Nikkel Schmidt]. [48] leaves. HAB call no. J 149 Helmst. 8°(2).
d. HAB call no. 1163.6 Th 8'. The title page is missing. Colophon: "1525" [Leipzig: Jakob Thanner]. 47 (+ 1 blank) leaves.
e. "Eynn trostli= I the Disputation/ I auff frag vnnd ant= I wort gestellet/ den glauben I vnd die lieb Betreffent. Vii I wie einer den andern christ I lich vnterweysen sol/ gantz I nuotzlich zu den Artickel D. I Vrbani Regij vn I Gretzingers. 1 .1525." Woodcut, 8'. No colophon [Leipzig: Michael Blum]. [43] (+ 1 blank) leaves. HAB call no. Yv 991 Helmst. 8'.
f. Augsburg: H. Steiner, 1526 = SB Miin Katech 563a.
3. Low German Translation of the High German Second Edition
a. "Eyne trostlicke I disputation vp fra= I gen vnd antwort gestel= I let/ den gelouen vnd leve I bedrepende/ vn wo eyner I den anderen Christlick I vnderwysen schal/ gantz I niitte tho den artikeln D. Vrbani Regij vnd I Gretzingers. 1 1525." Woodcut, 8'. No colophon [Wittenberg: Nicholas Schirlentz]. [82] leaves. HAB call no. QuH 161.18 (2).
b. "Eine trostlike I disputatio/ vp frage I vnde antwort gestel= I let/ den gelouen vnde leue I Belangende vnde wo de ene I den anderen Christlick vn= I derwysen schal/ gans nut= I lick den artikelen D. Vr= I bani Regij/ vnde I Gretzingers I .1525." Woodcut, 8'. Colophon: "Gedrucket to Lypsick dorch Mychel Blomen." [45] (+ 3 blank) leaves. HAB call nos. Ts 175 (2) and QuH 132.7 (2).
4. High German Third Edition: see Cohrs, "C."
5. Low German Second Edition
a. "Eyne trostlyke dispu I tatio/ vp frage vnde ant= I wort gestellet/ den gelouen I vnde leue belangende/ vnde I wo de ene den anderen Christ= I lyck vnderwysen schal/ gans I ntitlyck tho den artikelen I D. Vrbani Regij/ vnde I Gretzingers. I Tho dem anderen male auerge- seen." Woodcut, 8'. Colophon: "Gedrucket tho Wyttem= I berch dorch Hans Barth I M.D.xxv." [47] (+ 1 blank) leaves. HAB call no. J 238 Helmst. 8' (2).
b. "Eyne trostlike I disputatio/ vp frage vn I de antwort gestellet/ den I gelouen vnde leue belan= I gende/ vnde wo de eyne I den anderen Christlick vn= I derwysen schal/ gans ntit= I lyck tho den Artikelen I D. Vrbani Regij/ I vnde Gretzin= I gers. I [design] I Tho dem anderen mal auergeseen." Woodcut, 8'. Colophon: "Gedrucket tho Wittem= I berg dorch Hans Barth yn dem I iar dusent vyffhundert se= I uen vnde twyndich etc." [44] leaves. HAB call nos. J 611 Helmst. 8' and 918.14 Th. (2).
c. "Eine trostlike I disputation/ vp frage vn= I de antwort gestellet/ den I gelouen vnde leue belan= I gende/ vnde wo de eine den an= I deren Christlick vnderwisen I schal/ gantz ntittlick tho I den Artikelen D. Vr= I bani Regij/ vnde I Gretzingers. I [design] I MDXXVIII." Woodcut, 8'. No colophon [Magdeburg: Hans Barth]. [47] (+ 1 blank) leaves. HAB call nos. TS 170 (2) and J 151 Helmst. 8' (3).
"l". George Rauth's "Die Siebzehn Hauptartikeln der ganzen Schrift"
A. "Die Siebenze= I hen heupt Arti= I ckel/ der gantz= I en schrifft/ die do ey= I nem Christlichen I menschen I Seher I trostlich zu wissen sind. I Georgius Raut. I Wittemberg. M.D.xxv." Woodcut, 8'. No colophon [Wittenberg: Joseph Klug]. [39] (+ 1 blank) leaves. HAB call no. Ts 176 (2); VD 16: R 427.
B. "Die Sieben I zehen hewbtartickel/ der I gantzen schrifft/ die I einem Christli= I chen menschen I seher trust= I lich I zu wissen sind. I Georgius Raut. I Wittemberg. 1 1525." Woodcut, 8'. No colophon except "Ubersehen durch I Steph. Rodt." [Wittenberg: Johann RhauGrunenberg.] HAB call no. S 149b Helmst. 8' (5); VD 16: R 428.
C. "Die siebentze I hen hawbt Artickel/ der gan= I tzen schrifft/ die eynem Christ I lichen menschen seer I trostlich zu wiss= I en sind. I New corrigirt I durch Stephanum Rodt I Wittemberg I .1525." Woodcut, 8'. No colophon [Leipzig: Michael Blum]. HAB call no. J 41 Helmst. 8' (14); VD 16: R 426.
D. "Die Sybenze= I hen Haubt arti= I ckel der gantzen schrifft/ I aym yeden Christ I lichenn men= I schenn seer I trostlich I zuo wis I sen. I Georgius Raut zuo Tresen. I M.D.XXVI." Woodcut, 8'. No colophon [Augsburg: Simprecht Ruff]. 37 + [4] (+ 1 blank) leaves. VD 16: R 427.
"2". For Urbanus Rhegius's "Eine Erklarung der Zwolf Artikel," see VD 16: R 2024-56.
"3". For Benedict Gretzinger's "Ein unuberwindlich Beschirmbuchlein von Hauptartikeln ... der gottlichen Lehre," see VD 16: G 3248-68.
The Printing History of the Latin Version
of Philip Melanchthon's Visitation Articles
Al. "ARTI= I CVLI DE QVIBVS I EGERVNT PER VISI= I tatores in regiones Saxoniae. I Wittembergae 1 1527." Woodcut with "N S" in shield, 8'. Colophon: "Excusum Wittembergae, per I Nicolaum Schirlentz. I Anno. 1 1227 [sic]." [19] (+ 1 blank) leaves.
A2. "ARTI= I CVLI DE QVIBVS I EGERVNT PER I VISITATORES I in regione Saxo= I niae. I Wittem bergae 1 1527." Woodcut same as Al, 8'. Colophon: "Ex- cusum VVittembergae, per I Nicolaum Schirlentz I Anno. 1 1527." [16] leaves. Clearly an improved version of A,.
A3. "ARTICV= I LI, DE QVIBVS EGE I runt Visitatores in re= I gione Saxo- niae. I Anno, M.D.XXVII." No woodcut, 8'. Colophon: "1527." [23] (+ 1 blank) leaves. Text based on Al, but lacking the prayer after Amen (cf. CR 26:28). Published in Basel by Johannes Froben.
A4. "ARTI= I CVLI DE QVI= I BVS EGERVNT I PER VISITA I tores in regione Saxoniae." Woodcut, 8'. No colophon. [18] leaves, with the following printer's numbers: [], A2, [], [], A5, [], [], [], B, B2, [], [], B9, [], [], [], [], []. The initials and woodcut seem to indicate a Dutch provenance for this printing: Antwerp, Deventer, or Zwolle, probably 1527 or 1528.
BI. "ADVERSVS I ANABAPTISTAS PHILIPPI ME= I lanchthonis Iudicium. I ITEM I An Magistratus iure pol3it occidere Anabaptistas, I Iohannis Brentij Sententia. I ITEM I Articuli, inspectionis Ecclesiarum I Saxoniae, emendati." No woodcut, 8'. [68] leaves. Identified by Josef Benzing, Bibliographia Haguenovi- enne (Baden-Baden: Koerner, 1973), 81, no. 91, as Haguenau: Johannes Setzer, 1528. Cf. Walter Kohler, Bibliographia Brentiana (Berlin: Schwetschke and Son, 1904), 305, no. 645.
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Trusen, Winfried. Um die Reform and Einheit der Kirche: Zum Leben and Werk Georg Witzels. Munster: Aschendorff, 1957.
Wengert, Timothy J. "Caspar Cruciger (1504-1548): The Case of the Disappearing Reformer." Sixteenth Century Journal 20 (1989): 417-41.
. "Caspar Cruciger Sr.'s 1546 `Enarratio' on John's Gospel: An Experiment in Ecclesiological Exegesis." Church History 61 (1992): 60-74.
. "The Day Philip Melanchthon Got Mad." Lutheran Quarterly, n.s., 5 (1991): 419-33.
. "'Fear and Love' in the Ten Commandments." Concordia Journal 21 (1995): 14-27.
. Human Freedom, Christian Righteousness: Philip Melanchthon's Exegetical Dispute with Erasmus of Rotterdam. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.
. "Melanchthon's Biblical Commentaries." In Philip Melanchthon (14971560) and the Commentary, edited by M. Patrick Graham and Timothy J. Wengert. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1997.
Philip Melanchthon's `Annotationes in Johannem" in Relation to Its Predecessors and Contemporaries. Geneva: Librairie Droz, 1987.
"Wittenberg's Earliest Catechism." Lutheran Quarterly, n.s., 7 (1993): 247-60.
Wetzel, Richard. "Caspar Cruciger als ein Schreiber der `Schmalkaldischen Artikel."' Luther-Jahrbuch 54 (1987): 84-93.
Wiedenhofer, Siegfried. Formalstrukturen humanistischer and reformatorischer Theologie bei Philipp Melanchthon. 2 vols. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 1976.
Scripture Index
Subject Index
Timothy J. Wengert is professor of the history of Christianity, The Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia. He is the author of numerous scholarly articles, Philip Melanchthon's "Annotationes in Johannem"in Relation to Its Predecessors and Contemporaries (Droz) and Human Freedom, Christian Righteousness: Philip Melanchthon's Exegetical Dispute with Erasmus of Rotterdam (Oxford). His Ph.D. degree is from Duke University.
1. MBW 6654 (CR 7:1144f.), Melanchthon to George Buchholzer, dated 28 November 1552.
2. This term was alternatively understood as penance, penitence, and repentance. See p. 15 n. 1.
1. Because the word poenitentia and its German equivalent, Bufe, may be translated "repentance," "penitence," or "penance" (and the phrase "poenitentiam agite [tut Buse]" translated "repent," "be penitent," or "do penance"), we will leave it untranslated throughout this work. Its meaning is key to the dispute studied here.
2. WA 1:233.
3. See especially Scott Hendrix, Luther and the Papacy: Stages in a Reformation Conflict (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1981), and the literature cited there; and, for the Roman side, David V. N. Bagchi, Luther's Earliest Opponents: Catholic Controversialists 1518-1525 (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1991).
4. WA 6:543-49. This early rejection can be contrasted to his later praise for private confession and absolution.
5. "Sermo de poenitentia" (WA 1:321), which was a Latin reworking of his "Sermon von Ablag and Gnade." Literally, the proverb reads, "Not to do a thing again is the highest Bul3."
6. Tetzel's piece was entitled "Vorlegung ... wyder eynen vormessen Sermon von tzwentzig irrigen Artickeln Bebstlichen ablas and gnade belangende." As the title implied, Tetzel's attack was directed against Luther's "Sermon von Ablag and Gnade."
7. "Eine Freiheit des Sermons papstlichen Ablall and Gnade belangend ... wider die Widerlegung" (WA 1:383-93).
8. WA 1:386.
9. "Widder die Bullen des Endchrists" (WA 6:614-29).
10. In some notes from the same time, Luther connected this use of Butte with his interpretation of Matt. 4:17. See WA 4:612.
11. Grund and Ursach aller Artikel D. Martin Luthers, so durch romische Bulle un- rechtlich verdammt sind (WA 7:308-457, here 361): "denn wo die rew recht angaht, durch gottis gnadenn, da wirt zugleich der mensch gewandelt ynn eyn ander mensch, hertz, mut, synn and lebenn, and das heysz ich nymmer thun and eyn new leben."
12. Luther later expanded this reference to make it clear that he was referring to the argument of Thomas Aquinas and others that attrition (sorrow for sin out of fear of punishment) is the only remorse a person in a state of sin can bring forth and thus suffices for the sacrament of penance. Their reasoning here is that at the point of absolution the grace that makes one acceptable is infused into the penitent and transforms attrition into contrition (sorrow for sin out of love of God).
13. WA 7:365: "Denn grewlich ist sein grusz ym anfang, doch trostlich am ende."
14. WA 7:365: "alszo die gnad gottes zu gleich den menschen erschreckt, iagt unnd treybt unnd zu sich keret."
17. WA 7:23-24. Note that Luther, unlike Paul Althaus, does not create a false distinction between Gebot and Gesetz. They are synonyms for him.
15. "Von der Freiheit eines Christenmenschen" (WA 7:20-38).
16. WA 7:22.
18. Already the Lutheran confessional documents, all of which came into being after 1528, reflect little ambiguity on these points. Several do, however, bear the imprint of the dispute on which this study focuses.
19. See Timothy J. Wengert, Human Freedom, Christian Righteousness: Philip Melanchthon's Exegetical Dispute with Erasmus of Rotterdam (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997).
20. In May 1525 Luther and Melanchthon had accompanied Agricola to Eisleben to work out the details of his call. At nearly the same time Caspar Cruciger, Sr., moved to Magdeburg and Joachim Camerarius to Nuremberg as teachers in schools in those cities.
21. Gustav Kawerau, Johann Agricola von Eisleben: Ein Beitrag zur Reformationsgeschichte (Berlin: Wilhelm Hertz, 1881), 129-53.
22. Joachim Rogge, Johann Agricolas Lutherverstandnis: Unter besonderer Beri ck- sichtigung des Antinomismus (Berlin: Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, 1960), especially B.II: "Die ersten offenen Auseinandersetzungen in der Frage des Nomismus and Antinomismus," 98-118.
23. Ernst Koch, "Johann Agricola neben Luther: Schiilerschaft and theologische Eigenart," in Lutheriana: Zum 500. Geburtstag Martin Luthers von den Mitarbeitern der Weimarische Ausgabe, ed. Gerhard Hammer and Karl-Heinz zur Mtihlen (Cologne and Vienna: Bohlau, 1984), 131-50. Koch also indicates the important role that Melanchthon's Loci and his "Epitome renouatae ecclesiasticae doctrinae" of 1524 played in the construction of Agricola's theological position (pp. 140-45).
24. Steffen Kjeldgaard-Pedersen, Gesetz, Evangelium and Bufle: Theologiegeschicht- liche Studien zum Verhaltnis zwischen dem jungen Johann Agricola (Eisleben) and Martin Luther (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1983), esp. pp. 173-212. Among the other approaches critiqued are those of Gustav Hammann and Susi Hausammann.
25. Gustav Hammann, "Nomismus and Antinomismus innerhalb der wittenberger Theologie von 1524-1530," Ph.D. diss., Friedrich Wilhelms Universitat, 1952.
26. See Wilhelm H. Neuser, Der Ansatz der Theologie Philipp Melanchthons (Neu- kirchen-Vluyn: Verlag des Erziehungsvereins, 1957). Hammann used the earlier dissertation on which the book was based.
27. Susi Hausammann, Bu/3e als Umkehr and Erneuerung von Mensch and Gesellschaft (Zurich: Theologischer Verlag, 1974), 135-225. See the strong critique by Kjeldgaard-Pedersen throughout his book.
28. Particularly the commentary on Luke by Agricola and the commentary on Colossians by Melanchthon.
29. Kjeldgaard-Pedersen, Gesetz, Evangelium and Buf3e, 156 n. 1. Rogge, Johann Agricolas Lutherverstkndnis, 98, also mentions the necessity of a more thorough comparison of the two disputants, by which he means a theological comparison. We intend to investigate the historical relationship between the two and their exegetical and catechetical work.
1. MSA 4:212.29-31: "Nunc multi fidem et remissionem peccatorum docent, poenitentiam non docent. At nihil est fides sine poenitentia nisi inane somnium."
2. See MBW 547 (MSA 4:210f.) and MBW 550 (CR 1:867f.).
3. Joachim Rogge, Johann Agricolas Lutherverstandnis: Unter besonderer Berucksichtigung des Antinomismus (Berlin: Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, 1960), 98-101. See also Gustav Kawerau, Johann Agricola von Eisleben: Ein Beitrag zur Reformationsgeschichte (Berlin: Wilhelm Hertz, 1881), 129ff.
4. MBW 113 (TI :238), dated after November 1520. Melanchthon's wife resisted quite vehemently.
5. For example, MBW 419 (T2:346-48), dated 7 September 1525, in which Melanchthon insisted in a poem that, better than by wine or money, his cold could best be cured by friends, i.e., by Agricola now in Eisleben.
6. MBW 416 (T2:341-43), dated 24 August 1525.
7. See, for example, Melanchthon's letter to Joachim Camerarius from Bitterfeld, dated 16 April 1525, MBW 391 (T2:288-89).
8. MBW 432 (T2:364-65).
9. MBW 440 (T2:391-92) and MBW 443 (T2:394-96), respectively.
10. MBW 446 (T2:400-401), the Elector John of Saxony to Melanchthon, dated 13 February 1526.
11. MBW 468 (T2:429), dated around 20 June 1526.
12. MBW 507 (T2:502-3), dated 30/31 October 1526. The letter that follows, MBW 512 (T2:509), dated approximately 25 November 1526, included greetings to Alexander and Bartholomew Drachstedt and to William Rink, with whom Melanchthon must have met during his visit.
13. MBW 516 (T1:514-15), dated 26 December 1526, and MBW 521 (CR 1:853f.), dated 1 January 1527. The greetings to Agricola's wife, Else, were a standard feature of all the letters during this period.
14. MBW 534 (CR 1:825), dated 12(?) April 1527. The following letters include MBW 535 (CR 1:825-26), 541 (CR 1:866-67), and 543 (Bindseil, 508).
15. MBW 581 (Bindseil, 508).
16. In fact, the exchange of friendly letters resumed within a year after the controversy (see p. 169). Only much later, during the bitter dispute over the Augsburg Interim, did their correspondence finally come to an end.
17. Steffen Kjeldgaard-Pedersen, Gesetz, Evangelium and Bu/3e: Theologiegeschicht- liche Studien zum Verhaltnis zwischen dem jungen Johann Agricola (Eisleben) and Martin Luther (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1983), 37-212.
18. For details of Wittenberg's work on New Testament commentary, see Timothy J. Wengert, Philip Melanchthon's 'Annotations in Johannem" in Relation to Its Predecessors and Contemporaries (Geneva: Librairie Droz, 1987), 31-42.
19. For the exact description of Agricola's exegetical works, see appendix 1. Here we are using the annotations published in April 1525 (Luke 1525, [Al]v'): "Credebas tunc plane ex re orbis Christiani fore, ut meas in Lucam annotationes aederem." The work was reprinted almost immediately (July 1525) in Nuremberg by John Petreius.
20. "Wie man die Heilig geschrifft lesen/ vnd wess man in der lesung der Euangelischen histori acht haben/ Was man darinn ersuchen vnd forschen Boll/ Ain kurtze vnd Schone Bericht."
21. Luke 1525, 1v°: "Scriptura in universum duas naturas adumbrat. Alteram, qua ex Adam nascimur quotquot posteritas Adae censemur. Et qua ex semine Abrahae promisso gignimur, alteram."
22. Luke 1525, lv'-2r': At this point the 1526 edition adds the title "PECCATVM ORIGINALE unde uires acceperit."
23. Luke 1526, 4v°: "AD QVID LEX DATA SIT, & quae sint legis vires."
24. Luke 1525, 2r f.: ". . . nisi cor mutauerit homo."
25. In 1525 Agricola composed a single sentence of thirty-four lines beginning with a description of the blindness of original sin and ending with the fifth commandment. The sixth commandment was completely ignored, and references to several commandments came out of order (second, fifth, fourth, third, fifth).
26. Luke 1526, 5r': "ut recordetur, non se, sed Deum in se uiuere & operari pro bona uoluntate sua."
27. The fifth, ninth, and tenth commandments remain basically the same with the addition of some material linked originally with the first commandment.
28. Luke 1526, 6r'. There are similarities throughout to Luther's 1520 treatise on good works.
29. Luke 1525, 2v': "Eo usque enim lex progreditur [ 1526: usque progreditur lex], non cessans nos solicitare ad desperationem, nisi hoc quod iusserit liberaliter fecerimus." Except for the addition of further titles, the two versions were almost identical in the rest of the preface.
30. Luke 1525, 5r'.
31. Luke 1525, 6r' (emphasis added): "Peccati fons ex Adam producitur, decucurrit nimirum genialis illa uis in omnes filios Adae. Lex addita est non tam ut coerceret labem congenitam aut tolleret, quam ut augeret & reuelaret, atque ut peccatum uires acciperet (sicut Apostolus ait) ui legis irritata conscientia."
32. Luke 1525, 6r': "In hoc totus est Moses, omnes prophetae, ut peccatum suum agnoscat & deploret homo, de se desperet, tandemque expectet prophetae illius magni auxilium."
33. Luke 1525, lOr : "Vides itaque fructum esse Euangelij summam, ut transforme- mur in nouitatem quaedam uitae, per gratiam illius qui uocauit nos Jesus Christus, sitque nobis lex, quam antea summe detestabamur, desiderabilis super aurum & obrysum [refined], dulcior melle & fauo, id est, nuper omnes uoluptates."
34. Luke 1525, 89v': "ut lege pressi & territi, errorem agnoscerent, & poenam depre- carentur."
35. Luke 1525, 20r': "Deinde Euangelij, cuius typum gerit loannes, noui testamenti auspex, duo esse officia, alterum, damnare quidquid est excelsum, sublime sanctum, breviter denotiri amone altitudine erigentem, & iactantem se, contra uerum cultum dei, id est, contra doctrinam fidei.... Alterum nunciare remissionem peccatorum per Christum."
36. Luke 1525, 122v': "Lex peccatum ostendit & auget, auxilium tacet."
37. Luke 1525, 23r': "Proinde si est nouae creaturae uocabulum poenitentia, quae in die in diem innouatur, donee mors earn consummauerit, cuius symbolurn baptismus." Both "quae" and "earn" could refer either to the new creature or to "poenitentia."
38. Luke 1525, 23v' (emphasis added): "Procul dubio intelliges poenitere, iustificari, mutare cor, solius dei opus esse, non uirium humanarum, errareque toto caelo, quotquot poenitentiae rationem, in attritionem, confessionem & satisfactionem ineptissime partiti sunt." The use of the term attrition (sorrow for sin out of fear of punishment) is no accident.
39. Luke 1525, 144v': "In Zachaeo adumbrata est uiua quaedam uere poenitentiae Forma, cuius & Paulus meminit ult. cap. Ephe. Qui furabatur jam non furetur, id quod Germanice dicimus, Nimmer thun ist die hochste bull. Porro haec libertas animi, hie pro- gressus in aliam uitam, non incipit a recordatione peccatorum, a simulata cordis humani cogitatione, sed a beneficio Dei, quod sentit cor sibi impartiri Deum, cum allicit & blan- diter ad se uocat atque inuitat." Agricola's dependence on Luther's language and examples is clear. This construal of poenitentia and its removal from the work of the law became the crux of the debate with Melanchthon.
40. Luke 1526, 59v o: "postquam mortificata fuerit caro uerbo Euangelij, quod est uerbum crucis."
41. Luke 1525, 161r': "Lex tota, menaces facit & hypocritas, Euangelium rursus syn- ceros facit, candidos et ueraces."
42. Luke 1526, 69v': "Dan Got braucht darumb solchs kampffstuck das eyner heut eyn engel/ morgen eyn teufel sey... das er die welt zu narren mache."
43. MSA 4:210.3-5.
44. Johann Bugenhagen's brief annotations on the Pauline corpus and Erasmus's paraphrase need not be considered.
45. A reference in Colosser, C.vii.r', to Agricola's sermon on Luke 18:9-14 indicates that a good portion of the sermons on Colossians must have been given after 12 August 1526. Since they close with the "Valete vnd letzter abschied von Speier" (R.ii.r -R.vii.r ), the series of sermons on Colossians must have ended before his return to Eisleben in midSeptember. For a list of the printings, see appendix 1.
46. Kjeldgaard-Pedersen, Gesetz, Evangelium and Bu/3e, 173-212.
47. Outside of our particular interest, there do seem to be some indications that Agricola was dependent to some extent upon Bugenhagen's brief annotations on Paul's letters (Ephesians through Hebrews), published in 1524. For example, in discussing Col. 1:4 both exegetes define faith and love in similar ways and refer to the parable of the vineyard. A portion of Agricola's commentary, containing his polemic against the mass, was published with rather vulgar annotations in 1547 as part of an attack on Agricola's role in introducing the Augsburg Interim.
48. Colosser, C.i.v': "Wozu dienen denn gute werck?"
49. Colosser, C.i.v : "Vnd hie sihestu/ das der dienst vnd die werck die dem nehsten geschehen/ lauter notwerck sind die geschehen mussen/ vnd dock nichts verdienen."
50. Colosser, C.ii.r : "du hast ytzund gehort/ das alle werck die wir thun/ not werck sind."
51. Colosser, C.ii.r°-v': "So hastu ein lebendiges zeugnis ... das Got bey vnd ynn dir wonet.... So erschrick fur dir selbs vnd furchte dich fur Gott/ klage es ym ... denn du hast noch nie ynn deinem hertzen empfunden/ wie gros die schetze vnd reichtum is[t] der gnaden."
52. See Susi Hausammann, Bu$e als Umkehr and Erneuerung von Mensch and Gesellschaft (Zurich: Theologischer Verlag, 1974), 187.
53. Colosser, K.viii.r : "finiti ad ifinitum [sic] nulla proportio." It is precisely the rejection of this philosophical presupposition that shapes later Lutheran understanding of the natures of Christ and the Lord's Supper.
54. Colosser, L.i.r': "der glaube on alle werck." The opposite of course is not true; that is, no work without faith pleases God.
57. For a comparison with Melanchthon's discussion in the Scholia of 1527 see pp. 80-89.
58. This practical application of a theology of the cross was matched by insistence on an understanding of the atonement that stressed Christ's victory over sin, death, and the devil (Colosser, E.vi.r') as opposed to Melanchthon's stress on Christ's satisfaction for sin. Agricola also emphasized the hidden wisdom of the Trinity (D.vi.r) and the scandal of the kingdom of God's being brought in by the incarnate Christ (H.vi.r ): "Gott richtet sein reich vnd weisheit auff mit thorheit."
59. Colosser, O.ii.v'. Agricola described for his audience Augustinian Cardinal Giles of Viterbo traveling through Italy at the behest of Pope Julius II and crying out, "Bon Tempo! Bon Tempo!"
55. Colosser, L.i.r°: "Also auch wo der glaube ist/ da kan er sich nicht bergen/ Syntemal er ein geist vnd ewiges ding ist/ vnd bedarff keiner leer/ wie er gebaren vnd wircken sol."
56. Colosser, L.i.v -N.i.r . Agricola would venture far more daring conclusions ten years later.
60. Colosser, O.iii.r : "Wie gar viel anders leren gute werck thus/ Moses/ das gestze [sic]/ menschliche ordnung/ weltliche satzung/ philosophey/ vnd die Apostel durchs Euangelion."
61. Colosser, J.vi.r°: "Gnade/ gnade/ ist es/ die die sunde nicht achtet/ noch guete werck ansihet." At the same time Agricola rejected all human rules, statutes and ceremonies, including the decrees of Nicea.
62. Colosser, J.vii.r': "Wercke verdammen mich nicht/ sonder der unglaube/ gleubstu/ so wirstu auch ynn der sunde selig."
63. The sermons on Colossians are peppered with such summaries, a technique Agricola also used in his commentary on Titus and to a lesser extent in the annotations on Luke.
64. Colosser, J.vii.v': "Philosophia sagt/ Wenn du sundigest/ so bistu verdampt/ furchte dich. Gottes wort sagt/ Wenn du sundigest/ so sey frolich/ Es sol nicht not haben/ Sunde verdammen dich nicht/ gute werck seligen dich nicht/ sonder der glaube an Jhesu Christ alleine/ denn darumb ist ynn der gemeine/ vergebung der sunden on vnterlas."
65. Colosser, D.vi.r'.
66. Colosser, D.v.r': "So sehen wir nu/ wie die Busse vnd vergebung der sund geubet sol werden/ weil wir leben/ vnd nicht auffhoren/ Busse die todtet/ vergebung der sunde trostet/ vnd macht lebendig/ Busse eroffnet die sunde/ vergebung der sund heylet sie."
67. Colosser, G.vii.v°: "Wenn aber nu die vergebung der sunde/ die losung des reichs Christi/ felt in die busse/ ynn die tauffe/ ynn des sunders hertze/ also das er beginnet nur daran zugedencken/ so nahet es sich zur aufferstehung."
68. For the printing history, see appendix 1. The earlier translations used the second edition of Melanchthon's annotations, published by John Herwagen of Strasbourg in January 1523. Agricola used a second edition that was published by Herwagen on 15 January 1524 and again in July 1525; it also contained Luther's preface to Romans from his translation of the New Testament. Similar complaints about the verbosity of German appear in Luther's own comments on translating the Bible and in Justus Jonas's comments about translating Melanchthon's Scholia.
69. The preface, Auslegung, 2r', reads in part: "Die weil ... die auslegunge meins lieben freundes Philippi Melanchthon vber die selbe Epistel also zuuor gedeudscht ist, das sie mehr nach lateynischer denn deudscher art redet, habe ich mich der muhe nicht ver- driessen lassen, die selbige nach vnser gemeynen sprache zu deudschen, den zu gut die nicht lateyn konnen. Ich habe auch vnterweilen vmb klerers verstands willen ein klein notelchen hynzu gesetzt, denn was ym lateyn kurtz geredt wird, mUssen wir deudschen villeycht das wir sein noch nicht gewonet sind, vnd viel ein ander art haben mit viel worten reden."
70. In the latter part of 1526 the work was already well on its way through the presses. On 5 January 1527 Gregory Borner wrote to Stephen Roth, "Darczu [woldeth mir ver- schaffen] ... dy zcwu Episteln zcun Romern vnnd Corynthern" (cited in Buchwald, 55, no. 103). A letter from George Rorer in 1527 (63, no. 129) requests Agricola's annotations on Luke with an index.
71. Hausammann, Bufe als Umkehr, 185-89, esp. 186.
72. Kjeldgaard-Pedersen, Gesetz, Evangelium and Bufle, 176f.
73. To name just one example, in comments on Romans 1:18f. Agricola added two pages to the discussion of the difference between faith and unbelief. This kind of free translation deserves its own study, especially since Agricola had heard a portion of Luther's lectures on Romans. See Ernst Koch, "Johann Agricola neben Luther: Schuler- schaft and theologische Eigenart," in Lutheriana: Zum 500. Geburtstag Martin Luthers von den Mitarbeitern der Weimarische Ausgabe, ed. Gerhard Hammer and Karl-Heinz zur Miihlen (Cologne and Vienna: Bohlau, 1984), 146.
74. Cf. MSA 4:52 with Auslegung, 214r'. (Except where the second edition, which Agricola used for his translation, differs from the first, we will cite the edition of 1 and 2 Corinthians in MSA 4.) The translation of 1524 includes the phrase "oder des gottlichen willens" and the term "gericht gottes" instead of "zorn." As we have seen, Agricola's understanding of the gospel entails a different set of functions.
75. Anno. in Rom., 4r': "Est ergo Lex odiosus sermo, quia impossibilia imperat, & reos agit, et terret omnes homines."
76. Auslegung, 6v f.: "Diese gesetz stymmen/ klingen fast vbel ynn der menschen oren/ denn es ist vnmoglich/ das sie yigend ein mensch moge thuen odder lassen/ Natur empfind kein grosser liebe/ denn die sie zu yhr selbst hat/ daraus sie Bich rechent an den sie nicht liebet/ Diese liebe wil der natur das gesetze weren/ vnd weiset der natur etwas anders das sie lieben sol denn sick/ vnd hold seyn dem das sie basset/ Derhalben ists ein feindselige predigt/ Du solt Gott mehr lieben denn dich/ odder must sterben/ dadurch auch ynn alle menschen schrecken vnd verzagen getrieben wird/ darynne es yederman stecken lest/ vnd hilfft nicht eraus."
77. Anno. in Rom., 25r': "Ideo legem [Deus] dedit, non quidem ut augeretur, sed ut cognosceretur peccatum, ut cognitum humiliaret, & ad gratiam Christ quaerandam in- uitaret humiliatos."
78. Auslegung, 73v°: "Gott hat darumb das gesetze geben, das es die sunde heuffete, auff das ein yeder seine gebrechen erkente. Denn was wenig ist, das sihet man nicht, vnd wens gros wird, so sihet es yederman. Auff das wenn yemands sein vngluck sehe, ge- demutiget werde vnd vrsach habe anderswo hulffe zu suchen."
79. This is not to say that Agricola completely rejected Melanchthon's exegesis. For example, he quite accurately rendered the conclusion to Melanchthon's arguments (74r'): "Summa. Das gesetze zeyget die sunde an/ vnd todtet/ Christus vergibt die sunde/ vnd macht lebendig." Melanchthon had written: "In summa, Lex ostendit peccatum et mor- tificat; Christus medetur & vivificat."
80. Auslegung, 22v*.
81. Anno- in Rom. , 9r': "omnes homines causatur iniustos & peccatores esse per legem"; Auslegung, 22v': "Also wan Gott durchs Euangelion/ durch die predige von seynem son/ gnade/ hulffe vnd ewiges leben verspricht/ so hat es [=Euangelion] keynen raum es verkundige denn auch den zorn Gottes/ von hymel herab/ ... auff das sie murb werden/ vnd Christus gerechtigkeit begeren teylhafftig zu werden/ ... alse Christus sagt ... ich byn nicht kommen/ die gerechten zu beruffen/ sonder die sunder zur busse." The final phrase, "zur busse," is not in the Latin text.
82. Koch, "Johannes Agricola neben Luther," 140-45.
83. Anno. in Rom., 36r': "Lex non est spiritus, Euangelium non est Spiritus, sed affectus amans legem. Affectus constanter credens Euangelio, Spiritus est"; and Auslegung, 101r*: "Das gesetze ist nicht geist/ Die lust/ die zum gesetze von hertzen gehet/ vnd das man dem Euangelio gleubet/ das ist geist."
84. Already in the argumentum Melanchthon defined poenitentia as one of the loci communes of the Corinthian correspondence. Moreover, in the preface to the Latin text of 2 Corinthians, published for the lectures on which the Annotationes were based, Melanchthon also insisted that this letter defined the "form of poenitentia." See MBW 172 (TI:358.14f.), dated September/October 1521.
85. MSA 4:95; Anzeygung, b.iv.v'; Auslegung, 261r .
86. MSA 4:96: "Ergo tum iustificatur lapsus, cum uere dolet & confidit Euangelio se absoluenti." The Anzeygung includes the words "warhafftig sich beschmertzt."
87. Auslegung, 26 IV: "Darumb wird/ der gefallen ist gerecht/ wenn et [sic =er] gleubet vnd trawet dem Euangelio/ das yhn loset."
88. MSA 4:96: "Quintum mortificationem contritionem vocant Scholae, sed mortificatio sola non iustificat, nisi credas remitti peccatum."
89. Auslegung, 261v': "Zum funfften/ Die Schullerer heissen die todtung/ rewe/ aber die todtung macht nicht gerecht/ wo du nicht gleubest/ dem Euangelio." The Anzeygung, c.i.r', reads: "doch die ertodtung alleyn macht nit rechtfertig/ nur alleyn du glaubst dann/ das dir nachgelassen vnnd vergeben werden die stind." The order from mortification to faith is clearly preserved.
90. MSA 4:96f.
91. MSA 4:97: "Tertium genus, est confessio priuata, quae quondam talis erat, ut liberum esset cuiuis confiteri, cum vellet & confitebantur, quoties conscientia angebat, consulebant sanctos, & absolutionem, & dei sententiam de se audiebant. Huius confes- sionis Basilius meminit in libello de institutis Monachorum, & huc pertinere uidetur, quod est apud lacobum, confitemini alter alteri peccata."
92. MSA 4:97: "Octauum, ergo si quaeratur V[trum] lure diuino exegatur confessio? Respon[deo]. Solam primam esse iuris diuini, confiteri si accuseris coram ecclesia. Item reconciliari fratri tuo, quern leseras. Nonum, si ultro emendes te, ita ut ecclesiae correp- tione non sit opus, non exigit ius diuinum confessionem. Decimum, Absolutio priuata necessaria est, sicut baptismus. Nam priuata absolutio, quae tibi fit, est testimonium quod tibi propria peccata condonata sunt, & illam sine recensione peccatorum petere possumus."
93. Auslegung, 262r': "Die dritte beycht is auch heymlich/ mit freyheit zu beychten/ wem man wolle/ allein das man acht babe auff die absolution/ wilche von dem bruder als thet es Gott/ geschicht/ Die ersten zwo beycht sind offentlich/ Die erste wil Gott haben von den Christen/ dieweyl sie leben/ Von der andern sagt Jacobus/ Nemlich wo einer den andern/ an leib/ ehre vnd gutt geschadet hette/ das er offentlich bekennet/ Bekennet eynander ewer siinde/ Auch gedencket yhr Basilius/ vnd ist auch von noten. Die dritte ist frey/ alleine wie gesagt ist/ das sie Gottes wort hat/ das ich hole/ vnd stehet bey mir/ das ich yhm sage odder nicht sage meinem gebrechen."
94. Auslegung, 262v°: "Summa/ Entweder wir mussen Christum verleugnen/ odder mussen genugthuen nichts seyn lassen."
95. MSA 4:98: "Epilogus huius loci. Ex hoc textu colliges argumentum de restituendis lapsis post baptismum, de abolendis satisfactionibus, de vi absolutionis, de insidiis di- aboli, etc."
1. Cohrs 1-4. This dependence is true even of the work of Ingrid Hruby in HKJL 2:190-244.
2. Johannes Meyer, Historischer Kommentar zu Luthers Kleinem Katechismus (Guters- loh: C. Bertelsmann, 1929).
3. John Michael Reu, Dr. Martin Luther's Small Catechism: A History of Its Origin, Its Distribution and Its Use (Chicago: Wartburg, 1929). Albrecht Peters's posthumous work on the catechism, Kommentar zu Luthers Katechismen, 5 vols. (Gottingen: Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, 1990-94), is more theological than historical and depends heavily upon all three scholars for its historical conclusions. Nevertheless, it represents an important contribution to the research. See also Peters's article "Die Theologie der Katechismen Luthers anhand der Zuordnung ihrer Hauptstucke," Luther-Jahrbuch 43 (1976): 7-35.
4. See appendix 2.
5. WA 10.2:355, printing "A," entitled, "Eyn bett buchlin I Der tzehen gepott. I Des glawbens. I Des vatter unliers. I Und des Aue Marien. I D. Martini Lutheri. I ......
6. WA 10.2:375.15-17: "Und yn des zum anfang dike eynfeltige Christliche form and spiegel die sund tzuerkennen unnd tzu beten fur hallten nach den tzehen gepotten and dem vatter unlier."
7. WA 7:204-29.
8. For details see WA 10.2:366-69.
9. WA 10.2:356f., "L," entitled: "Eyn Bett= I buchlin vnd 11e13e buchlin, I Mar. Luth. I gemehret vnd ge= I bessert. I ...... Schirlentz also prepared a second edition in the same year (not in the WA).
12. WABr 3:462.
13. Cited in Cohrs 4:247: "was fur Ubunge mit den unverstandigen kleinen Kindern solle gehalten werden."
14. Cited in Cohrs 4:248: "Catechismus propter discessum Eislebii cui sit commenda- tus, ignoro. Utinam a Jono suppleretur citoque ederetur in lucem, sperarem profectum inde maximum."
10. See Cohrs 4:247ff.
11. WABr3:431.
17. As Peters, "Die Theologie," 13, points out, this matches the transformation of auricular confession into preparation for the Lord's Supper.
18. WA 19:77.11-13: "Solch fragen mag man/ nemen aus dem unsern betbuchlin, da die drey stuck kurtz ausgelegt sind, odder selbs anders machen."
19. WA 19:79.17-20: "ynn seym rechten verstand."
15. WABr 3:582.
16. See WA 19:51.
20. The amazing success of these booklets places in question the common opinion that Luther's and Lutheranism's influence among the simpler folk waned after the Peasants' War. If anything, it increased as the Reformers themselves developed media for getting their particular message across, something they had not done in a consistent, organized manner heretofore.
21. The total number of printings throughout Germany of just these catechisms was at least 176. With the exception of Luther's "Prayer Booklet," these printings occurred between 1524 and 1529. Eight of the thirteen booklets were intended specifically for children. Three others claimed to derive their content directly from the Scriptures. All were meant to bring to the people the basics of evangelical teaching in the simplest possible form.
22. WA 10.2:358, "V," entitled simply "Eyn Bett= I buchlin. I Mar. Lut. I Wittemberg. 1 1525." This may well be a reworking of "N," a Niederdeutsch edition published in Hamburg.
24. See Joseph Muller, ed., Die Deutschen Katechismen der Bohmischen Bruder (Berlin: A. Hofmann, 1887), 4, 158. The German editions are titled "Eynn Schone I Frag vnd Ant= I wurt, den jungen kindern. Zuo I vnderweysen, Gott tzuoerkennen I ... " and "Eyne schon= I nye vorklarynghe/ des I kynder buckelins/ Wo muse/ I in dem rechten louen/ vii war= I cken/ leren schal/ yn be= I wys/ der hylgen sch= I ryfft gegrundet." For a more complete list of printings, thirteen in all and as many as three from Wittenberg, see HKJL 2:1104-6.
23. The sermons on prayer, baptism, penance, the Lord's Supper, and preparation for death match material in the Kirchenpostille; see WA 2:136-42, 175-77, 685-97, 727-37, and 15:481-505.
25. Cohrs 1:243-60. A second book, which was a necessary second step in catechesis after the child had memorized the Laienbibel (see Cohrs 4:3 1), was not published in Wittenberg. Toltz was formerly the rector of the academy in Wittenberg and city pastor. He died in 1573.
26. Cohrs 1:247: "Vnd [ich] sage, das ich nach meynem vorstande anders nicht weys, denn das dis Buchlyn Gottlich vnd nutze sey"
27. According to Cohrs, four reprints followed-one in Leipzig, one in Wittenberg, one unidentified printing, and one Niederdeutsch printing from Rostock or Lubeck, dated 16 February 1526. It was also printed three more times before 1530, once in Wittenberg and twice in Nuremberg, as part of Toltz's Tropi biblici.
28. Cohrs 3:359; HAB call no. 1222.98 Th. 8'. Rhau's initials appear in a shield on the title page.
29. These editions are not in Cohrs; see appendix 2 for the titles.
30. VD 16: G 3248-68 lists nineteen printings of this book, including one in Wittenberg in 1524. In addition, there were Wittenberg Niederdeutsch editions for two printings that were edited by Stephen Roth in 1525 and 1526.
31. VD 16: R 2024-56 lists thirty-one printings of this work, including six in Wittenberg (of the new edition only). One of the six is in Hochdeutsch (1525) and the other five in Niederdeutsch (three from 1525, two from 1526).
32. "Ein trostliche disputation, auff frag vnd antwort gestellet: Von zwayen Handtwercks mennern den glauben vnd die liebbe auch andere Christliche leer betreffen, auch form wie einer den andern Christenlich vnterweysen sol, gantz niitzlich zu den artickeln Doctoris Vrbani Regij vnd Gretzingers." Two editions of this booklet are mentioned by Cohrs 4:155, "German B & C," but only because these two printings contain Luther's five questions on the Lord's Supper. For a complete list of printings see appendix 2. Because the Nuremberg printing stated that it was "new corrigiert vnd gemert," there is good reason to assume that there were earlier editions.
33. Roth was called a "Hulfsprediger" already in 1524; see the Allgemeine Deutsche'Bi- ographie (1907 ed.), 53:564-67. He married Ursula Kruger, sister-in-law of the Wittenberg printer George Rhau, on 11 May 1524.
34. Cohrs's argument is taken over in the bibliography of HKJL 2:1088-90.
35. HAB call no. QuH 132.7 (5). This book does not appear in Cohrs (see appendix 2) or in VD 16. Given Rhau's later strong commitment to the work, it would not be surprising if he too had published a first edition.
36. Cohrs 1:187, "German a"; VD 16: B 6329; HAB call no. J 149.8' Helmst. (8). This kind of title booklet has a history of its own. It included ways to address the emperor, princes of various sorts, and the pope, cardinals, bishops, priests, abbots, and other clerics. The catechism is reprinted without the title booklet in Cohrs 1:200-236.
37. Cohrs 1:189, "A"; HAB call no. 1250.7 Theol. (1). Not listed in VD 16, this version is reprinted in Cohrs 1:200-238.
38. See Cohrs 1:17-64.
39. Cohrs 1:192; VD 16: B 9113 and B 9114; HAB call no. QuH 161.26 (6).
40. Cohrs 1:190, "German A"; VD 16: B 9115. The date on the cover is 1525, but in the colophon, 1526.
41. Niederdeutsch, 1526: 1. Cohrs 1:187, "German b"; VD 16: B 6331 (Nicholas Schirlentz); 2. Cohrs 1:188, "German c"; VD 16: B 6332 (Hans Weill); 3. VD 16: B 6330; HAB call no. QuH 169.4 (1) (Erfurt: Loorsfeld). Niederdeutsch, 1527: Cohrs 1:188, "German d"; VD 16: B 6333 (Erfurt: Loorsfeld). Niederdeutsch, around 1527: VD 16: B 6334; HAB call no. QuH 132.3 (1) (George Rhau). Hochdeutsch, 1526: Cohrs 1:190, "German B"; VD 16: B 9116 (George Rhau). Hochdeutsch, 1527: Cohrs 1:190, "German C"; VD 16: B 9117 (George Rhau). Hochdeutsch, 1528: Cohrs 1:190, "German D"; VD 16: B 9118 (Joseph Klug).
42. The original was printed on 11 May 1527; see Cohrs 1:22, "German C" (=SM 5.1:cxxvii, no. 2). The second printing was by Thomas Wolff in Basel on 1 June 1527; see Cohrs 1:22, "German D" (=SM 5.I:cxxvii, no. 3). The third printing occurred on 12 July (1527) by Wolff Kopphel; see Cohrs 1:23, "German E" (=SM 5.1:cxxviii, no. 5).
45. Roth, 66, no. 138: "Mein bettbuchlein, wilchs yhr mir zugericht habt, wil ich, ab gott wil, anheben zu drucken."
46. Roth, 70, no. 149: "Wisset auch das mir der Doctor Mart: erleubet hat mein Bett- buchlein (so yr mir yn ein ordenung gestellet habt) erleubet hat zu drucken, vnd wenn ich sonst nicht mehr zu drucken hab, so wil ichs aufflegen vnd ich lasse itzt die figuren dazu schneiden." Rhau's "prayer booklet" should not be confused with Luther's own, printed in this same period by Hans Lufft.
47. Hochdeutsch: Cohrs 1:191, "2A"; VD 16: B 9120. Niederdeutsch: Cohrs 1:188, "German e"; VD 16: B 6335; HAB call no. J 151.8' Helmst. (1). Latin: Cohrs 1:189, "B." In 1530 Joseph Klug reprinted the Niederdeutsch (Cohrs 1:189, "German f"; VD 16: B 6336) and George Rhau the Latin (Cohrs 1:190, "C"). The Latin and Niederdeutsch editions were basically reprints of the material from 1525. Besides the editions listed above, there are also a Niederdeutsch edition from Erfurt in 1531 (VD 16: B 6337) and one from Rostock in 1561 (VD 16: B 6338). An unidentified Wittenberg printing from 1534 (Cohrs 1:190, "German E"; VD 16: B 9121), which reproduced the 1526 Hochdeutsch edition, may also have come from Joseph Klug's press.
43. Cohrs 1:191, no. 1; VD 16: B 9119.
44. Cohrs 1:180.
50. "HORTVLVS ANIMAE. I [red] Lustgarten der See= I [red] len: Mit schonen lieb= I [red] lichen Figuren. I [woodcut of Christ's resurrection] I [red] 1548." 4'. Colophon: "Ge- druckt zu Wit= I temberg durch I Georgen I Rhaw. I [Leaf] I [Decoration]." A woodcut of Rhau appears on G.iii.r . The quotation is from A.ij.v': "Nu hab ich ... euch zum Herrn Christo gebracht, vnd durch andere bringen lassen: Also das jr die Tauffe empfangen, vn[d] auch fast alle ewren Catechismum, wie denselbigen vnser lieber herr vnd vater D. Martinus mit einer kurtzen auslegung jnn Fragestucke gefasset, auswendig gelernet."
48. WA 10.2:359, "Z." This was reprinted immediately by Lufft in 1530.
49. WA 10.2:361, "m." This version is 16', not 8' as indicated in the WA.
51. See Cohrs 1:207ff.
52. Cohrs 4:249.
53. "IN CAPVT I EXODI .XX. PHILIPI I MELANCHTH. I SCHOLIA." 8°. [4] leaves. In SM 5.l:cxxv, Cohrs mistakenly counts this as a sixth printing. It was in fact the first and soon after its initial appearance was reprinted with other material. In 1523 Ulrich Morhard of Tubingen published it with Melanchthon's short commentary on Genesis (SM 5.1:cxxiii, no. 1). In 1524 it appeared in Nuremberg with the second edition of Luther's "On the Freedom of the Christian," and with Melanchthon's speech "De officio sacerdotali" (SM 5.1:cxxiv, no. 2). It also appeared three times in translation in 1525 (SM 5.l:cxxv f., nos. 1, 2, and 3), one of which (no. 3) was printed in Wittenberg.
54. SM 5.1:cxxvii, no. 8 (cf. also nos. 1 and 3, which I take to be references to the same printing). Joseph Klug reprinted this work in 1527 under the same title (SM 5.1:cxxvi, no. 4). Perhaps he was the original printer.
55. SM 5.1:cxxvii, no. 1; cf. VD 16: M 3173, where the printer is identified. This work reappeared in the three versions of "Eyn buchlin" published in Strasbourg and Basel in 1527 (SM 5.1:cxxvii f., nos. 2, 3, and 5; see n. 42). It was published separately, perhaps by a Wittenberg publisher, in 1529 (SM 5.l:cxxviii, no. 4).
56. SM 5. l :cxxvi, no. 2; VD 16: M 3168. This Latin version was reprinted shortly thereafter (SM 5.1:cxxvii, no. 9; VD 16: M 3172).
58. SM 5.l:xxvii, cxix.
59. See VD 16: M 3320. The title reads: "Etlike spro Ike dar jnne dat gan= I tze Christlyke leuent I geuatet ys/ nutlick alle= I wege vor ogen tho heb I bende vnde tho be= I trach- tende. I Philippus Mela[n]chthon I M.D.XXvij." 8'. [12] leaves.
60. Also mitigating against a publication date late in 1527 for "Etliche Spriiche" was its inclusion in Luther's "Prayer Booklet" printed in 1527 in Nuremberg by Jerome Form- schneyder (WA 10.2:358f., "X"; SM 5. l :cxxx, no. 3). George Rhau included it as a separate part of his 1529 edition of "Eyn buchlin" (SM 5.1:cxxx, no. 2; VD 16: M 3316 and E 4083).
62. The teaching plan for the school (worked out in conjunction with Melanchthon?) proposed bringing the children to fear of God, to faith, and to good morals: "Et ut acuatur cura discendorum sacrorum in pueris non sufficiet his multa praelegisse. Sed cogentur ediscere orationem Dominicam, Symbolon Apostolorum, Decalogum, lectissimos psalmos et certos alios locos scripturae, qui ne e memoria excidant, exiget tanquam pensum diei Dominici praeceptor, ut recenseantur ordine memoriter" (Cohrs 2:3).
57. SM 5.1:cxxix: "Etliche spruch I darynn das ga= I ntz Christlich leben I gefasset ist, nutzlich I allweg fur augen I zu betrach= I ten/ I Philip. Melanch. I Wittemberg 1 1527 I."
61. For discussion of the unfinished catechism of 1528 see pp. 146-48.
63. Cohrs 2:12, "A"; VD 16: A 973. This was reprinted in Haguenau by Amandus Farcal in the same year (Cohrs 2:12, "B"; VD 16: A 972).
64. Cohrs 2:12, "German A"; VD 16: A 975 and 976 (two printings were made in this year).
65. Cohrs 2:18.
66. Roth, 56, no. 108. The fact that Buchholzer specified the German version may imply that the Latin was also available.
67. Zwickau: Gabriel Kantz, 1527 (Cohrs 2:13, "German B"; VD 16: A 977); (Augsburg: Philip Ulhart, Sr.) 1527 and 1528 (Cohrs 2:13, "German C and E"; VD 16: A 974 and 979, where the printer is identified); Nuremberg: George Wachter, 1528 (Cohrs 2:13, "German D"; VD 16: A 980). VD 16: A 978 lists an unidentified printing from 1528.
68. Cohrs 2:14; VD 16: A 981.
69. Cohrs 2:266, "German A"; VD 16: A 996. See also HKJL 2:210-22.
70. The "130 Questions" was reprinted in 1528 by John StUchs in Nuremberg (Cohrs 2:267, "German B"; VD 16: A 992); by George Wachter in Nuremberg (Cohrs 2:267, "German C; VD 16: A 993); by Gabriel Kantz in Zwickau (Cohrs 2:267, "German D"; VD 16: A 997); and in Niederdeutsch by John Weiss in Wittenberg (Cohrs 2:268, "German a"; VD 16: A 989). The "156 Questions" was printed in 1528 by Jobst Gutknecht in Nuremberg (Cohrs 2:268, "German E"; VD 16: A 991); by (John Knoblauch) in Strasbourg (Cohrs 2:268, "German F"; VD 16: A 995); in 1529 by Hans Lufft in Wittenberg (Cohrs 2:269, "German G"; VD 16: A 998); by George Wachter in Nuremberg (undated) (Cohrs 2:269, "German H"; VD 16: A 994); and by Melchior Sachssen in Erfurt (VD 16: A 990).
71. MSA 2.1:149-55.
72. See WA 15:439f. for the printing history of the sermon and WA 15:481-505 for the text. Within two years it was printed four times in Wittenberg by three different printers, including George Rhau.
73. WA 10.1-2: XV-XXI; WA 17.2:246f. This Postil was published eight times separately (including the famous theft by the Regensburg printer Paul Kohl) and seven times (before 1530) with the Advent and Christmas Postil.
74. See Cohrs 1:176-78 for his theory that the material stems from "Eyn sendebrieff I herrn Johan Bugenhagen I Pomern/ Pfarrer zu I Wittemberg/ vber I eyne frage vom I Sacrament. I Item eyn vnter I richt von der beycht vnd I Christlichen absolution. I Wittemberg I MDXXV." The letter is dated at the end: "Geschriben zu Wittemberg am mid- wochen fur Epiphanie Domini [4 January] M.D.XXV." 4'. [6] leaves. [Rhau- GrUnenberg.] There were some parallels in words and phrases, and the letter, like the booklet, did divide confession into two, rather than three, kinds. It was less a source than representative of the teaching in the Wittenberg city church at that time. Someone familiar with the letter, such as Stephen Roth, could easily have used it as the basis for his own explanation of confession.
75. Cohrs 1:236: "Dauon lies weytter yn dem Bettbuchlyn D. Mart. Luth."
76. Cohrs 1:236: "Reliqua lege vel in Locis communibus Philippi, vel in libello D. Martini de Confessione."
79. Muller, Deutschen Katechismen, 181f.
77. WA 15:482.23-484.18.
78. Cohrs 1:236.
80. Muller, Deutschen Katechismen, 182: "Ouerst bote mote wy don, Na einer anderen wyse, Nomelyken also, wenner wy vnse sunde bekennen, so vorschercket sick vnse con- scientie vor deco rechten gerychte Gades......
81. Cohrs 1:255.
82. Disputation, B.v.v': "Man sagt ich darff nicht beichten."
83. Disputation, B.vi.r : "Erstlich aber will ich dir sagen von der rew/ darnach von der beicht/ yn letzt von der pull." Here the author separates the subject into the traditional medieval divisions of contrition, confession, and satisfaction.
84. Disputation, B.vi.v': "Von ersten erschreckt er [Gott] den menschen mit dem gesetz/ das der mensch ein engstigs gewissen hatt vor erkentnis seiner sunde.... Vnd [Gott] trost den menschen sussiglich durch das Euangelion."
85. Disputation, B.vii.r : "Ynn der beicht wird dig Gottliche wort gesprochen/ Dir werden vergeben deine sunde."
86. Disputation, B.vii.v': "Christus ist dir nicht Christus/ denn allein du bekennest dich kranck."
87. Disputation, B.viii.r .
88. Disputation, B.viii.v': "Die dritte beicht/ wenn sich der mensch nicht allein da- heym fur yhm selbs Gott beklagt sondern auch fur andern leuten/ Denn einem rechten Christen menschen ist die oren beicht nicht schwer/ sondern gut."
89. Disputation, B.viii.v°: "das heilig creutz/ das ist/ schandvnd scham/ das ander das trostlich verheissen Gottes."
92. WA 10.2:377.4-6: "A11lo leren die gepot den menschen seyn kranckheyt erkennen, das er sihet/ and empfindet, was er thun and nit thun, lasszen and nit lassen kan und/ erkennet sich eynen sunder and bollen menschen."
93. WA 10.2:377.15f.: "zu leren und/ erkennen unl,ere sund, boitheyt, das ist geyst- liche kranckeyt, da durch wyr nit thun noch lassen, wie wyr wol schuldig seyn."
90. Disputation, C.ij.r : "gnugen das man nymmer thue."
91. WA 7:204-29 (= WA 10.2:376-407).
94. WA 10.2:385.14-19 and 388.15-18.
95. "Eyn buchlin" (Schirlentz, 1525), A.vii.r : "Zum ersten/ das er wisse/ was er thun and lassen sol/ das leren yhn die Zehen gepott. Zum andern/ wen er nu sicht/ das er das selbige nicht thun noch lassen kan/ aus seynen krefften/..
96. Gretzinger, A.vi.v°: "... vns bringt zu erkentnis vnser selbs/ vnd vnser sund/ vnd vns zu schanden mach/ vnd an vns selbs lere verzweifflen."
97. Rhegius, Ei.r : "... man guts gepeut vnd boses verpeut."
98. Rhegius, F.i.r : "Man kompt mit dem gesetz nicht weiter denn ynn erschrecken vnd erkentnis seiner sunde vnd verdamnis."
101. Rhegius, H.vii.r : "Das ist nicht recht/ man sol der buberey damit kein deckman- tel machen."
102. Disputation (Nuremberg, 1525), C.iv.v': "Lieber bruder sag mir wie geschicht die todtung des alten menschen vnd das leben des newen?"
99. Rhegius, F.i.r : "Das Euangelion trost den menschen/ vnd zeigt yhm den artzt."
100. Rhegius, H.vi.v .
103. Rauth, C.ij.r': "Was sol denn anders draus folgen/ denn das ich an alien meinen eignen krefften mus verzagen ... vnd das ist vor der gnad sein eigen werck."
104. Rauth, C.ij.v : "die rechte pull der sunden."
107. Cohrs 3:369.
105. Rauth, C.iij.r : "die welt wil yhm zu eng werden."
106. Cohrs 1:247.
108. SM 5.1:16.22 ("entsetzen and erschrecken"). This was repeated at 17.1-5.
109. SM 5.1:19.12-15: "... fleig, mue, arbait oder gedancken, and das wir nit sollen vertrauen in unsere werck."
110. SM 5.1:20f. (=MBW 153 [T1:153]). It can be argued that Melanchthon understood instruction to fall under what he later called the first (i.e., civil) use of the law and not the second, a fact that could explain the moralizing tone. However, the "Enchiridion" is simply too brief to determine this with certainty.
1 l 1. Cohrs 2:20.
112. Cohrs 2:21: "Natur, fleisch vnd blut sucht doch das vnd liebet es das yhm wol thut, herwidderumb, so ist es alle dem feind vnd basset es, das yhm wehe thut vnd zuwidder ist. Also ist das gesetze, wie wir Deudschen sagen, ein knottel bey dem hunde, das er nicht allzu geyl werde, sondern ein wenig zam, widder semen danck." For the saying "to lay the cudgel by the dog," see Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, Deutsches W6rterbuch (Leipzig, 1873), 5:1532. It meant "to keep one from becoming proud."
113. Cohrs 2:35: "Derhalben werden wir hie alle schuldig am gesetze vnd an alien gepotten Gottes unsers Herrn, die von Adam geborn seyn."
114. Cohrs 2:45: "Das wortlin glaub schleusset, das these Artickel alle der Natur frembde, seltzam vnd vnmuglich seyn zu begreiffen. Denn was man gleuben mus, das ist vber alle synne, alle menschen vernunfft, witz vnd verstand, man sihet nichts, man greif- fet nichts, man gleubt es nUr."
115. Cohrs 2:64: "heertrumme, damit man berufft zu rustung vnd gegenwere, zu der heiligen gemeynschafft die gleubigen."
116. Cohrs 2:66: "Yn vnsers Herr Gotts sachen, sie seyn gros oder kleine, so mus man auf zwey ding acht haben. Auf das wort, vnd auf den Glauben."
117. Cohrs 2:66: "Also, wenn man saget ym Euangelio von vergebung der sunden ... so las dir schlecht an den worten genugen, vnd gleube yhnen."
118. Cohrs 2:75: "eusserlichen wandel der, die da gleuben vnter den leuten auf erden." It is no wonder that ten years later, during the antinomian controversy involving Luther and Agricola, the cry was heard that the law belonged in city hall ("Das Gesetz auf dem Rathaus").
119. Cohrs 2:83: "Von der Busse 1. Wem ein ding leyd ist, der ist schon der sunden los. Busse ist ein newes hertz vnd andere gedancken, als, Wer vorhyn hat lust gehabt zu vnkeuscheit, vnd wird yhr ytzund feind, Ephe. 5. Wer vorhyn gestolen hat, der steele ytzund nymmer, Yn Summa, Nymmer thuen ist die hochste busse. 2. Dis newe herze vnd andere gedancken gibt widder almussen, nach wercke, nach fasten, nach vnser genugthuung, sondern der heilige geist machet sie, den vns Christus geschencket hat aus laut- ern gnaden, da er gen hymel gefaren ist." The last phrase in the Latin reads, "but the Holy Spirit, imparted by the blood of Christ, supplies and effects them (sed spiritus sanctus, partus Christi sanguine, suppeditat atque efficit)."
120. To be sure, in the Latin version the Holy Spirit was said to be imparted "sanguine Christi," but this was a far cry from the discussions of Melanchthon and others on the satisfaction of Christ.
121. Uncertainty about the gift of the Holy Spirit seems implied here. Elsewhere Agricola wrote that through the firmness of our faith we know we have the Holy Spirit.
1. SM 5.1:61: "Von Busse and furcht des erschreklichen zorns gottes and dem anfang Christlichs lebens."
2. SM 5.1:61: "Anfang des christlichen lebens ist hertzlich and ernstlich erschrecken vor dem zorn gottes uber unser sunde, Darumb hat auch Christus sein predig daran an- gefangen. Darumb sollen wir allweg fur augen haben, wie hart gott treuet den verechtern seines zorns, and wie ehr an forcht gefallen tregt."
3. SM 5.1:63f.
4. SM 5.1:64: "Wo nicht forcht ist, kann auch nicht glaub sein, denn der glaub soil das erschroken hertz trosten, das es gewislich halte, got hab die sunde umb Christus willen verzigen."
5. Ibid.: "sonder ein warhafftiger trost in solcher angst, die da kompt aus erkantnus der sunden."
6. The third section of the booklet, "Vom Creutz" (SM 5.1:66), began by describing the cross as "ubung des glaubens in anfechtung." Prayer, care for one's body, good works, obedience to the authorities, love of neighbor, and chastity are also included in the "practice of faith."
7. MSA 4:212.30f.: "At nihil est fides sine poenitentia nisi inane somnium."
8. Colosser, E.vi.v°: "Hie nimpt yhm S. Pauel/ raum vnd macht ein ausflucht."
9. MSA 4:220.22f. (cf. 221.12-14): "Est autem obiter inserta personae Christi de- scriptio."
10. Johann Bugenhagen, Annotationes ... in Epistolas Pauli, ad Galatas, Ephesios, Philippenses, Colossenses, Thessalonicenses primarn & secundam, Emotheum primam & secundam, Iitum, Philemonem, Hebraeos, 2d ed. (Basel: Adam Petri, 1525), 118: "Ampli- ficatione adhuc latius excurrit."
11. For a more detailed look at Melanchthon's position see Timothy J. Wengert, Human Freedom, Christian Righteousness: Philip Melanchthon's Exegetical Dispute with Erasmus of Rotterdam (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998), ch. 6.
12. Colosser, J.ii.v': "alley was aus menschlicher vernunfft kompt/ nemlich guete ordnung vnd politey machen/ schlosser/ stedte/ lender regieren vnd bawen/ burgerliche zucht auffrichten/ die iugent ynn alley erberkeit/ vnd disciplin auffziehen/ nach fride vnd einickeit trachten/ vnd alles was gutes ymmer mehr mag auff erden sein."
13. Colosser, J.iii.r'-v': "Die bienen haben vierley guter art vnd tugent/ Farsichtickeit/ denn sie bawen/ vnd furen gute burgerliche ordnung vnd politey/ sie haben gros act auff yhren Konig/ wo yhn der hinfurgehet/ da volgen sie yhm/ Grossen mut ym streit widder ihre feinde die wilden bienen/ vnd sterben ym stiche/ Messickeit/ denn sie ersparen das honig vnd wachs/ dazu ist kein vnkeuscheit vnter yhnen." Cf. Pliny Natural History 8.1.1 and 11.4.11-13. Unlike Agricola and Melanchthon, Pliny did not mention the four virtues. (Ancient and Renaissance science thought that bees were headed by kings, not queens.)
14. MSA 4:239.14-21: "quia tecta construunt et constituunt rem publicam ... quia suis regibus diligentissime obtemperant ... quia acerrime dimicant cum fucis ... quia et venerem nesciunt et mella ad usus nostros conficiunt."
15. A search of Erasmus's Adagia and Parabolae, however, as well as Luther's works, turned up no exact parallel.
16. Because we have no external references dating Melanchthon's lectures on Colossians exactly, this reconstruction should be considered simply a plausible explanation.
17. Since Melanchthon was in Eisleben at the end of October, the lectures could not have begun before November. Since he did not meet Agricola during his stay, it is impossible to say whether he saw Agricola's sermons at that time. For the timing of the lectures, see Peter F. Barton, "Die exegetische Arbeit des jungen Melanchthon 1518/19 his 1528/29: Probleme and Ansatze," ARG 54 (1963): 52-89, especially 82-84; and, more recently, Timothy J. Wengert, "Melanchthon's Biblical Commentaries," in Philip Melanchthon (14971560) and the Commentary, ed. M. Patrick Graham and Timothy J. Wengert (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1997).
18. Problematic here is that the Scholia contains many additions, making it hard to judge when Melanchthon's original lectures reached a particular verse. Given the additions to Colossians 2:8 and 2:23, it is possible that he lectured on this material as late as February.
19. Roth, 55, no. 103 (Gregory Borner to Stephen Roth; 5 January 1527).
20. Wilhelm Maurer, Der junge Melanchthon zwischen Humanismus and Reformation, 2 vols. (Gottingen: Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, 1967, 1969); Barton, "Die exegetische Arbeit," 52-89; Paul Schwarzenau, Der Wandel im theologischen Ansatz bei Melanchthon von 1525-1535 (Gutersloh: C. Bertelsmann, 1956).
21. See WA 11:245-80 ("Uon welltlicher uberkeytt"), WA 15:9-53 ("An die Radherren"), and WA 19:623-62 ("Ob Kriegesleute auch in seligen Stande sein konnen").
22. Regarding Melanchthon's use of Luther see Timothy J. Wengert, Philip Melanchthon's "Annotationes in Johannem" in Relation to Its Predecessors and Contemporaries (Geneva: Librairie Droz, 1987), 147-66.
23. Colosser, J.iiii.r': ". . . das man fur augen sehe/ wie die burgerlichen tugende/ die auch die thier eins teils von natur haben/ niemands frum vnd zum Christen machen." Cf. MSA 4:239.21-23: "Et sicut ob has virtutes non dicuntur [apes] Christianae, ita neque homines suet Christiani propter solos civiles mores."
24. Colosser, J.iii.v : "Denn das Euangelion wenn es kompt/ so bessert es these burgerliche zucht/ vnd macht sie rechtschaffen/ Darumb sol man die iunge kinder ynn der iugent/ der heiden vnd welt historien lernen lassen/ auch das Euangelion nach dem buchstaben/ ab Gott wolte kommen vnd die selben Naturalia besseren vnd zu seinem dienst brauchen/ Zungen lernen ist Philosophia/ vnd dennoch hat Gott die zungen zum dienst seins Euangelii/ das zu diesen letsten zeitten solt ynn Deudschen landen gepredigt werden/ lang zuuor her geschickt/ also auch mit der druckereien/ wilche nie gewesen ist/ sieder das die welt gestanden ist." Many of these themes came from Luther's An die Radherren.
25. MSA 4:236.28-31. For a complete description of the excerpt, the "Dissertatio" on Colossians 2:8, see Wengert, Human Freedom, ch. 6.
26. Colosser, J.iiii.v . "Extravagantes" were later portions of canon law not found in all collections; "extravagatorum extravagantes" was Agricola's derisive name for them.
27. Colosser, J.v.v': "... ynn das Tuto/ ynn das Das/ ym Leib/ vnd weis nicht wo er hynaus sol/ so yrre macht die Philosophey"
28. See Wengert, Human Freedom, ch. 6.
29. Colosser, J.vi.r': "Sundigen sie so/ lauffen sic zu Christo vnd schutten sie auff yhn/ thun sie etwas gutes/ so ist es nicht ihr sondern sein/ Sic bedurffen kein gesetzs Timoth 1. Den gerechten ist kein gesetze geben/ Sic geben die mittelstrassen vnd von guten wercken vnd bosen frey/ also/ das yhn kein sunde zur selickeit schadet/ nach kein gut werck fromet/ Gnade/ gnade/ ist es/ die die sunde nicht achtet/ noch guete werck ansihet."
30. Colosser, J.vi.r': "Do faren denn zu/ die allerheiligsten leute/ wenn sie sehen/ das die leute so vnordenlich leben/ vnd wollen der sachen mit geboten/ regeln/ statuten vnd anderen Ceremonien helffen/ vnd als bald wenn das Euangelion vnd Christen leben/ ynn regel gefasset wird/ so ist es nymmer Euangelion/ vnd Gott wird verleugnet/ der sein wort wit freiwillig gefasset haben/ Daruber niemand rigieren sol denn sein Son."
31. Colosser, J.vi.r': "vnd alle veter die regeln gemacht haben/ alle Concilien/ darinne etwas beschlossen ist worden/ wie denn ynn alien auch ynn Nicena Synodo/ von eusser- lichem leben."
32. Colosser, J.vii.r : "Wenn wir einen tage mit guten gedancken/ des nehisten dinst/ predigen/ erbieten/ schreiben/ lesen/ zubracht haben/ so gefalle/ wir vns wol vnd sagen/ Ach wenn ich alle tage also thete/ so were es yhe fein vnd wurde Gotte wolgefallen/ Her- widderumb/ wenn wir einen tag vbel zubringen/ so furchten wir vns sere/ schreien vnd klagen/ Es sey vnrecht gethan/ wir werden nur verdampt werden/ vnd das alles beides ist Christi vnd seiner gnaden gespottet."
33. Colosser, J.vii.r : "Gleubstu/ so wirstu auch ynn der sunde selig."
34. Colosser, J.vii.v : "Wenn du sundigest/ so sey frolich/ Es sol nicht not haben."
35. Portions of his exegesis of this text were also aimed at Erasmus. See Wengert, Human Freedom, ch. 7.
36. MSA 4:272.33-273.2: "Et huiusmodi fere sunt veteres ordinationes et hoc consilio factae, quas servandas esse, non tamquam necessarias ad iustificationem, sed pacis causa, et ne qua confusio fiat." First Corinthians 7:18 was cited as proof.
37. MSA 4:273.4: "graviter laedunt caritatem."
38. MSA 4:273.1 Of : "qui veteribus ordinationibus mutatis accipiunt occasionem licentiae et fiunt deteriores."
39. MSA 4:273.18-23: "Sic Nicena Synodus constituit, cum de ordinationibus ecclesiarum deliberaretur, nec novam aliquam formam omnibus ecclesiis tradi voluit, sed ius- sit singulis locis veteres consuetudines servare."
40. MSA 4:276.26-28: "Haec volui ad finem adicere, ut monerem, quantum fieri sine peccato possit, veteres ordinationes servandas esse."
41. MSA 4:276.32f.: "maximorum scandalorum auctores, videlicet dissensionis in ecclesiis, licentiae vulgi."
44. MSA 4:211-12.
42. MSA 4:277.5f.: "... ne nunc diabolus alicubi vitiata doctrina libertatis nos decipiat."
43. Colosser, A.iii.r'-v': "Sum ersten erzelet er die gute vnsers herngots/ die er vns erzeiget hat vnd sagt auff was weyse/ wie/ wo! wenn/ durch wen/ warumb/ vnd wem das alles zu gut geschehen sey/ ... Zum andern dringt er mit gewalt auff die Colosser den vol- ligen verstand/ des reichtumbs ym erkentnus des geheimnis gotes/ das sie darynne bleiben vnd mutig mit freuden beharren sollen/ vnd Bich durch kein engel gesicht noch hubsche rede/ noch philosophei/ noch gottes gesetze selbs nicht binden noch verfiiren lassen/ noch von dieser fulle der schatzkamer gottes/ von Jhesu Christo/ abwenden lassen/ Vnd ynn dem zu yrhem trost vnd storcke/ beschreibt vnd malet er/ den triumph vnd herlichen sieg Christi Jesu/ mit seinen feinden."
45. Colosser, B.iii.r -C.vii.r .
46. MSA 4:215.29-31: "De hoc loco scio alios multa subtiliter disputasse sed ego hoc genus quaestionis nihil existimo prodesse ad vulgus."
47. Scholia 1528, 5v°: "De hoc loco scio subtiliter disputari solere. Nos vero explicabimus eum, quam poterimus, crassissime." For a detailed look at the changes in 1528 see pp. 156-69. Melanchthon rewrote this entire section.
48. MSA 4:215.32f.: "quid sit gratis nec praemii respectu Deo servire."
49. MSA 4:215.33-216.1: "Immo prodest illos tamquam legis praedicatione ad pi- etatem excitare poenarum et praemiorum mentione."
50. MSA 4:216.
51. MSA 4:224.11-15: "...non docere tantum eos, qui nondum habent Spiritum sanctum, sed etiam coercere a manifestis flagitiis seu a transgressionibus, sicut ait legem propter transgressionem, id est: ad coercendam carnem esse positam."
52. MSA 4:253.
53. MSA 4:246-47.
54. MSA 4:229.31-33.
55. MSA 4:247.1-5: "Mortificatio seu poenitentia est cognoscere peccatum et vere ter- reri iudicio Dei.... Nec potest esse fides sine tali timore vel terrore." He offered a nearly identical definition in MSA 4:247.19-29, adding many more proof texts.
56. MSA 4:247: "vere perterrefias metu divini iudicii"; "sicut David ... perterritus est"; "hic terror est ipsa poenitentia."
57. MSA 4:248.30: "consolationem concipere per fidem."
58. See pp. 158-64. In explaining this text Agricola, Colosser, K.i.v', referred the audience to his earlier discussion of Peter and Judas (see pp. 36-37).
59. MSA 4:287-91.
60. MSA 4:259-77, which contains Melanchthon's response to Agricola's discussion of freedom (see pp. 87-89).
61. MSA 4:289.15-19: "Quia vero evangelium, sicut supra diximus, continet praedicationem poenitentiae, necesse est legis partem, quae cordis iustitiam docet, retineri. Ea est decalogus, is nos condemnat et ad poenitentiam vocat."
62. MSA 4:289.34-290.1: "ne putaremus eam legis partem abrogatam esse."
63. MSA 4:290.32-33: "Neque enim potent rernissio peccatorum sine poenitentiae praedicatione doceri."
64. MBW 610 (CR 1:919-21, here 919), dated 23 October 1527: "Nihil habet, nisi quandam puerilem Katij i nv, ut ita dicam, Christianae religionis."
65. CR 1:920: "Et in illa ipsa xa[rlxr aet quid aliud secutus sum, nisi, ut necessaria in Ecclesiis docerentur, omissis controversiis plerisque."
66. For the most recent literature, see Gunther Wartenberg, MLStA 3:402-5. Most important is the material edited by Emil Sehling in Die evangelischen Kirchenordnungen des XVI. Jahrhunderts (Aalen: Scientia, 1979 reprint), I.1:31-41 and 142-49; and Hans-Walter Krumwiede's excellent work Zur Entstehung des landesherrlichen Kirchenregiments in Kursachsen and in Braunschweig-Wolfenbuttel (Gottingen: Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, 1967), 48-145.
67. Krumwiede, Zur Entstehung, 70, errs when he describes Melanchthon as a member of the arts faculty alone. His comments reflect the scholarly opinion of his time.
68. Ibid., n. 83a, citing a letter to the elector which reads in part, "Darinnen sich zuge- tragen, das vast einmutiglich Doctor Hieronimus Schurpf and Magister Philippus Melanc- ton fursgeslagen and genent seind.... Und ob wohl ethlich wenig stymmen auch auf andere neben Magister Philipp gefallen, als nehmlich of den itzigen unser universitet Rector Licentiat Benedict Pauli, Pomeranus hye den pfarrer, den Propst Doctor Jonas, go ist doch aus dem, das derselb von itztlichen and disser aus bessern bedenken von Doctor Martino and den meysten stymmen angeben auf die beide eintrechtiglich beslossen worden."
69. For the text see Sehling, Die evangelischen Kirchenordnungen, 142-48. For the most recent analysis, see Krumwiede, Zur Entstehung, 71-91.
70. Sehling, Die evangelischen Kirchenordnungen, 142: "Und sol anfenglich diss das furhalten ungeferlich sein, das wir bevelen, inen and andern den unsern anzuzaigen. Wie wol got der almechtige sein ewiges gotlichs wort der welt reichlich and gnediglich in diesen letzten tagen widerumb hat erscheinen lassen and unser lande fur andern mit solcher heilwertigen gnaden aus uberschwenglicher guthe and barmherzigkeit gnediglich vorsehen...."
71. See MBW 563, 565, 567, 574, 594, and the sources listed there.
72. MBW 575 (CR 1:883f.), a letter to Camerarius dated 15 August 1527. In MBW 589 (Bindseil, 30), a letter dated 10 September to the electoral counselors at the Torgau, Melanchthon and Schurff asked to be excused from doing any further visitations since they alone were teaching law and theology in Jena.
73. See, for example, WABr 4:229-31 (a letter dated 16 August 1527): sending Luther an early edition of the Articles in German, Elector John asked him to avoid division and work on them with Bugenhagen. Luther's response to George Spalatin (WABr 4:232-33, dated 19 August) included the compliment "omnia pulchra sunt," and scorned the lies of Wittenberg's adversaries.
74. Concerning a record of the expense payments for Spalatin and for Melanchthon and the other visitors (Asmus von Haubitz and Hans von der Planitz) as well as the sending of a messenger to fetch Luther and Bugenhagen from Wittenberg, see Georg Buchwald, "Lutherana: Notizen aus Rechnungsbiichern des Thuringischen Staatsarchivs zu Weimar," ARG 25 (1928): 1-98, especially 4 and 44. A stenographer was also paid for having written "die ordenung der visitation" three separate times.
75. MBW 610 (CR 1:919-21), a letter to Camerarius dated 23 October 1527.
76. MBW 654 (CR 2:844 and Erasmus, Opus epistolarum, ed. P. S. Allen, 11 vols. [Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1906-47], 7:320f., no. 1944), dated 5 February 1528. Erasmus was referring to a printing by Johann Froben in 1527. See appendix 3 for a complete list of the Latin editions. The Visitation Articles was printed twice by Schirlentz and once by Froben; in two other cases, including an emended version as part of a collection of works by Melanchthon and Johannes Brenz, the printer cannot be identified. We will cite the Articles according to the edition in CR 26:1-28.
77. CR 26:7f. Also missing are articles on the form of the mass and on usury.
78. CR 26:9: "Pastores debent exemplum Christi sequi, qui quoniam poenitentiam et remissionem peccatorum docuit, debent et ista pastores tradere ecclesiis. Nunc vulgare est vociferare de fide, et tamen intelligi quid sit fides, non potest, nisi praedicata poenitentia. Plane vinum novum in utres veteres infundunt, qui fidem sine poenitentia, sine doctrina timoris Dei, sine doctrina legis praedicant, et ad carnalem quandam securitatem adsuefaciunt vulgus. Ea securitas est deterior, quam omnes errores antea sub papa fuerunt. Hoc genus Concionatorum describit Hieremias et vituperat eos, qui dicant: Pax, pax, et non est pax. Quam graviter minatur concionatoribus, apud Ezech. 3., Dominus praetermittentibus hanc partem? Si dicente me ad impium, morte morieris, non adnun- ciaveris ei, sanguinem eius de manu tua requiram. Itaque Paulus ait, scripturam divini- tus traditam esse ad arguendam, corripiendam etc. At nunc isti, qui poenitentiam negli- gunt docere, unam de principalioribus partibus Evangelio detrahunt."
80. CR 26:9: "Poenitentia vero sic docenda est, ut hortentur auditores ad contritionem, quae est praecipue pars poenitentiae, et est in scripturis vocata mortificatio.... Aliquando totum decalogum enarrent ordine, quia praedicatio legis ad poenitentiam provocat."
81. CR 26:10: "Nam haec omnia non propter ipsos, ut Paulus ait, sed propter nos scripta cunt, ut discamus timorem Dei, Est autem timor Domini initium sapientiae etc."
79. Cf. MSA 4:247.23, where in a discussion of mortification Joel 2:13 is also cited.
82. CR 26:10: "Haec inculcare multitudini multo satius est, quam vociferari de monachis, et esu carnium et similibus rebus, quas vulgus vix unquam recte intelligit."
83. CR 26:10: "Secunda pars doctrinae est doctrina remissionis peccatorum seu doctrina fidei. Haec intelligi ita demum potest, si ante doctrinam tirnoris seu poenitentiae audierint, quia fides non potest concipi, nisi in corde contrito."
84. Agricola cited this verse in a different context to exclude the law from the Christian life. Here Melanchthon corrected this approach by tying the verse to the question of merit.
85. CR 26:11: "Quando Deus misertus, perterrefacit cor et incutit alicui metum iudicii, ea scilicet seu poenitentia, seu contritio, si turn audiat Evangelion, hoc est, si audiat sibi condonari peccata propter Christurn, et credat certo ignosci."
86. This order reflects Luther's purses and pockets from the description of catechesis in the "Deutsche Messe" (see p. 50) and Melanchthon's own catechism.
87. CR 26:12: "sed fides non est nisi in corde contrito, seu mortificato, seu agente poenitentiam."
90. CR 26:17f.: "vacare metu iudicii Dei."
91. CR 26:18: "Taliter sentiuntur et exercent sese timor et fides, nec otiosae sunt cog- itationes animi, sed necesse est revera perhorrescere animos timore, et postea iterum revera per fidem consolationem et gaudium accipere."
92. CR 26:18.
93. CR 26:20: "sentire quod sumus rei aeternae mortis."
88. CR 26:12f. The final comment introduced the section on prayer.
89. CR 26:17f.
94. CR 26:20: "Semper autem homines ad contritionem adhortandi sunt."
95. CR 26:21: "Conscientia enim horrore iudicii tacta, sentit ea non esse satis ad pla- candum Deum. Fides autem est certe sentire, quod propter Christum peccata nobis condonata sunt, et quod Deus jam receptum in gratiam velit regere et defendere."
96. CR 26:25: "maximorum scandalorum autores" and "autores maioris licentiae." Melanchthon's comments in the Scholia had made the same points.
97. Cf. MSA 4:287-91 with CR 26:25f.
98. MSA 4:287.8-10, 11-13, 22-23: "Est autem libertas Christiana: Primum conscien- tiam habere liberatam a peccato; Secundo habere Spiritum sanctum et esse liberatum a potestate diaboli.... Sic de libertate Christus loquitur lohan. 8[:36]: 'Si vos filius libera- verit, vere liberi eritis.'... Et hic gradus libertatis Christianae diligenter inculcandus erat hominibus." CR 26:25: "Libertas Christiana primum haec est, habere remissionem peccatorum per Christum et consequi Spiritum sanctum, per quem liberemur a potestate di- aboli. Ioh. 4. [sic] Si vos filius liberavit, vere liberi estis. De hoc gradu libertatis diligenter docendum est."
99. CR 26:28: "Lex est docenda propter duas caussas; habet enim duos effectus, co- hercere carnem et terrere conscientiam."
100. CR 26:28: "Hi maximas poenas dabunt Deo."
101. CR 26:28: "Secundo, docenda est lex, ut terreat conscientias, iuxta illud: Per legem cognitio peccati, i. e. ut homines ad poenitentiam vocentur, et per poenitentiam ad fidem et ad iustitiam Christianam."
102. CR 26:28: "Hos duos effectus legis ob oculos et in conspectu habeant. Hi, qui docent in ecclesiis, diligenter tradant doctrinam legis, alioqui, ubi doctrina fidei sine lege traditur, infinita scandala oriuntur, vulgus fit securum, et somniant se habere iustitiam fidei, quia nesciunt, fidem in his tantum esse posse, qui habent contrita per legem corda."
1. MBW 567 (R. Hermann, Beitrage zur thuringischen Kirchengeschichte 1 [1929-311: 209-24).
2. MBW 566 (not extant) and MBW 570 (unpublished); the latter is dated 3 August 1527.
3. MBW 568 (CR 4:1035): "Haec ideo scripsi, ut to hortarer, ut moderatissime doceas et potius quid opus sit his, quos doces, spectes quam quomodo ulciscaris adversarios."
5. MBW 604 (CR 4:959f.).
4. For this paragraph see Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie, s.v. "Aquila, Kaspar," and Georg Biundo, Kaspar Aquila: Ein Kampfer fur das Evangelium in der Pfalz, in Sachsen and Thuringen (Griinstadt/Pfalz: Verein fur Pfalzische Kirchengeschichte, 1963).
6. WABr 4:241 f.; see also WABr 4:265, 232, 255.
7. MBW 612 (WABr 4:271-73). Cf. Melanchthon's letter to Camerarius, 23 October 1527 (MBW 610 [CR 1:919-21]), which also discussed Agricola.
8. MBW 618 and 619 (CR 1:906f. and 4:957f.). On the basis of the above arguments Walther Thiiringer of the Melanchthon-Forschungsstelle in Heidelberg has suggested a date of late August or early September for Melanchthon's reply to Aquila (MBW 604).
9. CR 4:959.
10. CR 4:959: "ut moderate et sine conuiciis suum officium faciant."
11. CR 4:959: "Si tamen tribuatur satisfactio Christi [=Christo?], eamque partitionem utilem esse existimo ad docendum." In 1537 the Visitation Articles again came under attack for misunderstanding poenitentia and law. See WA 39.1:344.
14. CR 4:959: '"Vellem,' inquis, 'haec nomina poenitentiae prorsus explosa esse."'
15. CR 4:959: "Nunc srzteixetav in to desidero sic dmoto uo5 disputante de hac partitione."
12. CR 4:959: "Nunc to quereris'me Papistam factum esse, me patrocinari Monachis."'
13. CR 4:959: "Quorum verborum nihil neque vulgus intelligit neque doctores aliquot, quos quidem in hoc itinere audivi." "Doctores" could perhaps be taken to mean the teachers Melanchthon had encountered or, more likely, the Scholastic doctors who had been cited to him.
16. CR 4:960: "Tuam modestiam semper amavi."
17. CR 4:960: "`Sed quidam' inquies `tollunt cristas [bear feathers, lit. =are conceited], maledicunt Euangelio, quia quaedam in veteri doctrina approbamus."'
18. CR 4:960: "Noli putare rem christianam ita futuram meliori loco, si vulgus vehementer maledicat Monachis, si omnes veteres mores irrideat, si Monachi e possessioni- bus eiiciantur, si inducantur in haec loca, destinata studiis sacrarum literarum, barbari milites."
19. "IN EPIS= I TOLAM PAVLI I AD TITVM I Scholia. I IOAN. AGRICOLA I Islebio Autore. I PHIL. MEL. I ov&exe 8at8c6.sos T[6v] Xpta c6v ypaWat I Anexxt q, I "Eveeos 6)q HOCUos Tw 8' exapai;e I X, ytp.1 I. K. I Non sic Daedaleus Christum pinxisset Apelles, I Vt sacer hunc Paulus exprimit ore pio." Woodcut, 8°. Colophon: "Vvitebergae apud Georgium I Rhau. M.D.XXX." [68] leaves. The preface, dated 15 March 1530 in "Salfeld," addressed Aquila as xaTrlxrj6Tfl. In 1537 Aquila was also named as one of Agricola's supporters. This early friendship contrasted sharply to Aquila's later harsh attack on Agricola for his support of the Augsburg Interim-"Wider den spottischen I Lugner vnd vnverschempten ver= I leumbder D. Elllebium I Agricolam. I Notige verantwor= I tung/ vnd Ernstliche warnung/ I Wider das interim. I APOLOGIA I M. CASPARIS A= I QVILAE I Bischoff zu Salfeldt. I M.D.XLVIII." Colophon: "Geben Freytag nach Jacobi [July 27] 1548 1 Caspar Aquila subscrip." This attack arose when, typical of his approach, Agricola met with Aquila and later claimed that Aquila said he would accept the Interim. See MBW 5232 (CR 7:77-79), Aquila's letter to Melanchthon (whose attack on the Interim was published a little earlier). Aquila was so angry that he broke into a long passage of German to express his feelings, calling Agricola a "Grundschalk" and a wolf in sheep's clothing.
20. WABr 4:241.3-23.
21. WABr 4:241.24-28: "De visitatoribus nostris et eorum decretis agemus, cum aderit Philippus; nam hic excudetur, quantum intelligo ex Principe Electore. Interim patientiam habeto, et disputationes super hac re coerceto, ne opus istud necessarium visitationis ante tempus et ante causam impediatur in curso suo. Christus dabit, ut omnia recte fiant."
23. Cf. MBW 633.
22. MBW 638.
24. Walther Thuringer, letter to the author, received on 10 September 1991. (Like Melanchthon's letter, Thuringer's memorandum is undated.) See MBW 592 and 616 for more information about Schurff's travels.
25. CR 1:899: "Mihi quidem, mi Caspar, facile patiar abs to satisfieri. Est enim per- specta mihi tua erga me voluntas perpetua. Verum hoc to rogo etiam atque etiam ut tuam ecclesiam moderate doceas ea, quae ad edificationem faciunt."
26. CR 1:899: "Non ignorabam ego, fore qui ex illa mea partitione poenitentiae offen- derentur. Sed non putabam omnium calumniis nos moveri debere."
27. CR 1:899; see also MBW 625 (CR 4:962), dated 17 November 1527, where Melanchthon expressly used the term sycophant for Agricola.
28. MBW 592 (CR 4:957).
29. WABr 4:247.7-10: "Si de his statutis gloriantur aduersarii, misera est eorum glo- riatio nec diu durabilis.... Mihi satis placet ista ordinatio."
30. WABr 4:232.
31. MBW 594 (SM 6.1:386f.); the letter is dated 19 September from Altenburg and requests a meeting on 23 September.
32. Georg Buchwald, "Lutherana: Notizen aus Rechnungsbuchern des Thuringischen Staatsarchivs zu Weimar," ARG 25 (1928): 1-98, esp. 4 and 44.
33. Ibid., 44: "iij gulden Hansen dem korales, hat die ordenung der visitation iij mahl umbgeschriben."
34. MBW 599 (CR 1:912f.).
35. WABr 4:255.14-18: "Wir wellen euch auch gnediger meynung nit bergen, das vns angelangt, als solten dy Bapisten etwas frolockung haben, das dise ordnung der visitation dergestalt als mit titelen der bus, beicht &c. ausgeben sol. Denn sy wollen solchs dohin deuten, als ob man yetzt von vorigen leren wider zuruck auff ire misbreuch fallen wolle."
36. WABr 4:255, footnote to line 17: "... aus dem, das dy Satisfacion vnd poenitentz vnter anderm dorynnen mitbegriffen, die vermeinen dy Bapisten irs gefallens vnd also auf it alt weir vnd form zudeuten. Darumb achten wir, es woll von noten sein, das man dieselben zwen artikel mit gutem bedacht ercler vnd ausstreiche, wie die sollten ver- standen werden. Wollen vns demnach vorsehen, it werdet dieselben artikel, domit die durch dy Bapisten irs gefallens mit fug nit anzufechten, wol zuuerwaren wissen."
37. WABr 4:255.20-25.
38. WABr 4:265-66, dated 12 October 1527.
39. WABr 4:265.4f.: "Denn es uns alles fast wohlgefallet, weil es fur den Pobel aufs ein- faltigst ist gestellet."
40. WABr 4:265.5-9: "Dag aber die Widerwartigen mochten ruhmen, wir krochen wieder zuruck, ist nicht grog zu achten; es wird wohl still werden. Wer was gottlichs fur- nimmt, der mug dem Teufel das Maul lassen, dawider zu plaudern vnd lugen, wie ich bisher hab tun mussen."
41. WABr 4:265.17f.: "Denn Ordnung stellen vnd gestellte Ordnung halten sind zwei Ding weit von einander."
42. MBW 598 (Bindseil, 511), dated by MBW to around 2 October 1527.
43. Bindseil, 511: "Erant ibi Luther-us et Pomeranus, ubi cognovi, me quoque falso delatum esse apud te, quod in inspectione ecclesiarum veteres ritus renovarem."
44. The history of reprints in 1527 seems to indicate that the Latin version may have been published right around this time. It could also be that Melanchthon imagined that Agricola had received a handwritten copy of the material from someone else, perhaps through Count Albert or Aquila, since he noted that it pleased Luther and others. What Luther and the others saw was not a printed Latin book but a handwritten German translation.
45. Bindseil, 511: "Ego quae gessi omnia, et in eo libello, quern vidisse to opinor, scripsi et satisfecit ipsi Luthero ille libellus ac plerisque aliis."
46. MBW 615 (CR 1:904-6).
47. MBW 610 and 611 (CR 1:919-22), dated 23 October 1527. The letter to Camerarius in Nuremberg responded to Spengler's request for a copy of the Articles. The letter to Spengler questioned what the elector would do in regard to the entire visitation.
48. MBW 616 (CR 4:963f.; cf. SM 6.1:392, no. 590). MBW dates this letter to the end of October because of its connection to MBW 618, dated at the beginning of November. We accept instead the dating of SM 6.1. The fact that Schurff was known to be present in Jena on 28 October (see MBW 613) does not exclude his presence earlier, since he was the only jurist teaching classes there (see MBW 589, dated 10 September 1527). His departure for Jena had left a vacancy on the visitation team, filled by Spalatin (MBW 594). From the letter to Aquila (MBW 592) written just prior to the one under consideration, we know that in mid-September Schurff had just departed. Our letter itself rendered Melanchthon's judgment regarding the inability of the schoolmaster from Saalfeld to be chaplain. MBW 618 would make it clear that Melanchthon had not realized that the schoolmaster was already ordained. The other issues discussed in our letter, however, relate directly to MBW 592 (the marriage issue and drunkenness). The use of the word "ar- gutissime" in this letter and in MBW 603 (to Spalatin, dated 15 October) to describe Erasmus's Hyperaspistes increases the likelihood that our letter was written in mid-October. The reference to the conference at the Torgau as having taken place "nuper (not long ago)" places it before the letter to Camerarius (MBW 610, dated 23 October) that described the conference as having occurred "proximo mense."
49. MBW 603 (CR 1:895f.), and MBW 606 (CR 1:896).
50. MBW 608 (CR 1:897), dated after 19 October 1527 by MBW "Quaedam de poenitentia reprehendit in meo libello, quod non inchorim earn ab amore iustitiae."
53. CR 1:920: "Nunc de me aiunt eum triumphare, tanquam si regem Gallorum in acie cepisset [=capisset]"-a feat recently achieved by Charles V.
54. CR 1:920: "Sed ego dabo operam, ut intra nos componatur haec res, et vincam mea moderatione atque humanitate istius vehementiam."
55. CR 1:920. Melanchthon had expressed a similar hope earlier to Aquila (CR 4:959).
51. CR 1:897: "Nec video illum satis magnam causam habere carpendi eius scripti."
52. CR 1:897: "Sed decrevi ferre, etiam si perget rnihi molestus esse."
56. The preface was dated 18 November 1527.
57. MBW 620 (CR 1:902-4), written in the beginning of November; and MBW 624 (CR 1:907-8), dated 12 November 1527.
58. MBW 612 (WABr 4:271-73).
59. WABr 4:272.14.
60. WABr 4:272.16f.: "Nam timor poenae et timor Dei quam differant, facilius dicitur syllabis et literis, quam re et affectu cognoscitur."
61. WABr 4:272.21-23: "Docendo igitur timorem Dei credo id agi, quod agitur docendo libertatem spiritus, ut hanc alii in securitatem carnis, ita ilium alii in desperationem seu timorem poenae rapiant."
62. MBW 624 (CR 1:907f.): "Lutheri literas non reposco abs te. Potes eas inter alia tua xetµrjXta ponere."
63. MBW 615 (CR 1:904-6), dated by MBW to the end of October 1527.
64. When in 1547 the authority became Joachim II of Brandenburg and Charles V, and the teaching became the Augsburg Interim, Agricola's approach remained the same, but the results for the evangelical churches were catastrophic.
65. Given the varied textual history of this letter, we have used CR 1:904-6 with CR 3:1283 and SM 6.1:399.
66. Cf. MBW 7559 (CR 8:524f.), dated 21 August 1555, where Melanchthon uses a similar description twenty-eight years after the event.
67. CR 1:904: "Et quoniam video, mihi plane `capitolia crimina' obiici, respondebo ad ea breviter, quia apud te, hoc est, ut statuo, aequissimum iudicem, causam dico."
68. CR 1:905: "De poenitentia arbitror hoc tibi mecum convenire, in animis ante viv- ificationem seu consolationem oportere pavores et terrores et confusionem conscientiae exsistere."
69. CR 1:905: "Et quidem in eo agone esse metum aeternum poenarum negari non potest."
70. CR 1:905: "Quis negat?"
71. CR 1:905: "Sed scis, Christianam mentem sero eo pervenire, ut perspiciat, quid sit: `Deum propter se ipsum timere' aut `ad Deum amore iustitiae converti."'
72. CR 1:905: "Et tamen illa vetus reprehendi non potest. Sed iudicavi parvulos lacte alendos, nec veto, to grandioribus solidos cibos proponere."
73. "Lutherus enim exposuit augendas, ego, cohercendas"-the reading of SM 6.1:399. CR 1:905 reads, "Luther-us eum exposuit angendas, ego, cohortandas." For the reading of "augendas" see WA 2:522. For the reading "cohercendas" see MSA 4:253 (referring to 1 Tim. 1:8f.) and CR 26:27f. (referring to Gal. 3:19).
74. Melanchthon seemed to have forgotten that in Luther's exposition of Galatians 3:24-29 in the "Epistel am Neujahrstage" (Kirchenpostille, 1522), which Melanchthon had seen through Wittenberg's presses, Luther himself connected the text to the first use of the law. See WA 10.1.1:450-66, esp. 454.8-12 and 455.5-6. To my knowledge this is the first time any Wittenberg theologian expressly defined two uses of the law.
75. CR 1:905f.: "Non enim dubium est, quin Paulus doceat, legem propter has causas latam esse, primum ad coercendam carnem iustitia carnali, deinde ad terrendam consci- entiam. Ego interpretationem Paulini loci ad effectum priorem legis accommodavi, Lutherus accommodat ad posteriorem."
76. CR 1:906: "Utinam omnes, qui docent, ad captum auditorum se accommodarent. Ego id certe conor."
77. CR 1:906, but with the reading of SM: Id quod scribis, `me non valde repressisse [CR: reposcere] quorundam sermones,' facile patior."
78. CR 1:906: "Non enim audeo tibi, homini amico, onus nostri defendendi imponere."
79. MBW 620 (CR 1:902-4).
80. CR 1:903: "Sed est, ut scis, arguto ingenio, itaque delectatur suis quibusdam in- ventis, quod ego illi facile permitto."
81. CR 1:903: "Scio futurum olim, ut capiat eum satietas argutiarum huiusmodi, cum videbit, quam sit utile, imo quam difficile, simplicissime docere, et attemperare se mul- titudinis captui."
82. CR 1:903f.: "Christus servet nobis et ecclesiae virum ilium." Melanchthon told Spalatin on 12 November that he did not need to return Luther's letter. On Spalatin's urging Melanchthon to write a catechism see p. 146.
83. MBW 618 (CR 1:906f.): "Interea to adhortor, ut non sinas to commoveri im- proborum calumniis et maledictis."
84. CR 1:907. This discussion, which may well have taken place in July during the visitation, was reflected in the Visitation Articles; see CR 26:18.
85. CR 1:907: "Quod si videro, eum bellum parare, rogabo, ut sumat sibi alium quem- piam ex his qui adversantur nostrae doctrinae, quicum litiget. Mihi decretum est, cum eo non rixari." Joachim Rogge, Johann Agricolas Lutherverstandnis: Unter besonderer Berucksichtigung des Antinomismus (Berlin: Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, 1960), 111, argues that the court had put a gag on Melanchthon. This misconstrues Melanchthon's rhetorical point. It was not the court but moderation, Melanchthon's best weapon, that had decreed he should not fight.
86. MBW 623 (CR 4:958).
87. CR 4:958: "Et commovissent iam dudum, nisi ego in tam multis dissensionibus reprimerem me, cuperem studere non augendis dissidiis sed sarciendae concordiae."
88. MBW 625 (CR 4:960-62).
89. CR 4:961.
90. CR 4:961: "Decrevi has calumnias pati ac perferre propter Deum." The language is the same as in MBW 608 (CR 1:897).
91. CR 4:962: "per improbos quosdam sycophantas."
92. MBW 628 (CR 4:963), dated 21 November 1527: "Die Saturni [November 23] iter suscipiam versus Torgam, ubi audiendi mihi sunt censores mei, qui valde, ut Graeci dicunt, &noidµws, inquirunt in meum libellum."
93. A typographical error reads 1528. The preface, by stressing Agricola's foolish simplicity in teaching, answered Melanchthon's charge that Agricola's approach was too sophisticated for the common folk.
94. Cohrs 2:274f. Terms such as "nomian" and "antinomian," as used in Gustav Hammann's "Nomismus and Antinomismus innerhalb der wittenberger Theologie von 15241530," Ph.D. diss., Friedrich Wilhelms Universitat, 1952, do not do justice to the complexities of either thinker's ideas.
95. Cohrs 2:276: "... zwinget vnd notiget die leute mit straffe vnd peen, das sic Gott fur allen dingen lichen sollen, odder mussen des ewigen todes sterben."
96. Cohrs 2:276: "Das gesetze sagt, Du must Gott mehr lieben, denn dich, odder must sterben. Das Euangelion sagt, Ich verkundige dir, das dich Gott erst vnd zuuor geliebet hat, vnd wil dirs schencken, das du dich so seere liebest, Er wil dir auch seinen heiligen geist geben, dadurch du, vmb seiner guete willen, dich, dein leben, gut vnd ehere hassen vnd verlassen kanst."
97. Cohrs 2:278: "Mein kind, so offt du these gifftige funcken falest, so offt soltu dich erynnern der heiligen dreyer namen, auf define knye fallen vnd Gott anruffen." Agricola's understanding of baptism and the "gifftige funcken" mirrored the medieval theological perspective that limited baptism's effect and stressed the fomes peccati. See Heiko A. Oberman, The Harvest of Medieval Theology, 2d ed. (Durham, N.C.: Labyrinth, 1983), 126-28.
100. Cohrs 2:285: "Wenn der vater ein vngleubiges hertze zeuhet vnd leest es be- sprenget werden mit dem blute seines Sons Christi Jhesu, so wird es gleubig vnd schreyet vber seinen vnglauben, das ist, es btisset, rewet vnd klaget, vnd hutet sich mit vleis, das es yhe den forthyn nicht erzi rne, der yhm souiel verzihen hat."
101. Cohrs 2:286.
102. Cohrs 2:287: "Sanct Paul hat das nicht geschewet, sondern das wort von der auferstehung vnd genugthuung Christi vnter die Heyden vnd Juden geprediget, Denn wo er die leute erstlich mit gesetzen, furcht vnd schrecken fur Gottes gerichte vnd betrach- tunge yhrer sunde hette drucken vnd beschweren wollen, So hetten sie nicht sagen diirf- fen, wir wollen boses thun, auf das gutes komme [Rom. 3:8]." Melanchthon responded in the Scholia of 1528 by citing Paul's own conversion (see p. 161).
98. Cohrs 2:279, questions 34-36.
99. Cohrs 2:285.
103. Cohrs 2:288: "Vnd die man zuuor widder mit straff noch schrecken vermtigen kond, die setzen ytzund, mit lust vnd freuden yhres hertzens, leib vnd leben yn die schantze, vngenotigt vnd vngezwungen."
104. Cohrs 2:289: "Das gesetze sagt, Du solt lieben Got vber alle ding, odder must sterben. Euangelion sagt, Ich bin dir zu hoh, vnd wit nur, das yederman wisse, wie lieb ich euch habe, wie gunstig ich euch bin, wit aber yemandt thun, das mir gefelt, der liebe den bruder, den er sihet vnd sein bedarff."
105. Cohrs 2:293: "Christen thun aus lust vnd liebe alles, was Gott von yhn foddert, Denn sie sind durch den freywilligen geist Christi versiegelt, darumb sol sie kein gesetz zwingen, Denn dem gerechten ist kein gesetze geben, zudem, so bald das Euangelion ein zwang vnd Regel wird, so ists nymmer Euangelion."
106. Cohrs 2:293.
107. Cohrs 2:295: "130. Summa Summarum, Warzu ist die heilige Schrifft geben? A. Sanct Paul sagt 2. Tim. 3. Alle Schrifft von Gott eingegeben, ist niitz zur Jere, zur straffe, zur besserung, zur zuchtigung yn der gerechtickeit, das ein mensch Gottes sey zu allem guten werck geschickt. Man mus erst leren, vnd darnach straffen, di der lere nicht volgen wollen. Das Euangelion sagt zu allem fleysch, Yhr seyt frey von alien gesetzen, Auch yhr Juden vom gantzen gesetz Mose, alleine braucht der freyheit nicht fleyschlich."
108. For a modern version of this debate, see Gerhard 0. Forde, The Law-Gospel Debate (Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1969), 137-74, where he describes the debate between Karl Barth ("Gospel and Law") and Lutheran theologians ("Law and Gospel").
109. For details see Susi Hausammann, Buge als Umkehr and Erneuerung von Mensch and Gesellschaft (Zurich: Theologischer Verlag, 1974), 70 n. 143.
110. Thus Hausammann's conjecture that the Feast of Saint Andrew would have been celebrated on Sunday in Wittenberg is unnecessary.
111. WABr 4:287f. (to Justus Jonas, dated the Vigil of Saint Andrew [29 November], and filled with local Wittenberg gossip) and WABr 4:288f. (to Eberhard Brisger, dated the fourth day after St. Catherine's [29 November], and also filled with local news). The WABr editor suggests that the latter letter, which gives a different report of the health of two people, may have been written on 1 December.
112. This is also the argument of MBW 629.
113. Luther's previous letter of 29 November had contained no report at all of the just completed conference.
114. WABr 4:294-97, here 295.23: "Famosa dissensio nostra Torgae paene plus quam nihil fuit."
115. According to Hammann, "Nomismus," 60, the Articles were at the printer's by 5 February 1528.
116. If the account books are complete, to the tune of about thirty gulden.
117. In a letter to Johannes Lang, dated 29 January 1528, Jonas reported Luther's judgment, indicating that the "rumor et sermo" of some evil people had blown the controversy out of proportion. See Jonas-BW 1:116, no. 120.
118. MBW 629 (CR 1:564).
119. Ibid.: "Nunc inter Gymnasiarcham vestram et me satis convenit."
120. Ibid.: "Ego ingenii laudem neque cupio neque ambio ex tractatione sacrarum lit- erarum."
121. MBW 633 (CR 1:922).
122. MBW 634 (CR 1:914-18). Jonas was living in Nordhausen during the plague in Wittenberg. According to Jonas's note to Lang (see n. 117), Melanchthon's letter was being circulated to others. He regretted not being able to send it to Lang since it was in the possession of William Reiffenstein. This meant that the letter was viewed at least by Jonas, and probably by Melanchthon as well, not simply as private correspondence, but as a public record of the events.
123. CR 1:915.
124. This could be translated as "faith in the midst of threats" or "faith in the midst of signs of threats."
125. CR 1:916: "Quod si uni sibi existimet ille has disputationes de fide minarum, de amore iustitiae notas esse, ac meas aures ita peregrinari, ut tot annis versatus inter Theol- ogos, nihil de talibus rebus audierim."
126. Many of the stereotypes are refuted in Heinz Scheible, "Luther and Melanchthon," Lutheran Quarterly, n.s., 4 (1990): 317-39.
127. J. K. Seidemann, "Schriftstiicke zur Reformationsgeschichte," Zeitschrift fur die historische Theologie 44 (1874): 116f. The notice bears the title "Sententia de tumultu Islebij contra Philippum, quod prius sit docenda quam fides, poenitencia."
128. Ibid., 116: ... auff das die widdersacher nicht sagen mugen, man widderruffe vnsere vorige leere."
129. Ibid., 117.
132. CR 1:917: "Si enim videtur tibi iustam habuisse causam, sic me arripiendi mordicus, nullam recuso poenam."
133. CR 1:917. Melanchthon also intimated that, unlike Agricola, he was concerned about Luther's health.
134. This medieval, unevangelical mode of church reform was seen in student riots at Erfurt in 1520.
130. Which day is difficult to tell, and does not really make much difference.
131. CR 1:916.
135. CR 1:918. At the end of the letter Melanchthon announced the birth of his son George.
136. WABr 4:321-25.
137. MBW 689 (CR 1:898f.). The culprit was one Alexius Crosser.
138. CR 1:898: "Nullum inter nos verbum ea de re commutatum est; neque sane po- tuit, cum ego semper contenderim ea, quae sunt in commentario inspectionis ecclesiarum, convenire per omnia cum Lutheri doctrina."
139. CR 1:898: "Si quis Lutherum recantare aliquid in meo opere iudicat, is multiplic- iter insanit."
140. CR 1:899: "Et Lutherus mihi optimus testis est, me semper optasse in hac tota dissensione, ut summa lenitate icc s t £Lccia nostri omnes uterentur."
141. MBW 710 (MSA 7.2:64-67, here 66), dated 15 September 1528: "Et interpretatur me labascere, quia in libello Inspections Ecclesiarum fuerim Ennenxentiepo5, in quo to vides nihil aliud me scripsisse, quam quod passim tradidit Lutherus. Et tamen, quia sine verborum asperitate scripsi, iudicant isti, scilicet homines acuti, me dissentire a Luthero."
143. MSA 7.2:66: "Ita vides, quid de nobis senciant non solum inimici, sed hi, qui harum partium voluerunt videri."
142. MSA 7.2:66.
1. Gustav Kawerau, Johann Agricola von Eisleben: Ein Beitrag zur Reformationsgeschichte (Berlin: Wilhelm Hertz, 1881), 151f.; and Joachim Rogge, Johann Agricolas Lutherverstdndnis: UnterbesondererBerucksichtigungdesAntinomismus (Berlin: Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, 1960), 117. Susi Hausammann, Buie als Umkehr and Erneuerung von Mensch and Gesellschaft (Zurich: Theologischer Verlag, 1974), simply skips from Agricola's writings in 1527 (Colosser and "130 Fragestucke") to the later controversy with Luther.
2. Instead of WA 26:175-240, our references to the German version of the Visitation Articles are drawn from the excellent edition of Gunther Wartenberg in MLStA 3:402-62, here 413. The Articles were entitled "Unterricht der Visitatoren."
3. MLStA 3:414 (WA 26:200).
4. For the role of confession in the Lutheran church, see Robert Kolb, Confessing the Faith: Reformers Define the Church, 1530-1580 (St. Louis: Concordia, 1991), 34-42.
5. By John Cochlaeus we have "Septiceps Lutherus, vbiq[ue] sibi, suis I scriptis, co[n]trarius, in Visitatione[m] Saxonica[m], p[er] D. D. Ioa[n]. Cocl[a]eu[m], [a]editus I [Woodcut of Luther with seven heads]." 4'. Colophon: "Lypsiae Impressit Valentinus Schuman[n], I Anno post Christum natum, I M.D.XXIX. I X. Maias Calendas." [64] leaves. An excerpt in German is entitled "Siebenkopffe Martini Luthers I Vom Hochwirdigen Sacrament des Altars/ Durch I Doctor Jo. Cocleus. I [Same woodcut as above]." 4'. Colophon: "Gedruckt zu Leypsig durch Valten I Schuman im XXIX. Jhar." [27] (+ 1 blank) leaves. The work by John Fabri is entitled "Christenliche vnder= I richtung Doctor Johann Fabri/ vber I ettliche Puncten der Visitation/ Bo im Churfurstenthumb Sachs= I sen gehalten/ vnd durch Luther beschriben/ Welch antzunehmen I vnd zuuerwerffen seyend. I ... " No woodcut, 4'. Colophon: "Gedruckt zu Drebden durch Wolffgang Stockel 124. Sep- temb. Anno 1528." [72] leaves.
6. MLStA 3:416.12f. (WA 26:202).
7. MLStA 3:416 n. 74 points erroneously to Agricola, probably on the basis of the description in Rogge, Johann Agricolas Lutherverstandnis, 104.
8. This phrase, which comes up repeatedly in the controversy, is one of Melanchthon's favorite metaphors.
9. MLStA 3:437.10f. (WA 26:219): "Man hat zuuor geleret/ es seyen drey teil der Busse/ Als nemlich/ Rew/ Beicht/ vnd Genugthuung."
10. MLStA 3:437.13f. (WA 26:219): "Ist auch gut/ das man diese wort/ Rew vnd leid brauche/ Denn diese wort sind liecht vnd klar zuuerstehen."
11. MLStA 3:417.4f. (WA 26:202).
12. MLStA 3:417.10-21 (WA 26:202f.); cf. J. K. Seidemann, "Schriftstucke zur Reformationsgeschichte," Zeitschrift fur die historische Theologie 44 (1874): 116f. (seep. 134). The small changes in the text are enough to indicate that Veit Dietrich's notice was not simply copied out of the Articles themselves. For further discussion see Gustav Hammann, "Nomismus and Antinomismus innerhalb der wittenberger Theologie von 15241530," Ph.D. diss., Friedrich Wilhelms Universitat, 1952, 57-109; and Rogge, Johann Agricolas Lutherverstandnis, 116.
13. MLStA 3:417.23 (WA 26:203): "Darumb sollen sic [die Prediger] die zehen gebot offt vnd vleyssig predigen." This follows the Latin version (CR 26:9), where discussion of the issue occurs in the very first section, although Melanchthon's use of the title "Ten Commandments" comes later.
14. MLStA 3:418.24 (WA 26:203): "Wo nicht Rew ist/ ist ein gemalter Glawb."
15. MLStA 3:438.21-23 (WA 26:221): "Denn rew on glauben bringet verzweiuelung/ wie ym Judas vnd Saul/ So kan man auch warhafftigen glauben on rewe nicht haben." The same point is made in the discussion of contrition, 437.6-9 (WA 26:219): "Aber solcher gaube/ wie offt gesagt ist/ kan nicht sein/ wo nicht vorhin rew vnd leid ist. Denn Rewe on glauben/ ist Judas vnd Sauls rewe/ das ist/ verzweiuelung/ Gleich wie Glaube on rewe vermessenheit vnd fleischliche sicherheit ist."
16. Because he is less familiar with all sides of this dispute, Rogge, Johann Agricolas Lutherverstandnis, misses this part of the compromise.
17. This despite Rogge's claim (Johann Agricolas Lutherverstandnis, 117) that Melanchthon changed his opinion on the interpretation of Gal. 3:19.
18. In later works Melanchthon cited the same text as proof for the second use of the law. This does not mean that he capitulated to Luther's authority; rather, Melanchthon was convinced by Luther's arguments.
19. See appendix 3.
20. CR 26:11 n. 25. The change was from "in corde contrito" to "in his [hominibus], quorum corda perterrita sunt, seu (ut vocant) contrita."
23. CR 26:24: "ex caussa traditionum violationem nesciunt fieri, incipiuntque divinas et humanas traditiones contemnere."
24. CR 26:24 n. 84: ". . . nesciens quam ob causam liceat violare traditiones, nec dis- cernunt inter praecepta Dei et traditiones hominum, iuxta induit contemptum omnium legum, divinas et humanas traditiones contemnere."
21. CR 26:16 n. 37: "ad hanc saepe est redeundum et dicendum, quomodo iustificet."
22. CR 26:23 n. 74.
25. MBW 620 (CR 1:902-4), undated, from the beginning of November. A postscript notes that a catechism had not yet been written. MBW 624 (CR 1:907f.), dated 12 November (1527), described the vehemence with which Spalatin was making his plea and Melanchthon's unwillingness to start something new before he was done with his tract against the Anabaptists. He warned Spalatin against pushing him: "Sic flagitare est plane extorquere."
26. Roth, 66, no. 138 (dated 7 November 1527), and 70, no. 149 (dated 10 February 1528).
27. Roth, 80, no. 184 (dated 30 October 1528): "Auch so driicke ich ... vnd hab ange- haben das buchlyn, so yhr mir fur einem Jar geordnet habt, aber philippi Mel. schreibt den Decalogum selbs von newen vnd das Vater vnser vnd den glauben vnd er mach lenger denn das vorige."
28. SM 5.1:88 n. 3: "So ferne ists gemacht, vnd der Herr Philip. wil femer nichts dran machen."
29. Luther's previous work on the different parts of the catechism influenced what Melanchthon had to say in his fragment.
30. We know from a letter to Agricola written shortly after 3 February 1535, MBW 1538 (CR 2:826f.), that Melanchthon was familiar with Agricola's catechisms. In sending Martin Bucer's teaching on the Lord's Supper to Agricola, Melanchthon comments, "Therefore there remains only a question about the physical conjoining of bread and body-what is the need for such a question? And certainly you handle the nature of the sacraments in a godly and serious manner in your catechism without bringing up this question (Tantum igitur reliqua est quaestio de physica coniunctione panis et corporis, qua quaestione quid opus est? Et certe Sacramentorum naturam to sine hac quaestione tractas pie et graviter in tua catechesi)."
31. SM 5.1:79.31-33; 80.7-9: "Dis ist ein gemalter glaub, so einer tichtet, er glaube, die sund sei ihm vergeben, so er doch on reu and on schrecken ist, denn wie kan der glaub ein solchen trdsten, der noch nie erschrocken ist? ... Diesen trost sollen wir haben, wenn wir Gottes gepot betrachten, and hulffe von Gott warten."
32. SM 5.1:86.
33. For example, Albrecht Peters, Kommentar zu Luthers Katechismen, vol. 1, Die Zehn Gebote (Gottingen: Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, 1990), has nothing at all to say about Agricola. Johannes Meyer's exhaustive work, Historischer Kommentar zu Luthers Kleinem Katechismus (Gutersloh: Bertelsmann, 1929), while mentioning the visitation and the Visitation Articles, ignores Agricola's direct role. John Michael Reu's Dr. Martin Luther's Small Catechism: A History of Its Origin, Its Distribution and Its Use (Chicago: Wartburg, 1929) makes no reference to Agricola at all. Only Cohrs 2:262f. seems to have any idea of the connection. Kawerau, Johann Agricola, 151, limits Luther's problems with the "130 Fragestticke" to 1540.
34. See Timothy J. Wengert, "`Fear and Love' in the Ten Commandments," Concordia Journal 21 (1995): 14-27. The other influence on Luther's catechisms was the spate of catechisms being produced, some based on Luther's own work and others based on the work of Rhegius or even Agricola. See Cohrs 4:326-42 for a discussion of the influence of Luther and others on the catechisms of this early period.
35. SC, preface 1-3 (BKS, 501.11, 13; 502.6f.).
36. SC, preface 3 (BKS, 502.7-9): "Nu das Evangelion kommen ist, dennoch fein gelernt haben, aller Freiheit meisterlich zu missebrauchen."
37. LC, new preface 3 (BKS, 546.30f.): "solche faule, schadliche, schandliche, fleischliche Freiheit."
38. LC, new preface 10, 14 (BKS, 549.30f.; 551.1-6).
39. LC, new preface 17 (BKS, 552.16-24): "Denn das mull ja sein: wer die zehen Gebot wohl and gar kann, dal3 der mull die ganze Schrift konnen, dali er konne in alien Sachen and Fallen raten, helfen, trosten, urteilen, richten beide geistlich and weltlich Wesen and miige sein ein Richter fiber alle Lehre, Stande, Geister, Recht and was in der Welt sein mag."
40. LC, new preface 18 (BKS, 552.31-33).
41. LC, "Ten Commandments," 82 (BKS, 580.40-43): "Darumb gehet nu dies Gepot nach dem groben Verstand uns Christen nichts an; denn es ein ganz aulierlich Ding ist wie andere Satzunge des Alten Testaments."
42. LC, "Ten Commandments," 293 (BKS, 633.37f.): "Diese zwei Gepot sind fast [=genau genommen] den Juden sonderlich [=ausschlielilich] gegeben." Luther followed the Roman church's traditional division of the commandments.
43. LC, "Ten Commandments," 293 (BKS, 633.43-46). Moreover, because the commandment on covetousness described servants and wives as property-a situation that no longer was the case-it did not apply directly to Christians (293-95 [BKS, 634.2-21]).
44. LC, "Ten Commandments," 310 (BKS, 639.3-5): "... uns ohn Unterlall beschuldigt and anzeigt, wie fromm [=rechtschaffen] wir fur Gott sind."
45. LC, "Ten Commandments," 311 (BKS, 639.11-19).
46. LC, "Ten Commandments," 315-17 (BKS, 640.31-49 and 641.6-23). See also LC, "Creed," 1-2 (BKS, 646.3-26), and LC, "Lord's Prayer," 1-2 (BKS, 662.17-31).
47. WA 30.1:85.5-12, 20-32.
48. LC, "Ten Commandments," 326 (BKS, 643.24-41). This Furcht includes fear of punishment; see LC, "Ten Commandments," 330-31 (BKS, 644.36-645.20).
52. WABr 4:557f.
53. WABr 4:562-65; Rogge, Johann Agricolas Lutherverstandnis, 118-22, details the unusual language employed by Agricola.
51. WA 50:468-77.
49. LC, "Ten Commandments," 333 (BKS, 645.41-43): "Darumb soil man sie je fur alien andern Lehren teur and wert halten als den hohisten Schatz, von Gott gegeben."
50. See Kawerau, Johann Agricola, 151f., citing Karl Eduard Forstemann, ed., Neues Urkundenbuch zur Geschichte der evangelischen Kirchen-Reformation (Hamburg, 1842), 223 [sic; =322?]. In a letter to Elector John Frederick on 1 March 1540 Agricola complained that Luther had prevented the catechism's publication (see Forstemann, Neues Urkundenbuch, 319). A printing of the new version of the catechism did appear in Berlin in 1541.
54. WABr 5:14f.
55. WA 30.1:33.17f.: "Ibi mandatum est bonum opus et sancta vita liberis, das man leider veracht, et non gedenckt, quod dei praeceptum sit." Luther also (44.1-6) complained about clerics who thought they could do better than the Decalog. This language also appeared in LC, "Ten Commandments," 114 (BKS, 589.27-36).
56. LC, "Confession," 5-7 (BKS, 726.26-727.19).
57. LC, "Confession," 23-24 (BKS, 730.42-731.21), esp. 23 (BKS, 731.1-6): "Sein eigen Gewissen wurde ein iglichen wohl treiben and so bange machen, dali er sein froh wurde and tate wie ein armer elender Bettler, so er horet, dali man an einem Ort ein reiche Spende, Geld oder Kleider austeilet."
58. SC, "Confession," 23 (BKS, 518.40f.): "Und was er mehr wider die Gebot Gottes and seinen Stand getan etc." The Latin version translated by George Major in 1531 (BKS, 518.44f.) reads "contra decem praecepta."
59. For a systematic examination of later catechisms, see John Michael Reu's encyclopedic Quellen zur Geschichte des kirchlichen Unterrichts in der evangelischen Kirche Deutschlands zwischen 1530 and 1600, 4 vols. in 9 (GUtersloh: C. Bertelsmann, 1904-35).
60. See pp. 206-10 and Timothy J. Wengert, "Caspar Cruciger (1504-1548): The Case of the Disappearing Reformer," Sixteenth Century Journal 20 (1989): 431-37.
61. Luke 1525, 23v°: "Procul dubio intelliges poenitere, iustificari, mutare cor, solius dei opus esse, non uirium humanarum, errareque toto caelo, quotquot poenitentiae ra- tionem, in attritionem, confessionem & satisfactionem ineptissime partiti sunt."
62. Luke 1529, 32r', omitting "errareque ... sunt."
63. Luke 1525, 144v'; Luke 1529, 173r°.
64. Luke 1529, 32v': "Fieri enim non potest ut commouetur animus hominis, ut mutet pellem suam, neque praedicatione minarum, quas intentat Deus non poenitentibus, neque praedicatione misericordiae Dei, qua promittit uitam et remigionem peccatorum uere poenitentibus, nisi Spiritus sanctus imbuat coelesti adflatu & numine cor hominis ut placeat illi puro esse & sancto."
65. Luke 1529, 32v°: "uerbum quod docet, cur sit mutanda uita."
67. Agricola included the examples of praying to Margaret, Barbara, or Catherine, of abstaining from certain foods on Friday, of wearing black or white habits.
68. Luke 1529, 33v'.
66. Luke 1529, 32v': "Last euch dise gute bewegen/ vnd stehet vom vorigen leben abe."
69. Hans-Georg Geyer's discussion of Melanchthon's understanding of poenitentia- Von der Geburt des wahren Menschen (Neukirchen-Vluyn: Neukirchener Verlag des Er- ziehungsvereins, 1965)-is completely unusable because he fails to place the Scholia of 1528 in any meaningful historical context. Changes he thought took place over twenty years in fact took place in one.
70. MSA 4:215.29: "De hoc loco scio alios multa subtiliter disputasse."
71. Scholia 1528, 5v': "De hoc loco scio subtiliter disputari solere." The peculiar passive grammar heightened the change.
72. MSA 4:215.30f.: "Sed ego hoc genus quaestioni nihil existimo prodesse ad vulgus."
73. Scholia 1528, 5v': "Nos vero explicabimus eum, quam poterimus, crassissime."
74. Scholia 1528, 5v°: "Nam caro ita est mercenaria, ut etiam sancti non possint abijcere amore mercedis. Itaque doctrina legis est ac paedagogia, inuitare premiis, ac poenis deterrere."
75. Scholia 1528, W. Melanchthon added to the examples of Job and Jacob (MSA 4:216.4, 13f.) that of Paul; the reference to David was omitted.
76. Scholia 1528, 40r'-43 v°; cf. MSA 4:247.19-249.10.
77. Scholia 1528, 40r'.
78. Among the medieval Scholastic definitions of faith was faith such as the devils have. See Heiko A. Oberman, The Harvest of Medieval Theology: Gabriel Biel and Late Medieval Nominalism (Durham, N.C.: Labyrinth, 1983 reprint), 468f.
80. Scholia 1528, 40v': "Est itaque poenitentia, ita agnoscere peccata, ut uere sentia- mus iram ac iudicium Dei aduersus peccatum, ac uere terreamur."
79. Scholia 1528, 40r°-v°: "Sed hic docendi sunt homines, quomodo fidem concipiant."
81. Scholia 1528, 40v°: "Scholae fecerunt partes poenitentiae tres contritionem, confessionem, & satisfactionem, quam partitionem magis ab Ecclesiae ritibus sumpserunt, quam ex scriptura."
82. Scholia 1528, 41r': "in veris pauoribus & adflictionibus acerbissimis."
83. Scholia 1528, 41v': "Ad hos adfectus referendum est, quod quidam docuerunt poenitentiam ex amore iusticiae."
84. The very fact that he reversed the order of the three parts shows the cleverness of Melanchthon's argument.
85. Scholia 1528, 41v°: "intelligas non humana diligentia simulatum dolorem, sed ueros terrores quos Deus incutit, cum ostendit nobis peccata nostra."
86. Latin: "pudor seu confusio"; in contrast, Agricola relied on Romans 6 to define poenitentia in terms of faith and gospel alone.
87. Scholia 1528, 41v°: "metus iudicii diuini uerus, non simulatus, agnitio peccati, & pudor coram Dec."
88. Scholia 1528, 41v': "Nec opus est hos adfectus subtiliter discernere, Nec est opus subtiliter disputare, quid inter contritionem Iudae & contritionem Petri intersit."
89. Scholia 1528, 42r': "... sed significat totam carnalem naturam corruptam esse peccato originis."
91. Scholia 1528, 42v': "Sola fides est, quae in illis terroribus erigit nos, & coram Deo iustificat."
92. Scholia 1528, 42v': "Duas igitur perfectae poenitentiae partes esse intelligamus, contritionem seu mortificationem, & uiuificationem, seu iustificationem, cum per fidem consequuntur remissionem peccatorum, & pacem mentes territae."
90. Scholia 1528, 42v': "Non igitur sine poenitentia, seu contrition fides sentiri potest."
93. Scholia 1528, 43r'.
94. Scholia 1528, 43v': "christus usus est Matth. 5."
95. Scholia 1528, 43v': "... quae propria habet Euangelij nomen, scilicet praedicatio remissionis peccatorum, & promissio Spiritus sancti."
96. MLStA 3:427.16 (WA 26:211).
97. Scholia 1528, 88v' (cf. MSA 4:288.11): "... non occupare promissa contra praeceptum."
98. Scholia 1528, 89r° (cf. MSA 4:288.33): "... quia non nihil adfert in docendo lucis."
99. Scholia 1528, 90v': "Fortasse autem aliquis subtiliter disputet nec Decalogum ad nos pertinere, quatenus pars sit politicarum ordinationum quae sunt traditae populo Moisi. Ego non delector illa inutili subtilitate, sed trita via ingrediar."
100. Scholia 1528, 91r': the Decalog is taught not because it was handed down by Moses, but because nature teaches it; the gospel repeats it so that faith has works by which to exercise itself.
101. In 1527 (MSA 4:290.12f.) Melanchthon spoke of the two "causae" for preaching the law.
102. Scholia 1528, 91v': "Vtimur itaque decalogo seu naturae lege ad praedicationem poenitenciae, hoc est ad arguendum & ostendendum peccatum."
103. Ibid.: "Siquis contendet non legis, sed Euangelij partem esse, arguere peccata, cum hoc non magnopere digladiabor."
104. Scholia 1528, 92r': "Quidam docent principium esse poenitenciae, cognitionem benefictorum Christi, quod ut largiar, tamen opus est arguere peccata quod per legem fit, quia neque intelligi neque adprehendi remissio peccatorum potest, nisi prius arguantur peccata. Et hae fere caussae sunt, cur decalogus retineatur, cum aliae legis Mosaicae partes prorsus non doceantur."
105. The same argument appeared in Melanchthon's comments on Colossians 2:23, Scholia 1528, 77v'-78v', where he gave a lengthy defense of the old canons and their usefulness in keeping order in the church, in remembering history, and in teaching the young. "Non uideo in ueteribus Canonibus onerari consciencias, quod peccent mor- taliter, qui non obseruent eos canons" (78r'). Thus Melanchthon allowed for the use of canons. He even refuted the objection raised by Matthew 23:3. He also discussed the question of "traditiones de mediis rebus" (78v').
106. Scholia 1528, 92V-93r'.
107. Scholia 1528, 104r': "intempestiuus usus libertatis Christianae in rebus non nec- essarijs" and "in rebus mediis, ut uocantur, certe prodest diligenter cauere, ne libertate abutamur."
108. Scholia 1528, 94r': 'Porro in primis hac uirtute preditos esse oportuit eos qui docent in Ecclesiis, ut alter alterius dicta & scripta commode interpretaretur, dissimularet etiam aspersus aliquo maledicto. Nunc in tam calumniosa interpretatione omnium dic- torum, scriptorum, & factorum, & exasperunt inter se acerbissimis odiis doctores Christianae caritatis, & aliae lites ex aliis subinde nascuntur."
109. WA 30.2:68-69.
110. WATR 4:610 (no. 5007): "Philippus scripsit bonos libros, et nemo melius scribet de poenitentia. Et epistola ad Romanos et Coloss[enses] et loci communes, das sindt gottliche bucher, vnd die confessio vnd apologia! Ach wie fein ists itzt studiren weder vor zeiten!"
111. MBW 794 (Bindseil, 515f.); see also MBW 788 (Bindseil, 514f.). Already on 23 October 1528 (MBW 718 [Bindseil, 512f.]) Agricola had sent a courteous letter asking Melanchthon and Luther for a tutor for the son of Count Albert of Mansfeld.
112. MBW 762 (CR 1:1040), dated 22 March 1529.
113. MBW 829 (CR 1:1107f.), dated 12 October 1529. For this dispute see Rogge, Johann Agricolas Lutherverstandnis, 84-94.
114. MBW 1164 (printed in Kawerau, Johannes Agricola, 341f.), dated June 1531. Agricola had signed several of the Gutachten written during the negotiations at the Diet of Augsburg in 1530; see MBW 929, 930, 961, and 1024. Melanchthon also provided assistance in Agricola's ongoing confrontation with George Witzel in Eisleben; see MBW 1370 (CR 2:677-80), dated 22 October 1533.
115. MBW 1871 (CR 3:328f.), dated 16 March 1537.
116. MBW 1952 (CR 3:390f.), dated 12 October 1537 to Johannes Brenz, and MBW 1953 (CR 3:419-21), the same day to Camerarius. For the declamation see CR 11:335-42. See also MBW 1971 (CR 3:459f.), dated 7 December 1537 to Veit Dietrich.
117. MBW 2013 (printed in Martin Luther: Briefwechsel, ed. Ernst Ludwig Enders, 19 vols. [Frankfurt and Leipzig, 1884-1932], 18:7-9), dated 30 March 1538.
118. See the report to the elector by Jonas, Melanchthon, and their colleagues, MBW 2409 (Forstemann, Neues Urkundenbuch, 325-27), dated 5 April 1540, in which Melanchthon recounted his role in the formulation of Agricola's retraction in 1538, which led eventually to the publication of Luther's "Against the Antinomians" (1539). This letter also demonstrated that Agricola's charges against Luther were unfounded. The second report, MBW 2446 (CR 3:1035-38), dated 8 June 1540, was not nearly as conciliatory and rejected Agricola's defense completely.
119. MBW 3133 (CR 4:749-51), dated 2 January 1543. This letter seemed to signal the resumption of correspondence. See also MBW 3158 (CR 4:771f.), dated 1 February 1543. For the sale of the house, see MBW 3461 (CR 6:63f.) and MBW 3462 (CR 6:63).
120. MBW 4362 (CR 6:217f.), dated 19 August 1546.
121. Agricola was reportedly gleeful over Wittenberg's troubles (MBW 4657 [CR 6:442f.], a letter from Melanchthon to Paul Eber that was dated 22 March 1547) and gave thanks for Elector John Frederick's capture, while praying for his conversion from the Lutheran heresy (MBW 4795 [CR 6:588-90], Melanchthon to Camerarius). For other early reports see also MBW 4715 and 4717. - ---- ---- ---- -----
122. See MBW 5040, 5096, 5110, 5117, 5121, 5130, 5137, 5139, 5170, 5182 (a memorandum published without Melanchthon's knowledge), 5208-10, 5214, and 5215. For a reconstruction of this correspondence and its relation to the famous letter to Christopher von Carlowitz (MBW 5139), see Heinz Scheible, "Melanchthons Brief an Carlowitz," ARG 57 (1966): 102-30. In a letter to Camerarius on 24/25 April 1548, MBW 5138 (CR 6:877- 79), Melanchthon reported that to his astonishment Agricola and the Elector Joachim of Brandenburg imagined that the Interim supported the evangelical understanding of justification.
123. Melanchthon's attack was entitled "Bedencken auff das I INTERIM I Von einem Hochgelerten vnd I Ehrwirdigen Hen-n/ ei= I nem Erbarn Radt sei= I ner Oberkeit vber= I reicht. I ... 1 1584 [sic = 1548]." At the same time Agricola claimed that Caspar Aquila had accepted the Interim and made Aquila so angry that he published a scathing attack on the Interim himself. He recounted his encounter with "der Grundschalk Eyslebio" to Melanchthon in a letter dated 22 July 1548, MBW 5232 (CR 7:77-79); see p. 108 n. 19.
124. Agricola's attack was reported in a letter from George Buchholzer to Melanchthon that was dated 4 August 1548, MBW 5249 (unpublished). The correspondence between the latter two at this time depicted clearly the growing animosity. See MBW 4608, 4717, 4739, 4908, 5064, 5151, 5176, 5199, 5239, 5247, 5250, 5299, 5338, 5344, and 5398, spanning the period from 24 February 1547 to 6 December 1548. Other letters describing Agricola's attacks on Melanchthon include MBW 4657, 4715, and 4795.
125. Agricola's encounter with Georg von Anhalt over this matter was described by Melanchthon in a letter to Paul Eber, MBW 5329 (CR 7:249f.), dated 17/18 October 1548. The excerpt, "Von der Messe vnd I ihrem Canone Magistri Johan= I nis Agricolae Eysle- ben/ Lhere I vnd schrifft/ Welche er auff dem I Reichstag zu Speyer in der Epistel zu den Collossern I geprediget/ vnd folgend Anno M.D.XXVII. I zu Wittenbergk im Druck offentlich hat I ausgehen lassen/ Dem Interim so er ytzt I hat helffen stellen/ gantz entge- gen/ I Daraus sein geyst zuuer= I mercken. I Psalm. cxlj. I HErr behute meinen mund/ vnd beware meyne lip= I pen/ Neige mein hertz nicht auff etwas boses/ ein I Gottlol3 wesen zufuren mit den vbelthe= I tern/ Das ich nicht esse/ von dem I das ihnen geliebet. I Hiero. super Esaiam. I Non sic adulandum est Principibus, ut I Sanctarum scripturarum ueritas negligatur," was probably published in Magdeburg with the help of Matthias Flacius. In one of his marginal comments he coined a new monicker for Agricola, "Scheilleben."
126. MBW 5268 (CR 7:120 with 51-64), dated 24 August 1548.
127. For the "Zellische Abschied" of 22 November 1548 see MBW 5359 (CR 7:215-21). For Melanchthon's report see MBW 5385 (Dr. Johannes Bugenhagens Briefwechsel, ed. Otto Vogt [Hildesheim, 1966 reprint], 434f.).
128. For Melanchthon's formula on the sacrifice of the mass, see MBW 5384 (CR 4:309-16).
129. MBW 5398 (CR 7:292-96), dated 7 January 1549, a letter from Buchholzer on behalf of the evangelical clergy in Berlin to Melanchthon, Bugenhagen, and the other theologians in Wittenberg. For Wittenberg's response see MBW 5401 (CR 7:299-301).
130. For further discussion of this dispute see Kolb, Confessing the Faith, 63-98; and Joachim Mehlhausen, "Der Streit um die Adiaphora," in Bekenntnis and Einheit der Kirche: Studien zum Konkordienbuch, ed. Martin Brecht and Reinhard Schwarz (Stuttgart: Calwer, 1980), 105-28.
131. MBW 4242 (CR 6:116f.), dated 20 April 1546. --- --- -------
132. MBW 5501 (CR 7:363-66, here 365): "Zum Andern, so ist dies Ordnung, die bedacht ist, furnehmlich zu einer ehrlichen Gleichheit der Lehre and Ceremonien in dieser Kirchen bedacht, and nicht zu Starkung des Papstthums, and ist wahr, da13 in der ersten Visitation, da an vielen Orten die Privat Absolutio, sechs Wochen, and viel ehrlicher Ceremonien ganz abgethan waren, hat man derselbigen etliche wiederum aufgerichtet; and ob wohl die Zeit auch Eigleben and and [sic] andre schrieen, wir richteten das Papst- thum wiederum auf, so ist gleichwohl solche Aufrichtung der Ceremonien nicht dafur gehalten worden."
133. See MBW 7054 (CR 8:194f.), dated 1553; MBW 7385 (CR 8:410-13), dated 12 January 1555; and MBW 7945 (CR 8:839-44), dated 4 September 1556 to Matthias Flacius. I am indebted to Heinz Scheible for explaining the wordplay to me.
134. CR 8:842: "Sed de Necessitate fateor, me Antinomorum furores ante viginti annos reprehendisse, cum aulicum concionator, toto theatro applaudente, diceret: das Mull ist versalzen. Et quomodo has propositiones veras et aeternas esse dicam, satis enar- ravi."
135. MBW 6798 (CR 8:67f.), dated 12 April 1553.
136. MBW 7021 (CR 8:171f.), dated 10 November 1553: "Possem tibi longam Iliada de his calumniis scribere."
137. MBW 6654 (CR 7:1144f.), dated 28 November 1552, italics added: "Deinde quales in inspectione Ecclesiarum ineptias invenerimus, meminit vir sapiens et Deum vera fide et invocatione colens, dominus doctor Hieronymus [Schurff]. Has cum emendare stud- eremus, tunc quoque colaphos accepi, ut postea saepe alii in me incurrerunt." See also MBW 7559 (CR 8:524f.), dated 21 August 1555 to A. Hardenberg, in which Melanchthon described the Visitation Articles as the means by which disputes were settled.
138. Figures of Moses support the pulpits of numerous churches in Thuringia, even the small Johanneskirche built in Auguststadt, a suburb of Wolfenbuttel, during the Thirty Years' War.
1. The topics of these debates included the role of the free will (the synergistic controversy), the forensic nature of justification (the Osiandrian controversy), the necessity of good works (the Majorist controversy, foreshadowed by the Cordatus controversy of 1536-37), the third use of the law (a second antinomian controversy). The resolutions of these controversies form the bulk of the Formula of Concord.
2. Geyer's use of sources makes his work Von der Geburt des wahren Menschen (Neu- kirchen-Vluyn: Neukirchener Verlag des Erziehungsvereins, 1965) less than helpful here. Even Martin Greschat's important work Melanchthon neben Luther: Studien zur Gestalt der Rechtfertigungslehre zwischen 1528 and 1537 (Witten: Luther, 1965) fails to use this source.
3. MSA 5, entitled "COM I MENTARII IN EPISTO I LAM PAVLI AD I ROMANOS, REI cens scripti a I PHILIPPO MELAN. I ANNO. 1 1.5.3.2." Colophon: "IMPRESSVM VITE- BERGAE I IN EDIBVS IOSEPH CLVG." [264] leaves. See Greschat, Melanchthon neben Luther, 133-50.
4. MSA 5:39.7-16: "`Iustificari' proprie significat iustum reputari, h. e. acceptum reputari. Sic intelligatur relative, sicut in foro usurpatur Hebraica consuetudine iustificari pro eo, quod est iustum pronuntiari, ut si quis dicat: Populus Romanus iustificavit Scip- ionem accusatum a tribuno plebis, h. e. iustum pronuntiavit, absolvit, approbavit. Quam- quam autem novos motus exsistere in his, qui reconciliantur, necesse est, tamen iustificari non significat proprie habere novas virtutes. Sed relative intelligatur de voluntate Dei pro eo, quod est approbari seu acceptari a Deo."
5. Karl Holl, "Die Rechtfertigungslehre in Luthers Vorlesung uber den Romerbrief mit besonderer Riicksicht auf die Frage der Heilsgewillheit," in Gesammelte Aufsatze zur Kirchengeschichte, 3d ed., 3 vols. (Tubingen: J. C. B. Mohr/Paul Siebeck, 1923), 1:124-29, who argued that Melanchthon's forensic understanding distorted Luther's breakthrough to understanding justification as sanative; and Lowell Green, How Melanchthon Helped Luther Discover the Gospel (Fallbrook, Calif.: Verdict, 1980), who insists that Melanchthon helped Luther discover this very forensic notion and contributed to his breakthrough. On Luther, see Alister McGrath, Luther's Theology of the Cross (New York: Blackwell, 1985) and his discussion of the shift in the definition of iustitia.
6. MBW 1151 (CR 2:501-3), dated 12 May 1531. Melanchthon described Augustine's position in these terms: "Deinde imaginatur, nos iustos reputari propter hanc imple- tionem legis, quam efficit in nobis spiritus sanctus." Concerning the Apology he wrote, "Ego conatus sum eam in Apologia explicare, sed ibi propter adversariorum calumnias non sic loqui licet, ut nunc tecum loquor, etsi re ipsa idem dico."
7. Ap IV.252 (BKS, 209.32-34): "Et iustificari significat hic [in James] non ex impio iustum effici, sed usu forensi iustum pronuntiari."
8. Ap IV.78 (BKS, 175.37-39): "Igitur sola fide iustificamur, intelligendo iustificationem, ex iniusto iustum effici seu regenerari."
9. CR 2:501: "Ideo sola fide sumus iusti, non quia sit radix, ut to scribis, sed quia ap- prehendit Christum, propter quem sumus accepti."
10. MSA 5:100.5ff.: "Repudianda est et imaginatio aliorum, qui ideo putant nos fide iustificari, quia fides sit initium renovationis." Melanchthon mentioned that this opinion was drawn from Augustine. See the footnote to this text for other references. For an analysis of the text and the development of Melanchthon's doctrine of justification during this period, see Robert Stupperich, "Die Rechtfertigungslehre bei Luther and Melanchthon 1530-1536," in Luther and Melanchthon in the History and Theology of the Reformation, ed. Vilmos Vajta (Philadelphia: Muhlenberg, 1961), 73-88.
11. MSA 4:228.2-5: "Consecuti estis remissionem peccatorum, si credideritis propter Christum remissa esse peccata."
12. Scholia 1528, 16v°: "Nulla nostra opera merentur iustificationem coram Deo." Melanchthon omitted the cross-reference to the later discussion in the Scholia.
13. Scholia 1528, 16(a)r'. (The number 16 is used on two consecutive leaves, B.viii and C.i. This is C.i.)
14. Scholia 1534, XVII.r : "Breviter dicemus de iustificatione, ut quomodo opera, quomodo fides requiratur intelligi possit."
15. Scholia 1534, XVII.r : "Non enim ideo fides laudatur, ut licentia concedatur omit- tendi opera, cum fides ipsa sit uel precipuum ac difficilimum opus."
16. MBW 1163 (CR 2:510-12): "Quoties enim de iustificatione cogitabam quod non esset ex operibus, illud subinde incidebat, nonne et fides ipsa opus est? Et dominus ait, hoc est opus Dei ut credatis."
17. Scholia 1534, XVII.v : "nobis remitti peccata, nosque pronunciari iustos per misericordiam propter Christum, non propter dignitatem nostrae contritionis aut operum."
18. Scholia 1534, XVILv': "Fiducia misericordiae propter Christum promissae iusti pronunciamur. Iustificatio enim relatiue intelligatur pro remissione peccatorum, & pro acceptatione seu imputatione iusticiae."
19. MSA 4:244.11f.: "ratio et definitio Christianae iustitiae."
20. MSA 4:244.30f.: "perfecti, renovati, facti nova creatura accepto Spiritu sancto."
21. Scholia 1528, 36r'-37v', expanding from one page to four.
22. Scholia 1528, 37v'.
23. Scholia 1534, XXXVI.v°: "ut reputemini pro iustis, ac si satisfaceretis legi."
24. In the other two points, not discussed here, Melanchthon rejected the notion that abiding by human traditions is the basis of perfection-a view held by the Jews of Jesus' day and the monks-and he explained how Christ through the Holy Spirit effects perfection, which differs from civil and monastic righteousness.
25. Scholia 1534, XXXVILr : "Conscientia statuere debeat nos gratis propter Christum pronunciari iustos, etiamsi nondum satisfaciamus legi."
26. Scholia 1534, XXXVII.r : "Sed persona semper illum scopum teneat, placere nos propter Christum etiamsi non satisfaciamus legi."
27. Scholia 1534, XXXVILv': "Qui confidit Christo, is iam iustus est, et habet id quod Lex requirit, Lex non accusat, non condemnat eum." For "summa" the Vulgate reads "finis" and Erasmus "perfectio."
28. Scholia 1534, XXXVII.v : "Primum fidem esse necessariam, qua statuendum est, quod gratis Deo placeamus propter Christum. Deinde dicimus & iusticiam bonae conscientiae necessarium esse. Sed haec coram Deo adhuc est immunda & imperfecta, iuxta illud. Non iustificabitur in conspectu tuo omnis uiuens. Ideo redimus ad fidem, et doce- mus statuendum esse, quod propter Christum persona gratis placeat. Ita conscientia lib- eratur a terroribus peccati & mortis, & propter hanc fidem placet illa nouitas. Haec non docent scholastici, qui somniant hominem legi satisfacere, item somniant hominem propter propriam dignitatem & legis impletionem, iustum coram Deo pronunciari. Haec somnia obscurant Christi beneficium, & conscientias adducunt in desperationem."
29. Over and over again Melanchthon stressed that we are declared righteous, as if we had satisfied the law.
30. Melanchthon concluded the entire section, Scholia 1534, XXXVIII.v': "Fide pronunciamur iusti & perfecti propter illud extra nos, scilicet propter Christum. Et tamen nostra obedientia, quatenus in nobis est, est imperfecta & immunda."
31. Scholia 1534, XVII.r°: "In conuersione necessaria est contritio aliqua, hoc est, pauor & dolor conscientiae, necessaria est."
32. Scholia 1534, XVII.r f.: "lam noua uita debet esse obedientia erga Deum, & necessaria iam est iusticia bonorum operum.... Non igitur improbantur bona opera, sed maxime requiruntur."
33. Scholia 1534, XXXVII.v : "Deinde dicimus & iusticiam bonae conscientiae necessarium esse."
34. MSA 4:253.32-254.4.
37. Scholia 1528, 48(a)v': "quod nec moralia opera iustificant."
38. Scholia 1528, 49r*: "Cum promissio facta est, necesse est quod fides iustificet, quia fide, non operibus promissiones accipiuntur."
39. Scholia 1528, 49v': "... cur exiguntur opera Decalogi, siquidem non iustificant."
35. Scholia 1528, 48r': "Quid igitur, inquies, opus erat obseruatione legis?"
36. Scholia 1528, 48(a)r': "oportet aliqua fidei exercicia in hac uita."
42. Scholia 1534, Lx': "magna & necessaria piis consolatio."
43. Scholia 1534, L.v°: "Necessaria est, ut dixi, iusticia bonae conscientiae. Sed fides seu fiducia in Christum longe collocanda est supra hanc iusticiam nostram."
40. Scholia 1534, XLIX.v -LI.r : "An propter moralia pronuncientur homines iusti."
41. Scholia 1534, L.r': "Debet autem fidem comitari iusticia bonae conscientiae seu bonorum operum." He repeated himself on the next page: "Et tamen quod necessario fidem comitari debeat iusticia bonae conscientiae, seu moralium operum."
46. For a discussion of the importance of this particular phrase for Melanchthon, see Ralph Quere, Christum cognoscere: Christ's Efficacious Presence in the Eucharistic Theology of Melanchthon (Nieuwkoop: B. De Graaf, 1977).
47. Scholia 1534, LXXXIl.v. Note the imbalance from "scire" to "obedire" (and later back to "scire").
48. Scholia 1534, LXXXII.v': "persona est reconciliata ac iusta fide."
50. Scholia 1534, LXXXII.v': "Quae vox humana potest hoc beneficium satin expli- care?"
51. Scholia 1534, LXXXIII. r'.
44. Scholia 1534, XXXVII.v : "quod propter Christum persona gratis placeat."
45. Scholia 1534, LXXXII.v -LXXXIII.v .
49. Scholia 1534, LXXXILv°: "... non quia legi satisfacit, sed quia filij facti sumus."
52. MSA 4:278.9f. (=Scholia 1528, 80v'): "Necesse est sequi actiones et mores quales Deus exigit."
53. Augsburg Confession XX.27 (BKS, 80): "Praeterea docent nostri, quod necesse sit bona opera facere, non ut confidamus per ea gratiam mereri, sed propter voluntatem Dei."
54. Ap IV.348-55: "Imo vero necesse est bene operari."
55. See BKS, 227 n. 1.
56. MSA 5:209.10-214.12.
57. MSA 5:210.13f.: "Placemus Deo propter Christum non propter legis impletionem, quia neque renovati satisfacimus legi."
58. MSA 5:211.29-32. Melanchthon also outlined another possible interpretation: the Holy Spirit through the gospel moves those who consent to do the law of God. Rolf Schafer points out (MSA 5:212, note on line 5) that this represented Melanchthon's earlier position.
59. MSA 5:213.25-33: "postquam persona placet."
60. Gerhard Ebeling, Luther: An Introduction to His Thought (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1970), 125-40. Luther's insight depended upon Augustine's distinction between the letter and the spirit. See Leif Grane, Modus loquendi theologicus: Luthers Kampf um die Erneuerung der Theologie (1515-1518) (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1975).
61. WA 7:23f. and 34f., esp. 34.12-14: "Die gepot sol man predigen, die sunder zur- schreckenn and yhr sund zu offenbarnn, das sic rewe haben and Bich bekehren."
62. WA 8:609.16-17.
63. WA 10.1.1:450-66 (an interpretation of the epistle for New Year's Day [Gal. 3:2429]), esp. 454.8-12 and 455.5-6: "Alhie sihestu yhe, wotzu das gesetz nodt and gutt sey, and was gott darynnen suche. Nemlich die zwey stuck: Das erst, das er uns ynn der tzucht behallte unnd uns ynn eyn erber weflen treybe euflerlich, das wyr unternander leben mugen and eyner den andern nit fresse.... Das ander, das der mensch sich alilo durchs gestz erkenne, wie falsch and unrecht seyn hertz sey."
64. MSA 2.1:55-103. Peter Fraenkel, Testimonia Patrum (Geneva: Librairie Droz, 1961), was the first to point this out. The section on the law remained unchanged in the revised edition of 1522.
67. See, respectively, WA 40:519-20 and SA Ill.ii.1-5 (in BKS, 435-36). Only two (of seven) manuscripts of the "Second Antinomian Disputation" of 12 January 1538 ascribe to Luther three uses of the law-clearly a later addition by a Melanchthon student. See WA 39.1:485.16-24 and the notes. A third manuscript places this material under a different article.
68. See Werner Elert, "Eine theologische Falschung zur Lehre vom tertius usus legis," Zeitschrift fur Religions- and Geistesgeschichte 1 (1948): 168-70. The classic defense of a third use of the law in Luther comes from Wilfried Joest, Gesetz and Freiheit: Das Problem des tertius usus legis bei Luther and die neutestamentliche Parainese (Gottingen: Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, 1951). See the criticism in Rolf Schafer, Christologie and Sittlichkeit in Melanchthons friihen Loci (Tubingen: Mohr/Siebeck, 1961), 120-22.
65. MSA 2.1:93.
66. MSA 1:179-89.
69. Hans Engelland, Melanchthon, Glauben and Handeln (Munich: Kaiser, 1931), 100-101. When Martin Becker of Decin (Bohemia) charged his pastor, Dominic Beyer, with antinomianism in 1524, Luther, Johann Bugenhagen, and Melanchthon sent a letter to the disputants that implied two uses for the law. See MBW 336 (WA 15:229).
70. MSA 4:252.2-8.
71. MSA 4:252.10-12.
72. MSA 4:252.25.
77. MSA 4:253.23-24. In Scholia 1528, 47v', Melanchthon added the words "through all ceremonies."
73. MSA 4:253.1-2.
74. MSA 4:253.2.
75. MSA 4:253.7-8.
76. MSA 4:253.9-12.
78. MSA 4:253.29-30.
79. Scholia 1528, 48(a)r .
80. Scholia 1528, 48(a)v .
81. See, for example, Ragnar Bring, Gesetz and Evangelium and der dritte Gebrauch des Gesetzes in der lutherischen Theologie (Helsinki, 1943). See also the careful criticism by Schafer, Christologie and Sittlichkeit, 147-57.
82. Engelland, Melanchthon, Glauben and Handeln, 424-33; and, for a much more nuanced view, Schafer, Christologie and Sittlichkeit, 116-57.
85. MSA 4:253, note on line 2 (=Scholia 1528, 47r'): "Legis duo sunt officia."
86. MSA 4:253.27-30 (=Scholia 1528, 47v'): "Quoties autem aliqua Moisi lex inciderit tractanda, profuerit docere, quod Deus dederit legem propter has duas causas: ad coercendam carnem et ad terrendum seu humiliandum."
83. See the excursus "De duplici usu legis" in MSA 5:97.23-98.22.
84. CR 21:253-332, esp. 294-96.
87. Scholia 1534, XLVIII.r : "Quoties autem aliqua Moisi lex inciderit tractanda, profuerit docere, quod Deus dederit legem propter has tres caussas: ad cohercendam carnem, & ad terrendum seu humiliandum. Tertia ad iustos pertinet, ut exerceant obedientiam."
88. For a discussion of earlier traces of the "tertius usus" see Schafer, Christologie and Sittlichkeit, 116-56. (Schafer contends that Melanchthon's later use of this term, particularly in the 1543 Loci, is basically informative.) True, earlier statements of Melanchthon make it clear that there was in his thought fertile ground for this development. However, Schafer does not deal with the fact that prior to 1534 Melanchthon simply did not speak of a third use of the law. By looking at events surrounding this shift an explanation for its appearance at this time will become clear.
89. MSA 4:287.8-10, 15-16 (=Scholia 1528, 87v'): "qui regat et gubernet corda."
90. MSA 4:287.30-288.17 (=Scholia 1528, 88r f.). This section was substantially rewritten in 1528. The main point, however, remained the same and matched the discussion on Col. 2:23.
91. MSA 4:288.18-31 (=Scholia 1528, 92r'). Melanchthon changed the order of his comments in 1528, inserting the question about the Decalog before discussing this third stage.
95. Scholia 1528, 90v°f. This line of argument began to approach the category of the third use of the law and, as Schafer demonstrated in his analysis of the young Melanchthon, focused on the cognitive side of the law. The Christian knows what pleases God. In 1534 Melanchthon rewrote this very section to make room for a third use of the law.
92. Scholia 1528, 88v*, an addition to MSA 4:288.11.
93. Scholia 1528, 88v°, an addition to MSA 4:288.17.
94. Scholia 1528, 89r', an addition to MSA 4:288.33.
96. This entire section, Scholia 1528, 90v'-92r', bristled with arguments against Agricola's position. See pp. 164-67.
97. Scholia 1534, XC.r -XCI.r , substituting for MSA 4:287.7-30 and Scholia 1528, 88r*.
98. Scholia 1534, XC.v : "Secundus gradus. Etsi manet decalogus, quod ad obedientiam attinet, necesse est enim ut saepe iam diximus, nouam uitam esse quandam obedientiam erga Deum, tamen hic rursus sciendum est nos hanc habere libertatem, quod ea obedientia placeat, non quia legi satisfaciamus, procul enim absumus a perfectione legis, sed quia persona placet reconciliata fiducia misericordiae promissae propter Christum."
99. Scholia 1534, XCIIII.r f., an addition to Scholia 1528, 90v'-92r': "Retinetur autem Decalogus, tanquam summa legis naturae, propter tres causas." The rewritten material is shorter than what it replaces.
100. Melanchthon went on to say in Scholia 1534, XCIIII.r f., "... lege accusantur & perterrefiunt conscientiae, ut Euangelij beneficium quaerant.... Lex est paedagogus, et quidem addit [Paulus] in Christum. Nam & disciplina illa & diligentia cohercendi iniustos, ideo necessaria est, ut doceri homines possint, & assuefieri ad cognoscendum Euangelium. Deinde & hoc nomine Lex paedagogus est, quia perterrefacit conscientias, ut Christum quaerant."
101. Scholia 1534, XCIIII.v°: "Tertia caussa est retinendi decalogi, ut requiratur obedientia. Etsi enim ut dixi condonatur nobis imbecillitas nostra, quod legi non satisfacimus & interim iusti pronunciamur propter Christum, tamen obedientia requiritur, sicut Christus air. Si uis in uitam ingredi, serua mandata. Item nisi abundauerit iusticia uestra supra iusticiam Pharisaeorum &c. Praecipit & Christus dilectionem, quae est quasi summa quaedam decalogi."
102. Scholia 1534, XCIIII.v': "Lex diuina scripta in ipsis hominum mentibus docens obediendum esse Deo. Requirit autem Euangelium obedientiam erga Deum."
103. The comments in Scholia 1534, XCIIII.r f., replaced material from Scholia 1528, 90v'-92r'.
104. WA 39.1:342-45. These theses cited the commentary on Romans from 1532 favorably, but criticized the Visitation Articles.
105. The Latin version of the agreement, which Melanchthon sent to Luther, is no longer extant. For the German report to the elector, see MBW 1433 (CR 2:722-26).
106. CR 2:723: "Aber gute Werke von Gott gebothen mull man thun, nicht dali Gerechtigkeit nicht umsonst urn Christus willen erlangt werde, sondern darum, dal3 Gott gute Werke gebothen hat, dali auch Gerechtigkeit and Glaube nicht bleiben kann ohne gute Werke, and ist noth, die sundliche Lust in unserm Fleisch mit guten Werken zu todten, dali die Verneuerung des Geistes zunehme."
107. For this section see Martin Bucer: Etudes sur la Correspondance avec de nombreux textes inedits, ed. J. V. Pollet, 2 vols. (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1962), 2:488-527. Melanchthon's work here is put in its larger context by Georg Elliger, Philipp Melanchthon: Ein Lebensbild (Berlin: R. Gaertner, 1902), 303-30. Elliger makes the mistake of equating Melanchthon's interest in reform with his humanistic impulses and his personality. This was only partly the case.
108. MBW 1467 (CR 2:741-75). See also MBW 1468 and 1469, cover letters to Bucer and du Bellay.
109. CR 2:747/8.
110. CR 2:747/8: "... quod homines possint legi Dei satisfacere, quod mereantur remissionem peccatorum dignitate suorum operum, quod sint iusti, id est, accepti propter propriam dignitatem et legis impletionem." Given the use of this same language in additions in the 1534 Scholia, Elliger's description (p. 319) of Melanchthon's opinion to du Bellay as "eigentumlich" is inaccurate.
111. CR 2:747/8f.: ". . . necessaria sit contritio et mutatio morum, et tamen remissionem contingere non propter dignitatem nostrae contritionis seu operum, sed tantum per misericordiam propter Christum, quae fide, hoc est, fiducia Christi apprehenditur."
113. CR 2:749/50: "homines procul absint a perfectione legis." This language was also used in the Scholia 1534; see n. 98.
114. CR 2:749/50: ". . . quod homines principaliter iustos, id est, acceptos esse fide, hoc est, fiducia misericordiae promissae propter Christum, et quod ilia inchoatio legis in nobis placeat, non quia legi satisfaciat, sod quia persona est reconciliata in Christo."
115. CR 2:749/50: "Necesse est enim pias mentes contra desperationem praemuniri, et doceri, quomodo placeat haec nostra obedientia."
117. CR 2:749/50: "Item [illa conveniunt,] quod liberum arbitrium aliquid agat in cav- endis talibus delictis. Item quod adiuvetur a Spiritu sancto, ut caveat talia delicta."
112. Scholia 1534, XV11r°.
116. CR 2:749/50: "iustitia bonorum operum seu bonae conscientiae sit necessaria."
118. In 1535 Melanchthon was issued an invitation to come to Paris (MBW 1550 [CR 2:855-59]). This, too, never came to pass.
119. The term itself came from one of Luther's descriptions of Melanchthon's work at the Diet of Augsburg in 1530 and was not necessarily negative.
120. CR 2:747/48: "de multis iam convent inter doctos"; "omnes fatentur"; "aliqui boni viri et prudentes colloquerentur." There are other such references as well.
121. His attacks on the Scholastic theologians in the same document proved the opposite.
122. This same assumption motivated his students to develop the Formula of Concord a generation later.
123. CR 29:50; perhaps Calvin also had access to Melanchthon's commentary on Colossians.
124. Timothy J. Wengert, "The Day Philip Melanchthon Got Mad," Lutheran Quarterly, n.s., 5 (1991): 419-33.
125. For this section see Timothy J. Wengert, "Caspar Cruciger (1504-1548): The Case of the Disappearing Reformer," Sixteenth Century Journal 20 (1989): 417-41, and the literature referred to there.
126. An excerpt is found in CR 3:159. In a portion omitted from the CR, but found in the original manuscript, Cod. Guelf. 11.10.Aug.2', 596v*, Cordatus quoted from his sermon for the fourteenth Sunday after Trinity, 1534 (6 September 1534): "So sie [die papis- ten] also singen, mus ein Christ auch gute wercke thuon, mull ehr gute wercke thun, so rechtfertigt der glaub nicht allein. Vnd die wercke sind aufs wenigste folgende vrsache der gerechtigkeit, ob sie gleich nicht die erste, vnd neheste Vrsach sindt, darzu sagt ein Christ kurtz [?], Ein Christ mus nicht gute wercke thun, sondern ehr thu williglich gute gute [sic] wercke."
127. CR 3:159-61.
128. Cordatus's account of the meeting is found in WABr 7:541f., with several small omissions.
129. WABr 7:541: "Hic homo Creutzigerus, de quo omnes studiosi et universitas tota tantum spei conceperat, quantum de ullo alio, postquam diu negaverat se haec dixisse nec dictasse, sed convictus scriptis et dictatis, respondit se esse D. Philippi discipulum, et dictata omnia esse D. Philippi, se ab eo in i11am rem traductum et nescire quo modo."
130. WABr 7:539-41.
131. WABr 7:542. To the charge that he did not understand the meaning of "sine qua non" Melanchthon responded on 1 November in a letter to the Wittenberg theological faculty-MBW 1802 (CR 3:179-81; WABr 7:579-83).
132. Theodor Kolde, ed., Analecta Lutherana: Briefe and Aktenstiicke zur Geschichte Luthers (Gotha: Perthes, 1883), 264-66: "in 2 quaest ad Collos. philippi." The dispute may have motivated Luther to read and mark his copy of the 1534 Scholia. See Ulrich Buben- heimer, "Unbekannte Luthertexte," Luther-Jahrbuch 57 (1990): 220-41.
133. Kolde, Analecta Lutherana, 265: "ipsissima Theologia Erasmi."
134. Cruciger never recanted, although the later antinomian controversy proves that Luther was capable of forcing colleagues to do so. Cordatus's difficult personality, noted by many of his contemporaries, including Luther himself, makes all of his accounts questionable. In fact, upon returning home that afternoon, Cordatus wrote a letter asking Luther not to question Melanchthon. See WABr 7:568-70.
135. The letter is not extant.
136. MBW 1802.
137. WABr 7:580.18-20: "Inde oriuntur, ut scitis, quaestiones: si tantum per misericordiam sumus accepti, ad quid igitur aut quo modo requiritur nova obedientia."
138. WABr7:580-81.
139. In the other two paragraphs that make up the letter, Melanchthon expressed his willingness to answer the charges publicly and to follow his colleagues' advice. He also defended himself against the charge that several teachers in Wittenberg's grammar school (paedagogium) had been unduly influenced by him. In a letter to von Amsdorff at this time he defended his theological method; see MBW 1805 (CR 3:181 f., where Cordatus is mistakenly listed as the recipient).
140. WABr 7:600-602. The extant copy of the letter was dated 3 November. Very likely a "1" dropped out, that is to say, the letter was probably written on 13 November.
141. WA 7:606-8. On the same day Cordatus wrote, but did not send, a letter to Melanchthon, accusing him of being the source of the error and threatening to bring a case against him. After defending himself against the charge that he had not followed Matthew 18 in his dispute with Cruciger, Cordatus claimed that this letter fulfilled his obligation vis-a-vis Melanchthon; see MBW 1819 (CR 3:202-4).
142. WA 7:615-16.
143. CR 3:206-8. In a letter to Melanchthon on 14 April 1537, Cordatus repeated his intention of attacking only Cruciger; see MBW 1887 (CR 3:341f.). Cordatus tried to convince Melanchthon not to take on his controversy with Cruciger and refused to meet with Melanchthon as long as he was still angry. Melanchthon's response (MBW 1889 [CR 3:342-46]) continued to insist that he would take the case on himself. Cordatus's glosses on this letter have been preserved in Cod. Guelf. 11.10.Aug.2', 620r°-22r°.
144. See Greschat, Melanchthon neben Luther, 217-42, for a closer description of Melanchthon's part in the controversy. Cruciger received an anonymous threatening letter at this time; see CR 3:387. He had actually hoped that Luther would respond to this issue in the Smalcald Articles, of which he was a copyist; see Richard Wetzel, "Caspar Cruciger als ein Schreiber der 'Schmalkaldischen Artikel,"' Luther-Jahrbuch 54 (1987): 84-93.