FT1 Text as given in the Berlin Edition of Buchwald and others, Vol. 1.
FT2 i.e. The example set by preserving and collecting them.
FT3 “There is moderation in all things.”
FT4 “I shall not be better than my fathers.” Cf. 1 Kings 19:4.
FT5 Des Pabsts Drecket und Drecketal. Luther makes a pun on decreta and decretalia, — the official names for the decrees of the Pope.
FT6 From the Preface to the Complete Works (1545). Text according to the Berlin Edition of Buchwald and others, Vol. 1.
FT7 Evidently a play on the Latin frigidus, often used in the sense of “trivial” or “silly”; so Luther refers to the “frigidadecreta Paparum,” in his Propositions for the Leipzig Disputation (1519).
FT8 ie. Frivolous mockers at holy things.
FT9 See Prefatory Note to the Fourteen of Consolation.
FT10 Long before this Luther had repeatedly expressed the conviction that the Pope was the Antichrist foretold in 2 Thessalonians 2:3f., and Revelation 13 and Revelation 17.
FT11 Disputatio pro declaratione virtutis indulgentiarum.
FT12 Luther says, Apud nostros et propter nostros editae sunt. Weimar Ed., 1, 528. On the whole subject see Letters to Staupitz and Pope, below.
FT13 Cf. Weimar Ed., 1.
FT14 The Church of All Saints at Wittenberg was the repository of the great collection of relics which Frederick the Wise had gathered. A catalogue of the collection, with illustrations by Lucas Cranach, was published in 1509. The collection contained 5005 sacred objects, including a bit of the crown of thorns and some of the Virgin Mother’s milk. Adoration of these relics on All Saints’ Day (November 1st) was rewarded with indulgence for more than 500,000 years. So Von Bezolv, Die deutsche Reformation (1890), ; see alsoBARGE, Karlstadt, 1.
FT15 Luther had preached a sermon warning against the danger of indulgences on the Eve of All Saints (1516).
FT16 See Letter to Leo 10.
FT17 Weimar Ed., I.
FT18 The Address to the Christian Nobility and the Babylonian Captivity of the Church.
FT19 Introduction to the Complete Works (1545).
FT20 See Letter to Staupitz.
FT21 See Letter to Leo X.
FT22 Cf.GOTTLOB, Kreuzablass und Almosenablass.
FT23 See Theses 5,8,85.
FT24 Non solam plenam et largiorem, imo plenissimam omnium suorum concedemus et concedimus veniam peccatorum.MIRBT, Quellen, 2d. ed., No. 243.
FT25 This custom of putting the Jubilee-indulgences on sale seems to date from the year 1390. Cf.LEA, Hist. of Conf. and Indulg., 3. No mention is here made of the indulgences attached to adoration of relics, etc. On the development of this form of indulgence seeLEA, Hist. of Conf. and Indulg., 3. AndGOTTLOB, Kreuzablass und Almosenablass.
FT26 See Thesis 12.
FT27 See Theses 4-6, Note 2.
FT28 For Luther’s opinion of this distinction, see the Discourse concerning Confession elsewhere in the present volume.
FT29 “Not even the poorest part of penance which is called ‘satisfaction,’ but the remission of that poorest part of penance.” Letter to Staupitz, below.
FT30 There is ample proof that in practice the indulgences were preached as sufficient to secure to the purchaser the entire remission of sin, and the form aculpa et poena was officially employed in many cases (Cf. BRIEGER, Das Wesen des Ablasses am Ausgang des MA. andPRE 9.
AndLEA, History of Confession, etc., 3.). “It is difficult to withstand the conclusion that even in theory indulgences had been declared to be efficacious for the removal of the guilt of sin in the presence of God.” LINSDAY, History of the Reformation,1.
FT31 It is on the basis of this theory that Roman Catholic writers on indulgences declare them to be “extra-sacramental,” i.e., outside the Sacrament of Penance. So, e.g.,KENT, in The Catholic Encyclopedia, Art. Indulgence.
FT32 See Theses 56 — 58.
FT33 The doctrine of the “Treasury of the Church” grew up as a result of the indulgences. It was an attempt to answer the question, How can a “satisfaction,” which God demands be waived? The answer is, By the application of merits earned by Christ and by the Saints who did more than God requires. These merits form the Treasury of the Church. Cf. SEEBERG, PRE a XV;LEA, Hist. of Confession, etc., 3.
FT34 See Thesis 26.
FT35 i.e. A plenary indulgence similar to those granted for pilgrimage to Rome in Jubilee-years.
FT36 See Theses 53-55.
FT37 See Thesis 75.
FT38 See Thesis 35.
FT39 See Thesis 27.
FT40 Weimar Ed., 1; Erl. Ed., 1.
FT41 Weimar Ed., 1; Erl. Ed., 1.
FT42 See Thesis 10.
FT43 See Thesis 4.
FT44 See Letter to Archbishop, below. The text of this Instruction inKAPP, Sammlung, etc. (1721). Tschackert has surmised that even the number of the Theses was determined by the number of the paragraphs in this Instruction. There were 94 of these paragraphs, and of the Theses 94 + 1. Entstehung d. luth. u. ref. Kirchenlehre (1910), note 1.
FT45 The following, based on an unpublished manuscript of Th. Brieger, is an interesting analysis of the contents and subject-matter of the Theses.
For the sake of brevity the minor subdivisions are omitted:
Introduction. The ideas fundamentally involved in the conception of poenitentia (Th. 1-7).
I. Indulgences for souls in purgatory (Th. 8-29). 1. Canonical penalties and the pains of purgatory (Th. 8-19). 2. The relation of the Pope to purgatory (Th. 20-29).
II. Indulgences for the living (Th. 30-80).
The content and nature of the preaching of indulgences (Th. 30-55). 2. The treasury of the Church (Th. 56-65). 3. The duty of the regular church-authorities in the matter (Th. 66-80).
Conclusion (Th. 81-91). 1. The objections of the laity to the indulgence-traffic (Th. 81-91). 2. The evil motive of the traffic in indulgences, with special reference to the statements of Th. 1-4 (Th. 91-95).
H.HERMELINK, inKRUGER’s Handbuch der Kirchengeschichte (1911), 3.
FT46 Weimar Ed., 1.
FT47 In the original editions the wordJESUS appears at the head of each of the works, and the present editors have retained the use, which was apparently an act of obedience to the command, “Whatever ye do, in word or in deed, do all in the name of the LordJESUS.” (Colossians 5:17).
FT48 See Theses 18-24,32,52.
FT49 See Thesis 27.
FT50 See Thesis 75.
FT51 See Theses 5,6,20,21.
FT52 Gratia infusa, meaning the working of God upon the hearts of men, by means of which their lives become pleasing to God. Cf.LOOFS’ Dogmengeschichte, 4th ed.
FT53 See Thesis 5.
FT54 See Theses 41-47.
FT55 See Theses 52-55.
FT56 See Thesis 80.
FT57 See above, Introduction.
FT58 See Theses 21, 33.
FT59 See Thesis 35, and Introduction.
FT60 viz., The Instruction to the Commissaries.
FT61 Matthew 4:17. Greek, metanoei~te ; English, “repent”; German, Busse tun. The Latin and German versions may also be rendered, “Do penance”; the Greek, on the other hand, can only mean “Repent.”
FT62 The Roman theology distinguishes between the “guilt” and the “penalty” of sin. See Introduction.
FT63 Decrees of the Church, having the force of law. The canons referred to here and below (Cf. Theses 8, 85) are the so-called penitential Canons.
See Introduction.
FT64 Commenting on this Thesis in the Resolutions, Luther distinguishes between “temporal” and “eternal” necessity. “Necessity knows no law.” “Death is the necessity of necessities” (Weimar Ed., 1; Erl. Ed. op. var. arg.,2).
FT65 This is not a denial of the power of the keys, i.e., the power to forgive and to retain sin, but merely of the assertion that the power of the keys extends to purgatory.
FT66 i.e., Merely human doctrine., FT67 An alleged statement of the indulgence-vendors. See Letter to Mainz and Introduction.
FT68 Luther refers again to this story in the Resolutions (Weimar Ed., 1).
The story is that these saints preferred to remain longer in purgatory that they might have greater glory in heaven. Luther adds, “Whoever will, may believe in these stories; it is no concern of mine.”
FT69 Luther uses the terms “pardon” and “indulgence” interchangeably.
FT70 For meaning of the term “satisfaction,” see Introduction.
FT71 Privileges entitling their holder to choose his own confessor and relieving him of certain satisfactions. See Introduction.
FT72 See above, Thesis 6.
FT73 i.e., “Papal.”
FT74 Cf. Thesis 32.
FT75 The commissioner who sold the letter of indulgence.
FT76 The best texts read illi , “on it,” i.e., the Word of God. The Erl. Ed. has a variant, verbis evangelicis , “the words of the Gospel” (op. var. arg., 1).
FT77 See Introduction, note 2.
FT78 i.e., Threatens with the “thunder-bolt” of excommunication.
FT79 See Letter to Mainz. For repetition and defense of the statement against which Luther here protests, see Disp. 1. Jo Tetzelii, Th. 99- 101;LOESCHER, 1.
FT80 Cf. Thesis 6.
FT81 Cf. Thesis 5 and note.
FT82 Cf. Theses 36,37.
FT83 The letter of indulgence entitled its possessor to absolution “once in life and in the article of death.”
FT84 During the time when the Jubilee-indulgences were preached, other indulgences were suspended.
FT85 In a letter to Michael Dressel, 22 June, 1516, Luther had written: “It is not that man, therefore, whom no one disturbs who has peace — which is, indeed, the peace of the world — but he whom all men and all things harass and who yet bears all quietly with joy. You say with Israel: “Peace, peace,” and there is no peace; say rather with Christ, “Cross, cross,” and there is no cross. For the cross ceases to be a cross as soon as you say joyfully: “Blessed cross, there is no tree like you” (PRESERVED SMITH, Luther).
FT86 “Penitence,” “repentance,” “penance,” are all translations of this word.
FT87 The modus confitendi , or “way of confession” is the teaching of what sins are to be confessed to the priest and how they are to be confessed.
The subject is discussed fully by Luther in his Discussion of Confession.
FT88 Gr., meta< , Lat., post , Eng., “after”; Gr. nou~v , Lat., mens , Eng., “mind.”
FT89 The Greek meta< can also be translated by the Latin trans , which, in compounds, denotes movement from one place, or thing, or condition to another.
FT90 Lat. trans mutatio , “the act or process of changing,” not simply “a change” (mutatio).
FT91 Transitus mentis .
FT92 The derivation of the term “Hebrew” is still disputed (v. PRE 3 7, p.).
Luther conceives it to mean transitor, “one who passes through or across the laud,” “a pilgrim.” Cf. Genesis 12:6.
FT93 Burgensis, i.e., Paul of Bourgos (1353-1435).
FT94 Another bit of Mediaeval philology.
FT95 See Introduction.
FT96 Cf. Thesis 1, and footnote.
FT97 Here again, as above, we have the double sense of poenitentia .
Satisfaction is a part of sacramental penance. Luther’s charge is that in preaching the remission of this part of the Sacrament the doctrine of true penitence (cf, Thesis 1) is passed by.
FT98 The Ninety-five Theses.
FT99 Tetzel’s reply to the Theses (Disputatio II, Jo. Tetzelii), 15I7. LOESCHER, I.
FT100 Latin adage, chorcorus inter olera .
FT101 See Introduction.
FT102 i.e., The papal laws regulating the methods of collectors of churchfunds.
FT103 The Ninety-five Theses.
FT104 See Tetzel’s I I. Disputations Theses 47, 48.LOESCHER, 1.
FT105 Erl. Ed., op. var. arg., 3.
FT106 Erl. Ed., 26.
FT107 Erl. Ed., op. var. arg., V, 66. For an exhaustive treatment of Luther’s attittude to immersion, sprinkling, and pouring, seeKRAUTH, Conservative Reformation.
FT108 For formulas, seeHOFLING, Das Sacrament der Taufe, 2.
FT109 RIETSCHEL, Lehrbuch der Liturgik, 2.
FT110 “If Infant Baptism were not right, then for one thousand years there was no baptism and no Christian Church.” Erl. Ed., 26.
FT111 More literally, but with no great difference, in the Lutheran Church Book. The Book of Common Prayer, following The 2. Prayer. book of Edward 6, has abbreviated it.
FT112 Small Catechism: “Baptism dignifies that the old Adam in us is to he drowned and destroyed by daily sorrow blind repentance, together with all sins and evil lusts; and that again the new man should daily come forth and rise, that shall live in the presence of God, in righteousness and purity for ever.”
FT113 Decrees of Trent, Session 6: “If any one asserts that the whole of that which has the proper nature of sin is not taken away, but only evaded or not imputed, let him be accursed.”
FT114 Book of Concord, Eng. Trans.
FT115 Luther recurs to this subject in a subsequent treatise, the Confitendi Ratio.
FT116 i.e. The theory of the Roman Church that even without the faith of a recipient, the blessing of the sacrament is bestowed.
FT117 Erl. Ed., 26.
FT118 Ibid., 269.
FT119 Erl. Ed., XXVI, 292.
FT120 Ibid., 275.
FT121 Ibid., 275.
FT122 Book of Concord, English Translation.
FT123 Erl. Ed., XI, 63, 58; 2d Ed., XI, 65, 61. See discussion by writer in Lutheran Church Review, XVIII, 598-657, where passages cited may be found with full context translated, together with other statements of Luther and those who followed him, on the same subject.
FT124 Literally, “lifted or raise out of baptism”; in common usage simply “baptized.” Cf. “aus der Taufe hebert,” “to stand sponsor.”
FT126 Luther habitually quoted the Vulgate and quoted from memory; hence the many variations from the familiar text of Scripture.
FT130 Good works prescribed as “penances” upon confession to the priest.
FT131 Literally, “lifted up out of it.”
FT133 Luther here refers to his Treatise on the Sacrament of Penance, which was published just before the present treatise on baptism, in 1519. See Weimar Ed., II.
FT134 The power to totgive and to retain sin, belonging, according to Roman teaching; to the priest, and normally exercised in the sacrament of penance.
FT135 Cf. Fourteen of Consolation, Part 1, ch. 2.
FT138 The “spiritual estate” or “spiritual order” includes all those who have deserted the world sad worldly pursuits for the religious life. It includes monks and and nuns, as well as priests, etc.
FT139 1. Decem Praecepta Wittebergensi praedicata populo, 1518, Erl. Ed., op. ex. lat., I, 218. A series of sermons entering into most minute analyses of sins. 2. Diezehen Gebote Gottes miteinerkurzen Auslegung ihrer Erfullung und Uebertretung, Weimar Ed.,I, 547 ff; Erl. Ed., XXXVI, 145-154.
Reduces contents of the sermons to a few pages. A brief handbook for use in the confessional, first printed in tabular form, giving a very condensed examination of each commandment, followed by a catalogue of sins prohibited and virtues enjoined. Written a month before the publication of the Theses, and published the next year. 3. Instructio pro confessione peccatorum abbrevianda secundum decalogum. Latin form of the above, published shortly after the original. Erl. Ed., op. ex. lat., XII, 219-230. 4. Kurze Unterweisung wie man beichten soil, Weimar Ed., II, 57 ff; Erl. Ed., XXI, 245-553, prepared by request of Spalatin, first in Latin, and then translated, Kostlin thinks by Spalatin, into German. Published 1518. Contains eight introductory propositions, followed by lists of sins against each commandment. 5. Confitedi Ratio, published in 1520, a re-elaboration by Luther of the preceding German treatise. Weimar Ed., VI, 159-169; Erl. Ed., IV, 152-170; St. Louis Ed., XIX, 786-806.
FT140 “Ja, mein ganzes Lebea, und alles, das ich thu, handel, red und gedenk, ist also gethan, das es todlich und vordammlichist.” These are almost the words of the public confessional prayer in the Kirchenbuch of the General Council of the Lutheran Church in America: “Also dass alle meine Natur und Wesen straflich und verdammlich ist.”
FT141 Erl. Ed., op. var. arg., IV, 89 sq. “Si enim suum malum sentiret, infernum sentiret, ham infernum in se ipso habet.” See this volume, p. 115 f.
FT142 Erl. Ed., op. ex. lat., XIX, 1-154.
FT143 Erl. Ed. (2d ed.), XI, 173.
FT144 See the opening paragraph of this treatise.
FT145 Erl. Ed., XI, 166, XXIX, 313-320. Cf. with this, the still fuller treatment byCHEMNITZ, Examen Concilii Tridentini (retro edition), 441-453.
FT146 Babylonian Captivity, Erl. Ed. op. var. arg., V, 82.
FT147 Cf. Augsburg Confession, Art. XXV; Apology in Book of Concord, English Translation, pp. 133, 173, 185, 188, 196; Smalcald Articles, 330-339; Small Catechism, 371.
FT148 Sermon vom Sacrament der Busse, Erl. Ed., XX, 190. For definition of “mortal and venial,” see Introduction to XCV Theses.
FT150 DENZINGER, Enchridion Symbolorum, sec. 782;SCHAFF’s Creeds of Christendom.
FT151 “As though the Word of God cannot forgive sins, except where power derived from the Pope assist it.”CHEMNITZ, Examen Cencilii Tridentini (Preuss ed.
FT152 Apology: “There is a reservation of canonical punishments; there is not a reservation of guilt before God in those who are truly converted.”
FT153 Luther quotes from the Vulgate and frequently from memory, a fact which should always be remembered in comparing his quotations with the text of Scripture.
FT154 Vulgate, Justus prior est accusator .
FT155 The apocryphal Prayer of Manasseh was included by Luther as an appendix to this treatise.
FT156 Augustine Conf., X, 20.
FT157 i.e., Forced to confess hidden sins.
FT158 The so-called “science of casuistry,” by which the moral value of an act is determined and the exact degree of guilt attaching to a given sin is estimated.
FT159 Cf. Small Catechism, “Of Confession,” Ques. “What sins ought we to confess?”
FT160 The decrees of the Popes collected in the Canon Law. The decretal here referred to is C. Omnis Utriusque, X. de poenitentiis et remissionibus.
FT161 Anecdotes illustrating the doctrine, of the Church were the favorite contents at the sermons in Luther’s day. Various collections of these edifying legends are still extant.
FT162 i, e., By thinking of the nature of confession.
FT163 The reader of this minute classification of sins, which could be duplicated out of almost any manual of casuistry, may judge for himself whether Luther was correct in calling it a “riot of distinctions.”
FT164 Luther steadily maintained that the Ten Commandments were a complete guide to holy living and that every possible sin is prohibited somewhere in the Decalogue. See beside the various smaller treatises (Kurze Unterweisung wie man beichten soll (1518), Kurze Form der zehn Gebote (1520), etc.), the large D is course on Good Works.
FT165 The writing mentioned are found in the Weimar Ed., Vol. 1.
FT166 The Sentences of Peter the Lombard was the standard text-book of Mediaeval theology.
FT167 “On True and False Penitence,” now universally admitted not to have been written by St. Augustine, but passing under his name till after the Reformation.
FT168 That part of the liturgy of the Mass in which the miraculous transfornmtion of the elements into the Body and Blood of Christ is believed to take place.
FT169 i.e., Of the sacrament of confession.
FT170 The fixed hours of daily prayer observed in the monasteries, afterward applied to the liturgy for these services, viz., the Breviary. The daily reading of this breviary at the appointed hours is required of all the clergy.
FT171 An Italian saint, d. 482, noted for the strictness and severity of his ascetic practices.
FT172 Professor in the University of Paris; one of the most popular and famous of the later Scholastics. He died 1429.
FT173 Vulgate, “Cor ejus paratus est .”
FT174 We would say, “the whole thing in a nutshell.”
FT175 i.e., Sins for which the confessor was not allowed to grant absolution without reference to some higher Church authority, to whose absolution they were “reserved.” See Introduction.
FT176 The power to “bind and loose” ( Matthew 16:19), i.e., to forgive and to retain sins ( John 20:23).
FT177 The Roman Church distinguished between the “‘guilt” and the “penalty” of sin. It was thought possible to forgive the former and retain the latter. Submission to the penalty is “satisfaction.” See Introduction to XCV. Theses.
FT178 Votum satisfactionis . It was and is the teaching of the Roman Church that, where the actual reception of any sacrament is impossible, the earnest desire to receive it suffices for salvation. This desire is known as the votum sacramenti .
FT179 In Spain. The shrine of St. James at that place was a famous resort for pilgrims.
FT180 See the Treatise on the Sacrament of Baptism.
FT181 Luther doubtless refers to the decree of the popes by which special rewards were attached to worship at certain shrines.
FT182 The oath of Office and the oath of allegiance.
FT183 The story is repeated by Melanchthon in the Apology of the Augsburg Confession, Ch. XIII, Art. 27, 38 (Book of Concord, Eng. Trans., p. 588). The “Alexander Corarius” of the text is misleading.
Ft184 Cf. the first sentence of the Prefatory Note also the dedicatory epistle of the Treatise on Good Works. We have noted a few of the more glaring relics of mediaevalism in the footnotes; the attentive reader will discover and dispose of others for himself.
Ft186 The title furnishes peculiar difficulties to the translator. Cole has simply transliterated it, “The Consolatory Tesseradecad.” Spalatin paraphrased it, “Ein trostlichs Buchlein,” etc. The Berlin edition renders it, “Vierzehn Trostmittel,” etc. Did the comment of Bernard of Clairvaux, on Romans 8:18, perhaps contribute its quota to the general conception? “The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the past guilt, which is forgiven (remittitur ); with the present grace of consolation, which is given (immittitur ); with the future glory, which is promised (promittitur ).”
Ft189 An English translation, with some of the omissions that Luther himself did not care to make, is found in Henry Cole’s Select Works of Martin Luther, vol. 2, London,1824.
Ft190 Written by Luther for the last edition of 1535.
Ft191 Compare the Preface to the Complete Works (1545), of this volume.
Ft191 Antilogistae ; the hunters of contradictions and inconsistencies in Luther’s writings, such as John Faber, who published, in 1530, his Antiogiarum Mart. Lutheri Babylonia . Compare also reference in preceding note.
Ft193 As over against Christ and the saints in His train, the devil and his followers are represented here, as frequently in Luther, under the figure of a dragon with scaly tail.
Ft194 Omitted, through an oversight, from the Latin editio princeps . See Introduction.
Ft195 On the political influence of Frederick, as a factor in the German Reformation, see Hermelink, Reformation und Gegenreformation (Kruger’s Handbuch der Kirchengeschichte, 3. Teil).
Ft196 Tessaradecas.
Ft197 See Introduction.
Ft198 In the body of the work Luther places (6) between (3) and (4). A reminiscence of Luther’s childhood?
Ft200 Luther has particular reference to the Elector’s high rank.
Ft201 Luther follows the Vulgate numbering of the Psalms, which differs from the Hebrew (and the English and German). As far as Psalm both agree; but the Vulgate (following the Greek version) counts Psalm 9 and Psalm 10 as one, thus dropping behind one in the numbering. But it divides <19E701> Psalm 147 into two; <19E701> vv. 1-11 being counted as <19E601> Psalm 146, and vv. <19E612> 12-20 as <19E701> Psalm 147; and so both versions agree again from <19E801> Psalm 148 to <19F001> Psalm 150.
Ft202 Job calls it a “warfare” (militia ).
Ft203 Luther harks back to his discussion of this point in the Preface.
Ft204 Particular reference to the Elector.
Ft206 Cypr. de mortal , c. V. Vulgate reading.
Ft209 From the Vulgate.
Ft210 Luther is probably thinking of his own experience, when, near Erfurt, he came near bleeding to death from an injury to his ankle. See Köstlin- Kawerau, Martin Luther , I, 44.
Ft211 Luther no longer held this view of “satisfaction” in 1535.
Ft212 Luther is thinking here specifically of the Elector.
Ft213 He means the communion of saints. See next chapter.
Ft214 According to the Vulgate (Douay Version).
Ft215 August 29th. See Introduction.
Ft216 Cf. A Discussion of Confession .
Ft217 Luther might have considerably revised this whole paragraph.
Ft218 This seems to refer to the writers of the Holy Scriptures.
Ft219 A reference to the threefold baptism, commonly accepted, viz., (1) fluminis , (2) flaminis , (3) sanguinis ; that is, (1) the Sacrament of baptism, (2) the baptism of the Spirit, or repentance, (3) the baptism of blood, or martyrdom. Cf. PRE , XIX, 414.
Ft220 Frederick the Wise was a pious collector of relics, having 5005 of them in the Castle Church at Wittenberg. They had something to do with Luther’s choice of October 31st as the date of the posting of the XCV Theses. See Introduction to the Theses, note 1.
Ft221 Cf. Letter to George Leiffer, 15 April, 1516. See M. A. Currie, The Letters of M. Luther .
Ft222 i.e., The sign of the cross.
Ft223 As much as, “We are in for a bad hour,” and, “A good hour is worth a bad hour.”
Ft225 In this passage “Wisdom” is the subject.
Ft226 In the Sanctus.
Ft228 Luther quotes a verse from <19A601> Psalm 106, which sums up the contents of Psalm 78.
Ft229 Luther uses sensualitas the first time, and sensus the second.
Ft231 The Confessions of St. Augustine , Book IX, chapter x.10 Luther is probably thinking of the sin of suicide.
Ft233 From the Vulgate (Douay Version).
Ft234 Namely, the hope in the passing of evil and the coming f good things.
See above.
Ft235 The two last passages read thus in the Vulgate.
Ft238 Thus the Vulgate.
Ft239 Ovid, Ars amat ., I, 656.
Ft240 Cf. Treatise on Baptism .
Ft242 The Confessions of St. Augustine , Book I, chap. vi.
Ft243 Thus the Vulgate.
Ft244 Comm. in Psalm 39, No. 27.
Ft245 Book 8, chap. 11.
Ft249 Gregor. dialogorum libri iv, containing a number of examples of the terrible end of the wicked.
Ft240 One of the pas Luther did not care to correct.
Ft251 Luther here unites the mythological figures of chimaera and siren.
Ft252 An Italian saint whose festival is observed on February 5th, whose worship flourishes especially in South Italy and Sicily, and whose historical existence is doubtful.
Ft254 Luther has mistaken the chapter.
Ft255 For the various interpretations of the “communion of saints” among mediaeval theologians, see Reinh.SEEBERG, Lehrbuch der Dogmengeschichte , 1st ed., vol. ii, p. 127, note. Luther, in the Sermon von dem hochwürdigen Sacrament des heiligen wahren Leichnams Christi (1519), still accepts the phrase as meaning the participation in the Sacrament, and through it the participation in “the spiritual possessions of Christ and His saints.” In our treatise, it is taken as the definition of the “the holy Catholic Church,” in the sense, of a communion with the saints. In The Papacy at Rome (later in the same year), it becomes the communion or community (consisting) of saints, or believers; as a Gemeinde oder Sammlung . Compare the classical passage in the Large Catechism (1529): “nicht Gemeinschaft, sondern Gemeine.”
Ft256 See A Discussion of Confession , above.
Ft257 Changed to “Christian” in the Catechisms (1529), although the Latin translations retain catholicam .
Ft258 The Apostle does not say, “one cup.”
Ft259 The translation here follows the reading of the Jena Ed. (huc feratur intuitus),as against that of the Weimar and Erl. Edd. (huc feratur intutus).
Ft260 Thus the Vulgate.
Ft262 Vulgate.
Ft263 Namely, after His resurrection.
Ft265 He means the sin of Adam.
Ft266 The germ of The Liberty of a Christian Man (1520).
Ft267 Cf. Terence’s surdo narrare fabulam . Heauton., 222.
FTA1 (Enders, Luther’s Briefwechsel, I, p. 29.) Luther here writes: Learn Christ, dear Brother, learn Christ crucified; learn to sing unto Him and, despairing of self, to say: “Thou, Lord Jesus, art my righteousness, I, however, am Thy sin. Thou hast taken unto Thyself what was mine, and hast given me what is Thine.” In this faith, receive the erring brethren), make their sins your own, and if you have anything good, let it be theirs.
FTA3 On February 24, Luther answered Spalatin: De sermone bonorum operum nihil memini; sed et tot jam edidi, ut periculum sit, ne emtores tandem fatigam; but on Februaary 26, he wrote again: Memoria mihi rediit de operibus bonis sermone tractandis, in concione scilicet id promisi; dabo operam, ut fiat. (DEWETTE, Luther’s Briefe, I, p. 419, 421, 430 ff.)
FTA4 See Dedicatory Letter, above.
FTA5 We mention but one of many testimonies. John Dietenberger in his book, Der leye Obe der gelaub allein selig mache, printed in Strassburg, 1523, says on leaf B2b: “Faith is a gift of God, which may appear bare or ornate; still it remains but one faith, which, however, has another effect when ornate than when bare. Ornate faith makes man a child of grace, an heir of the kingdom of heaven and justified. Bare faith, however, does not separate man from devils, helps not to the kingdom of heaven, and leads to no justification.”
FTA6 Colossians 3:17.
FTA7 The Tessaradecas consolatoria , printed in the present volume.
FTA8 Sexternlein.
FTA9 Questions debated in the schools.
FTA10 Here “the Faith” means the Creed, as the statement of the faith.
FTA11 i.e., in faith.
FTA12 A quality, state or condition, independent of works.
FTA13 St. Jacob di Compostella, a place in Spain, where the Apostle James, the son of Zebedee, who was killed in Jerusalem ( Acts 12:2), is in Spanish tradition said to have died a martyr’s death; since the Ninth Century a noted and much frequented goal of pilgrimages. The name Compostella is a corruption of Giacomo Potolo, that is, “James the Apostle.”
FTA14 St. Bridget of Ireland, who died in 523, was considered a second Virgin Mary, the “Mary of the Irish.” Perhaps here confused with another Bridget, or Birgitta, who died 1373, a Scottish saint, who wrote several prayers, printed for the first time in 1492 and translated into almost all European languages.
FTA15 I. e., by us men.
FTA16 This translation indicates the imperfection of the German form of Bible quotation throughout this treatise.
FTA19 A Jahrmarkt; the reference here being to the bargaining common at such fairs.
FTA20 The theme developed in the treatise De Libertate. 1520.
FTA22 A gold coin, the value of which is very uncertain. It was an adaptation of the florin, which was first coined in Florence in the year 1252, and was worth about $2.50. Of the value of the gold gulden of Luther’s time various estimates are given. Schaff, Church History, 6, p. 470, calls it a guilder and says that it was equal in value to about $4.00 of the present day. Preserved Smith, Life of Luther, p. 367, fixes its intrinsic value at about fifty cents, but believes its purchasing power was almost twenty times as great. To us a gold piece worth fifty cents seems almost impossible; but the New English Dictionary quotes, under the year 1611: “Florin or Franc: an ancient coin of gold in France, worth 2 s. sterling.” As the gold coins of those times were not made of pure gold, rarely reaching 17 carats fine, the possibility may be granted.
But in 1617, the Dictionary quotes, “The Gold Rhenish Guldens of Germany are almost of the same standard as the Crowne Gold of England,” and the Crown was worth at that time 6s. 31/2d., — somewhat more than $1.50.
The later silver gulden, worth about forty cents was current in Europe until modern times, and a gulden, worth 481/2 cents, was, until recently, a standard coin in Austro-Hungary.
FTA23 Grosse Hansen.
FTA24 Men who exercised a delegated authority and acted as the representatives of pope and bishop in matters of church law.
FTA25 See especially the Address to the Christian Nobility and the Babylonian Captivity.
FTA26 On the numbering of. the sections see the Introduction.
FTA27 Here, as also in his Catechism, Luther departs from the Old Testament form of the Third Commandment. His restatement of it is extremely difficult to put into English, because of the various meanings of the word Feiertag . It may mean “day of rest,” or “holiday,” or “holy day.”
By the use of this word Luther avoids the difficulty of first retaining the Jewish Sabbath in the Commandment and then rejecting it in favor of the Christian Sunday in the explanation. Gottesdienst .
FTA29 A reference to the Requiem Mass, sung both at the burial of the dead, and on the anniversary of the day of death. The word translated “memorial,” Begangniss, is literally, “a burial service.”
FTA30 See also the Treatise on the New Testament, elsewhere in this volume.
FTA31 The sermons were frequently either scholastic arguments or popular, often comic tirades against current immorality; the materials were taken from the stories of the saints as much as from the Bible.
FTA32 Lived 1091-1153. Founder of the Cistercian monastery at Clairvaux, of whom Luther says: “If there ever lived on earth a God-fearing and holy monk, it was Saint Bernard, of Clairvaux.” Erl. Ed., 36, 8.
FTB1 Cf. Discussion of Confession FTB2 The prayer-book and the rosary. The Breviary, a collection of prayers, was used by the clergy: the Rosary, the beads which represent prayers, the smaller and more numerous Ave Marias, the larger the Lord’s Prayer, Paternoster, was the layman’s prayer book.
FTB3 Cf. Introduction to The Fourteen of Consolation FTB5 The German, Oelgotzen, means the wooden images of saints, which were painted with oil paints. It was transferred to any dull person, block-head, sometimes also priests, who were anointed with oil at their consecration.
FTB6 Sinnlichkeit FTB7 St. Barbara, a legendary saint, whose day falls on December 4, was thought to protect against storm and fire. St. Sebastian, a martyr of the third century, whose day falls on January 20, was supposed to ward off the plague.
FTB8 Cf. The Fourteen of Consolation FTB10 I.e., by fear without love.
FTB11 The patron saint of music, whose life and martyrdom little that is definite is known.
FTB12 Canonisations, giving a dead man the rank of a saint who may be or shall be worshipped.
FTB13 I.e. faith.
FTB14 Cf. The similar statements in the Sermon vom Wucher (Weimar Ed., 6.) and in the Address to the Christian Nobility.
FTB15 A name for the dependents of the papal court at Rome.
FTB16 At Constance, 1414-1418, at Basel, 1431-1443; at Rome, the Lateran Council, 1512-1517.
FTB17 Or, “Who is said to rule the councils.”
FTB18 This program of reform is further elaborated in the Address to the Christian Nobility.
FTB19 Augustus Ceasar, first Roman Emperor (B.C. 63-A.D. 14) the Ceasar Augustus of Luke 2:1.
FTB20 “The purchase of a rent-charge (rent, census, Zins) was one of the methods of investing money frequently resorted to during the later middle ages. From the transfer from one person to another of the right to receive a rent already due the step was but a short one to the creation of an altogether new rent-charge, for the express purpose of raising money by the sale of it…The practice would seem to have arisen spontaneously, and to have been by no means a mere evasion of the prohibition of usury.” Dictionary of Political Economy, ed. By R.H. INGLIS PALGRAVE, vol. 2. Cf.ASHLEY, Economic History, vol. 1, pt. 2.
For a fuller discussion of the subject by Luther, see the Sermon vom Wucher Weimar Ed., 6.)
FTB22 Sorgfaltigkeit, Luther’s translation of the Vulgate solicitudo in Romans 12:8, where our English Version reads “diligence”. The word as Luther uses it includes the two ideas of carefulness and considerateness FTB23 A most strict monastic order; the phrase here is equivalent to “becomes a monk.”
FTB24 Sanftmuthigkeit FTB25 Luther discusses these tricks in detail in his Sermon von Kaufhandlung und Wucher (1524) Weimar Ed., 15.
FTB26 Sermon von dem Wucher, Weimar Ed., 6. Cf. also Address to the German Nobility.
FTB27 Cf. The Fourteen of Consolation above.
FTC1 As the earliest prints, the following may be mentioned: (1) By Job.
Gruenenberg in Wittenberg, 1520 (the basis of the Weimar text); (2) by the same publisher, 1520; (3) by Melchior Lotther in Wittenberg, 1520; (4) by Silanus Ottmar in Wittenberg, August 21st, 1520 (this is the text of the Erlangen Edition); (5) a Wittenberg print with no mention of the publisher, but otherwise identical in appearance with No. 4; (6) by Fridrichen Peypus at Nurnberg, 1520; (7) a Wittenberg print, 1520, with no mention of the publisher; (8) by Adam Petri in Basel, 1520; (9) a Wittenberg edition of 1520, revised by Luther (anderweit gecorrigiert durch D. Mart. Luther); this edition in octavo, all the preceding in quarto. The text of this treatise in the following collections of Luther’s works, Wittenberl, VII, 25 ff.; Jena, I, 329 ff.; Altenburg, I, 514ff.; Leipzig, XVII 490 ff.: Walch XIX, 1256 ff.; Erlargen XXVII, 141 ff.; Weimar VI, 353 ff.
FTC2 By the word “mass” Luther means the celebration of the Lord’s Supper. Even after this sacrament was understood in an evangelical sense, the Lutherans for a long time kept the name mass. Thus Melanchthon writes in the Augs. Conf., Art. 24, “Our churches are falsely accused of abolishing the mass; for the mass is retained on our part, and celebrated with the greatest reverance.”
FTC4 De Wette, Luther’s Briefe, I, 475.
FTC5 The name given by the Lutheran theologians to those who denied the real presence of the body and blood of Christ in the Lord’s Supper.
FTC6 Two more might have been mentioned: (1) a discourse on the proper preparation for the Lord’s Supper (Erl. Ed., XVII, 55 ff.) and (2) the Discourse on Excommunication (ibid., XXVII, 29 ff.).
FTC7 In the Introduction to The Babylonian Captivity of the Church he writes: “I am compelled, whether I will or not, to become daily more learned, having so many notable teachers diligently pushing me on and keeping me at work.” (Weimar Ed., VI, 497.)
FTC8 Cf.KOESTLIN-KAWERAU, Martin Luther, 4th ed., I, 284;KOESTLIN- HAY, Theology of Luther, I, 399 f; Luther’s Werke, Berlin Ed., III, 261-264, 274.
FTC9 Weimar Ed., VI, 511 f.
FTC10 Cf.KOESTLIN-HAY, op. Cit., I, 340.
FTC11 Ibid., p. 350.
FTC12 Erl. Ed., XVI, 53, 92 ff.
FTC13 So also with much emphasis in the Sermon 5. d. hochw Sac., 1519.
FTC14 He means the Serm. 5. d. hochw. Sac., 1519.
FTC15 Weimar Ed., VI, 502.
FTC16 De Wette, Briefe, I, FTC17 KOESTLIN-HAY, op. cit., I, 355.
FTC18 See above, p. 25, note 1.
FTC19 Luther’s customary term for the law of the Church, or “Canon Law.”
FTC20 For the application of this principle to the sacrament of penance, see the Discussion of Confession above.
FTC21 Luther quotes from the Vulgate, St. Jerome’s Latin version of the Bible.
FTC22 The bread of the Lord’s Supper.
FTC23 The Sanctus in the mass.
FTC24 Luther says “feathers.”
FTC25 Darinnen die Messe steht und geht.
FTC26 Gelubde, literally “vow.”
FTC27 On the mode of baptism see the Treatise n Baptism in this volume. Cf.
Small Catechism, Part IV, 4, and Large Catechism, Part IV.
FTC28 Tropffruchtlein.
FTC29 “Not a benefit received but a benefit conferred.”
FTC31 i.e., Blessing and Thanksgiving at Table; cf. Appendix H. of them a Catechism.
FTC32 Called the “still” mass because said without music.
FTC34 Luther at this period still acknowledges seven sacraments. But see the Babylonian Captivity, written in October, 1520.
FTC35 The receptacle in which the consecrated host is shown to the people.
FTC36 The corpoal-cloth spread over the altar during the communion service.
FTC39 It is the teaching of the Roman Church that a sacrament is effective ex opere operato , i.e., simply as a sacrament ordained of Cod. Intended to guard against the idea that the validity of the sacrament depended on the character of the priest or of the recipient, it gave the to the notion that the sacrament worked a sort of sacred magic.
FTC43 Lasst uns des gewissen spielen.
FTC45 Confessions of St. Augustine, Book 9.
FTC46 This is the votum sacramenti , which, according to Roman teaching, suffices for salvation if participation in the sacrament is impossible.
FTC48 Paul of Thebes, an Egyptian hermit of the III. Century, whose life was written by St. Jerome.
FTC49 The translators have followed the numbering of the text in the Weimar and Erlangen Editions, which omit No. 32 in numbering the paragraphs.
FTC50 The mass held for the Blessed Virgin in Hildesheim on the second Sunday after St. Michael’s Day is, on account of its magnificence, called “golden.” Du Cange.
FTC51 The masses which are observed every day throughout the year.
FTC53 Bishop of Carthage, died FTC55 Still earlier, in his Resolutions of the 95 Theses (Resolut. Disputat., etc., Erl. Fr. Ed. II, 122 sqq., 137 sqq.), Luther had in an historical and objective way spoken of a time when the Roman Church had not been exalted above the other churches, at least .not above those of Greece; that it was thus yet in the time of Pope Gregory I.
FTC56 Luther’s Thirteen Theses against Eck’s Thirteen Theses. Frater Mart.
Luth. Disput. etc., Erl. Fr. Ed. HI, 4 sqq., II sqq. “Bruder Martin Luther’s Disputation und Entschuldigung wider die Anschuldigungen des D. JohAnn Eck.” St. Louis Ed. XVIII, 718. The oldest print is doubtless one in possession of the University at Halle.
FTC57 January 10, 1520, to Spalatin; January 26, to John Lang; February 5, to Spalatin; February 18, to Spalatin; April, Alveld to Luther; May 5, May 17, May 31, June 8, July 20, to Spalatin, with e letter of July or August to Peter Mosellanus, of the University at Leipeig.
FTC58 He alluded to the subject in his Sermon on the Ban.
FTC59 KOSTLIN, Theology of Luther, translated byHAY, I, 365.
FTC60 Martin Luther, I, 299.
FTC61 Alveld’s second book, the Confutatio Inepti , was dedicated to the Council and honorable citizens of the city of Leipzig on the 23rd of April, and appeared in print in the middle of May. Its smooth and popular form mused Luther to this reply, which was put in press before the end of May, and published before the end of June.
FTC62 See Luther to Spalatin, July 20, 1519.
FTC63 See Luther to Spalatin, May 5, 1520, “Exiit tandem frater Augustinus Alveldensis cure sua offa,” etc. He characterizes Alveld in this letter, and refers to the approval it found in Meissen in his letter to Spalatin of May 17th.
FTC64 The title is as follows: “Super apostolica se-de, An Videlicet diuino sit iure nec ne, anque potifex qui Papa did caeptus est, lure diuino in ea ipsa presideat, no paru laudanda ex sacro Biblior. canone declaratio, aedita p. F. Augustinu Alueldesem Franciscanu, regularis (vt dicit) obseruatiae sacerdote, Prouin ciae Saxoniae, Sancte crucis, Sa- criq Biblioru canonis publi- cu lectore I couetu Lipsico, ad Reuerendu in Chro patre & dnm. dnm Adolphu pricipe Illust. I Anhaldt ic Episcopu Metsen- burge sem.” See Super apostolica sede declaratio edita per Augustinum Alveldensem BI., Ab f.; E.S. Cyprian, Nutzliche Urkunden, Leipzig, 1718, II S. 160 f.
FTC65 Luther’s famulus. “Ich werde meinen Bruder Famulus anstellen.” — To Spalatin already on May 5th.
FTC66 “Contra Romanistam fratrem Augustinu Aluelden. Fran- ciscanu Lipsicu Canonis Biblici publicu lictores tortore eiusdem. F. Joanes Lonicerus. Augustinianus. WITTENBERGAE, APVD COLLEGIVM NOVVM. ANNO, M.D. XX.”
FTC67 Lonicer’s reply had been preceded by one more detailed and less impetuous by Bernhardi Feldkirch, teacher in the Wittenberg High School. This work is wrongly regarded as Melanchthon’s. Its title is: “CONFVTATIO INEP- ti & impii Libelli F. August. AL- VELD.
Franciscani Lipsici, pro D. M. Luthero. Vuittenbergae, apud Melchiorera Lottherum juniorem, Anno M.D. XX.”
FTC68 He requested the Nuncio Miltitz to secure authority for him to write.
FTC69 Cf. Luther in the Tractate: “They cling to me like mud to a wheel.”
FTC70 “Eyn gar fruchtbar vn nutzbarlich buchleyn vo de Babstliche stul: vnnd von sant Peter: vnd vo den, die warhafftige schef- lein Christi sein, die Christus vnser herr Petro befolen hat in sein hute vnd regirung, gemacht durch bruder Augustinu Alueldt sant Francisci ordens tzu Leiptzk.”
See Cyprian, Urkunden, II, 161 f.
On May 31, Luther puts the whole situation graphically in a letter to Spalatin as follows: “Lonicers Schrift wird morgen fertig sein. Die Leipziger sind besorgt, ihre Schuler zu behalten; sie ruhmen, dass Erasmus zu ihnen kommen werde. Wie geschaftig und doch wie unglucklich ist der Neid. Vor einem Jahre, da sie uber uns, als waren wir besiegt, spotteten, sahen sie nicht voraus, dass ihnen dies Kreuz bevor-stebe. Der Herr regiert.... Ochsenfart soil sich wider das Buchlein Feldkirchens rusten, in welchera er durchgehechelt wird, Ich habe ein deutsches Buch wider den Esel von Alveld fertiggestellt, welches jetzt unter der Presse ist.”
FTC71 “Von dem Bapstum zu Rome: wid der den hochberumpten Romanisten zu Leipzck D. Martinus Luther August. Vuittenberg.” leaves, quarto, last page blank.
FTC72 For titles of these editions see Weimar Ed., 6, 281.
FTC73 Luther in this tractate aims beyond the “undersized scribe of the barefoot friars at Leipzig,” at the “brave and great flag-bearers who remain in hiding, and would win a notable victory in another’s name,” namely Priedas, Cajetan, Eck, Eraser and the Universities of Cologne and Louvaine. Luther uses the epithet quoted above in one of his letters to Spalatin.
FTC74 “I welcome the opportunity to explain something of the nature of Christianity for the laity.”
FTC75 “I must first of all explain what these things mean, the Church, and the One Head of the Church.”
FTC76 “On this point we must hear the word of Christ, Who, when Pilate asked Him concerning His Kingdom, answered, My kingdom is not of this world. This is indeed a clear passage in which the Church is made separate from all temporal communities. Is not this a cruel error, when the one Christian Church, separated by Christ Himself from temporal cities and places, and transferred to spiritual realms, is made a part of material communities?” “No hope is left on earth except in the temporal.”
FTC77 Among the many things that Luther says on this point are the following: “According to the Scriptures the Church is called the assembly of all the believers in Christ upon earth. This community consists of all those who live in true faith, hope and love, so that the essence, life and nature of the Church is not a bodily assembly, but an assembly of the hearts in one faith. Thus, though they be a thousand miles apart in body, they are yet called an assembly in spirit, because each one preaches, believes, hopes, loves, and lives like the other. So we sing of the Holy Ghost: ‘Thou, Who through diverse tongues gatherest together the nations in the unity of the faith.’ That means a spiritual unity. And this unity is of itself sufficient to make a Church, and without it no unity, be it of place, of time, of person, of work, or of whatever else, makes a Church.” “A man is not reckoned a member of the Church according to his body, but according to his soul, nay, according to his faith.... It is plain that the Church can be classed with a temporal community as little as spirits with bodies. Whosoever would not go astray should therefore hold fast to this, that the Church is a spiritual assembly of souls in one faith, that no one is reckoned a Christian for his body’s sake; that the true, real, essential Church is a spiritual thing, and not anything external or outward.” “All those who make the Christian communion a material and outward thing, like other communities, are in reality Jews, who wait for their Messiah to establish an external kingdom at a certain definite place, namely, Jerusalem; and so sacrifice the faith, which alone makes the kingdom of Christ a thing spiritual or of the heart.” In this and the following notes, for brevity’s sake, various quotations are summarized and connected.
Ftc78 “For the teachings of human experience and ( Deuteronomy 12:8) reason are far below the divine law. The Scriptures expressly forbid us to follow our own reason, Deuteronomy 12: ‘Ye shall not do... every man whatsoever is right in his own eyes’; for human reason ever strives against the law ( Genesis 6:5) of God. Therefore the attempt to establish or defend divine order with human reason, unless that reason has previously been established and enlightened by faith, is just as futile, as if I would throw light upon the sun with a lightless lantern, or rest a rock upon a reed. For Isaiah 7 makes reason subject to faith, when he says ( Isaiah 7:9): ‘Except ye believe, ye shall not have understanding or reason.’ He does not say, Except ye have reason, ye shall not believe. Therefore this scribe would better not have put forth a claim to establish the faith and the divine law by mere reason.”
FTC79 “That the serpent lifted up by Moses, signifies Christ, is taught by John in If it were not for that passage, my reasoning might evolve many strange and weird fancies out of that type. That Adam was a type of Christ, I learn not from myself, but from St. Paul. That the rock in the wilderness represents Christ is not taught by my reason, but by St.
Paul. None other explains the type but the Holy Spirit Himself. He has given the type and wrought the fulfillment, that both type and fulfillment and the interpretation may be God’s own and not man’s, and our faith be founded not on human, but on divine words. What leads the Jews astray but that they interpret the types as they please, without the Scriptures? What has led so many heretics astray but the interpretation of the types without reference to the Scriptures?”
FTC80 “The word Church, when it is used for such external affairs, whereas it concerns the faith alone, is done violence to; yet this manner of using it has spread everywhere, to the great injury of many souls, who think that such outward show is the spiritual and only true estate in Christendom. Of such a purely external Church, there is not one letter in the Holy Scriptures. The building and increase of the Church, which is the body o[Christ, cometh alone from Christ, Who is its head.
Christendom is ruled with outward show; but that does not make us Christians. The Church is a spiritual and not a bodily thing, for that which one believes is not bodily or visible. The external marks whereby one can perceive where this Church is on earth, are Baptism, the Sacrament and the Gospel. For where Baptism and the Gospel are no one may doubt that there are saints, even if it were only the babes in their cradles.”
FTC81 “It is evident that a type is material and external, and fulfillment of the type is spiritual and internal; what the type reveals to the bodily eye, its fulfillment must reveal to the eye of faith alone. The bodily assembly of the people signifies the spiritual and internal assembly of the Christian people in faith. Moses set a serpent on a pole and whosoever looked upon it was made whole. That signifies Christ on the cross. Whosoever believeth in Him is saved. And so throughout the entire Old Testament, all the bodily visible things in it signify in the New Testament spiritual and inward things, which one cannot see, but only possess in faith. St.
Augustine says on John 3: ‘This is the difference between the type and its fulfillment: the type gave temporal goods and life, but the fulfillment gives spiritual and eternal life.’” “Aaron was a type of Christ and not of the Pope. Paul says the high priest typifies Christ; you say St. Peter. Paul says Christ entered not into a temporal building. You make the fulfillment to be earthly and external. If Aaron was a type in external authority, vestments and state, why was he not a type in all the other external and bodily matters? The Old Testament high priest was not permitted to have his head shorn.
But why does the Pope have a tonsure? The Old Testament high priest was a subject. Why then does the Pope have men kiss his feet and aspire to be king, which Christ Himself did not? Wherein is the type fulfilled?”
FTC82 Luther to Spalatin, June 8th: “Gegen den Esel you Alveld werde ich meinen Angriff so einrichten dasz ich des romischen Pabstes nicht uneingedenk bin, und werde keinem you beiden etwas schenken. Denn solches errordert der Stoff reit Nothwendigkeit. Endlicheinmal mussen die Geheimnisse des Antichrist offenbart werden. Denn so drangen sie sich selbst hervor, und wollen nicht welter verborgen sein.”
To this Luther adds the significant statement: “Ich habe vor, einen offentlichen Zettel auszulassen an den Kaiser und den Adel im ganzen Deutschland, wider die Tyrannei und die Nichtswurdigkeit des romischen Holes.”
FTC83 “Feeding, in the Roman sense means to burden Christendom with many and hurtful laws. If ‘feeding’ means to sit in the highest place and to have an office, it follows that whoever is doing this work of feeding is a saint, whether he be a knave or a rogue, or what not. Where there is no love, there is no feeding. The papacy either must be a love, or it cannot be a feeding of the sheep.”
FTC84 “The greater part of the Roman communion, and even some of the popes themselves, have forsaken the faith wantonly and without struggle, and live under the power of Satan. The majority of those who hold so strongly to the authority of the Pope, and lean upon it, are themselves possessed by the powers of hell. Some of the popes were heretics themselves and gave heretical laws. These Roman knaves come along, place the Pope above Christ and make him a judge over the Scriptures. They say that he cannot err.”
FTC85 “Das Bemuhen der Leipziger Gehassigkeit.” To Spalatin, January 10. “Die Nichtswurdigkeiten der Leipziger.” To Joh. Lang, January 26. “Die Kunstangriff-der Leipziger Partei.” To Spalatin, February 5.
FTD1 Augustin Alveld, so named from the town of his birth, Alveld in Saxony, a Franciscan monk, Lector of his order at Leipzig. It is said of him that what he lacked in learning he made up in scurrility, so that he himself complains that his own brother-monks wanted to forbid his writing. John Lonicerus, a friend of Luther, published a small book, Biblia nova Alveldensis, Wittenberg, 1520, in which he gathered a long list of Alveld’s terms of reproach used against Luther. To him has been attributed the origin of the undignified style adopted by so many since 1520 on both sides of the controversy about Luther’s teachings. Vid.
H. A.ERHARD, in Ersch und Gruber, Encyclopaedia, 3, 277; Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie, 1, 375.
FTD2 Cf., Augustine’s Confessions, 3:7: “Just as if in armor, a man being ignorant what piece were appointed for what part, should clap a greave upon his head and draw a headpiece upon his leg...”
FTD3 The four chief literary opponents of Luther in the earlier years of the Reformation — Sylvester Mazolini, usually called Prierias, after the city of his birth, a papal official (Magister sacri palatii) who had published three books against Luther prior to 1520; Thomas of Gaetano, Cardinal, and papal legate at the Diet of Augsburg, 1518; John Eck, professor in the University of Ingolstadt, who had been Luther’s opponent at the Leipzig Disputation in 1519; Jerome Emser, also active at the Leipzig Disputation, whom Luther was to make the laughing-stock of Germany under the name of “the Leipzig goat,” an appellation suggested by his coat-of-arms.
FTD4 The Theological Faculties of Cologne and Louvaine officially condemned Luther’s writings; the former August 30th, the latter November 7th, 1519. The text of their resolutions was reprinted by Luther with a reply, Responsio ad condemnationem doctrinalem, etc. (1520), Weimar Ed., 6, 174ff; Erl. Ed., op. var. arg., 4, 172 ff.
FTD5 Neidhart.
FTD6 The views which Luther expounds in this treatise had already been expressed in a Latin work, Resolutiones super Propositione 13. de potestate Papae, 1519 (Erl. Ed., op. var. arg., 3, 293 ff; Weimar Ed., 2, 180 ff). The present work is written in German “for the laity.”
FTD7 Christenheit. Luther carefully avoids the use of the word “Church” (Kirche). The reason will appear in the argument which follows. In many places, however, the word “Christendom” would not render Luther’s meaning, and there is, for the modem reader, no such technical restriction to the term “Church” as obtained among Luther’s readers. Where the word Christenheit is rendered otherwise than as “Christendom” it is so indicated in a foot-note.
FTD8 The chief point argue at the Leipzig Disputation whether the power of the pope is jure divino or jure humano.
FTD9 Das feine barfussische Buchlein — i.e., a book written by a barefooted friar.
FTD10 A comment explanatory of a passage of Scripture or of the Canon Law.
FTD11 Pallium, a scarf made of sheep’s wool, which the pope is privileged to wear at all times, and others only on specified occasions; conferred by the pope on persons of the rank of archbishops; on its bestowal depended the assumption of the title and functions of the office. The granting of pallia became a rich source of revenue for the pope, since every new incumbent of a prelacy had to apply for his own pallium in person, or by special representative, and to pay for the privilege of receiving it. At the appointment of Uriel as bishop of Mainz in 1508, even the emperor urged a reduction of one-half the usual fees, especially since the previous incumbent had paid the full price but four years previous. The request was denied. See Art. Mainz in PRE 1,2 .
FTD12 Ziur Halfte, so nicht mehr, geistlich.
FTD13 Is this an allusion to the papal title, servus servorum Dei, “the servant of the servants of God?”
FTD14 Alveld’s German treatise described itself in the title as a “fruitful, useful little book.”
FTD15 Alveld’s Latin treatise especially abounds in these appellations.
FTD16 Alveld belonged to the branch of the Franciscan Order known as the “Observants” (fratres regularis observantiae), from their strict observance of the Franciscan Rule. See the title to the Latin treatise in Weimar Ed. 6, 277.
FTD17 Christenheit.
FTD18 Gemeinde — the German equivalent for the Latin communio, communitas, or congregatio. In Luther’s use of the term it means sometimes “community,” sometimes “congregation,” sometimes even “the Church” (Gemeinde der Heiligen). In this case it translates Alveid’s civilitas (Weimar Ed. 6, 278).
FTD19 Christenheit.
FTD20 Christenheit.
FTD21 Luther quotes, in German, the reading of the Latin Vulgate.
FTD22 Christenheit.
FTD23 Gemeinde. A play on the word. On the second use of the term, compare the similar employment of the English word “parish.”
FTD24 Christenheit.
FTD25 From Veni Sancte Spiritus, an antiphon for Whitsuntide dating from the eleventh century.
FTD26 Christenheit.
FTD27 Es ist erlogen und erstunken FTD28 Gemeinde.
FTD29 Christenheit.
FTD30 Versammlung.
FTD31 Gemeinde FTD32 Versammlung.
FTD33 Einigkeit oder Gemeinde.
FTD34 A quaint interpretation of the passage: “The disciples were called Christians first in Antioch.”
FTD35 Christenheit.
FTD36 Nun bitten wir den heiligen Geist, a popular pre-Reformation hymn, of one stanza, for Whitsuntide, dating from the middle of the thirteenth century; quoted in a sermon by Bertholdt, the Franciscan, a celebrated German preacher of the Middle Ages, who died in Regensburg in 1272.
Published by Luther, with three stanzas of his own added, in his hymnbook of 1524. Vid.WACKERNAGEL, Kirchenlied, 2, 44;KOCH, Geschichte des Kirchenlieds, 1, 185;JULIAN, Dict. of Hymnology, 821.
Also Miss Winkworth’s Christian Singers, 38.
FTD37 Christenheit.
FTD38 Gemeinde.
FTD39 Christenheit.
FTD40 Christenheit.
FTD41 All sources from which the Church or the clergy derived an income were called, in the broader sense, “spiritual” possessions. A further distinction was drawn between two kinds of ecclesiastical income — the spiritualia in this sense being the fees,, tithes etc., and the temporalia the income from endowments of land and the like FTD42 The followers of John Huss.
FTD43 Zwolfbote, a popular appellation for the apostles, meaning one of the twelve messengers.
FTD45 Christenheit.
FTD46 Literally, “Rastrum better than malvoisie.” “Rastrum” was a Leipzig beer reported to be extraordinarily bad; “malvoisie,” a highly prized, imported wine, known in England as “malmsey.”
FTD47 In the German treatise Alveld says: “It is not enough to have Christ for a shepherd or a head; if that were sufficient, all the heathen, all the Jews, all the errorists, all the heretics would be true Christians. Christ is a lord, a guardian, a shepherd, a head of the whole world, whether we want Him or not.” (Weima r Ed. 6, 301). In the Latin he says: “No community or assembly (civilitas seu pluralitas) of men can be rightly administered except in the unity of a head, under the Head Jesus Christ.” This proposition he develops in detail, saying that “No brothel (contubernium meretricum), no band of thieves, plunderers and robbers, no company of soldiers can be ruled, or held together, or long exist without a governor, chief and lord, that is to say, without one head .” (Weimar Ed. 6, 278).
FTD49 Jerome Emser, De disputatione Lipsicense and A venatione Luteriana aegocerotis assertio.
FTD50 Augustine, In Joannis Ev., 12, 3, 2. (Migne Ed., 35, 1490.)
FTD51 Cf. Augustine, De unitate ecclesiae, 5, 8. (Migne Ed., 43, 396f.)
FTD52 In his Sermon vom Sacrament des Leichnams Christi of (Weimar Ed. 2, 742 ff.) Luther had made a plea for the restoration of the cup to the laity. At the request of Duke George of Saxony, the bishop of Meissen (Jan. 20th, 1520) forbade the circulation of this tract in his diocese (Weimar Ed. 6, 76;HAUSRATH, Luther, 1, 316). The controversy, to which Luther contributed his Verklarung etlicher Artikel, etc. (Weimar Ed. 6, 78 ff.), was bitterest in the Leipzig circle to which Alveld belonged.
FTD54 A reference to Emser’s De disputatione Lipsicense, and A venatione Luteriana aegocerotis assertio.
FTD55 Luther’s greeting to a forthcoming and much heralded work of Eck’s, which appearedunder the title De primatu Petri.
FTD56 This statement cannot be substantiated. But see commentaries on Acts 26:10f. f.
FTD57 The memory of the warlike and avaricious pope JuliusII. was still fresh in the mind of Luther and his contemporaries.
FTD58 Alveld so announced himself in the title of his Latin treatise, In order to gain the necessary leisure for its composition he had obtained a dispensation from all the chapel services of his monastery. See Weimar Ed. 6, 277.
FTD59 In a similar vein of satire Shakespeare uses this very phrase in “Merry Wives of Windsor,” 3, 5.
FTD60 Gemeinde.
FTD61 Alveld had stated that the attempt had been made “more than times”; and again, ‘The assembly has existed more than 1486 years under the chair of St. Peter which Christ has established.” See Weimar Ed. 6.
FTD62 Gemeinde.
FTD63 Still the old terminology.
FTD64 Equivalent to father-confessor. The pope’s own confessor is so called.
FTD65 Alveld makes this distinction in both of his treatises.
FTD66 Gemeinde.
FTD70 See especially the Resolutiones super Propositione 13.
FTD71 i.e., The Russians, who were in ecclesiastical fellowship with the Orthodox Greek Church. The metropolitan see of Moscow represented the opposition to union with Rome, which had been proposed in 1439; the second metropolitan see of Russia, that of Kiev, was until favorable to the union. See A.PALMIERI and W. J.SHIPMAN, in The Catholic Encyclopedia, 10, 594 ff; 13, 255 f., andADENEY, Greek and Eastern Churches, 385 ff.
FTD72 Gemeinde.
FTD73 Annates (annatae, analia), originally the income which a bishop received from the vacant benefices in his diocese, usually amounting to a year’s income of the benefice. By a decree of John 22, 1317 (Extra 5, John 22, Lib. 1, c. 2), the annates are fixed at one-half of one year’s income of the benefice reckoned on the basis of the tithes, and payable on the accession of the new incumbent. Two years later (1319) the same Pope set an important precedent by claiming for himself the annates from all benefices falling vacant in the next two years (Extrav.
Comm. 3, 2, c. 11). The right to receive annates subsequently became a regular claim of the popes. The term was extended after 1418 to include, beside the annates proper, the so-called servitia, payments made to the curia by bishops and abbots at the time of their accession.
Luther discusses the subject at greater length in the Address to the Christian Nobility. (See Vol. 2.)
FTD75 Romische Einigkeit.
FTD76 This is Alveld’s explanation in his German treatise.
FTD77 Comment, equivalent to “lie” or ‘invention.”
FTD79 The sheeps’ clothing in which they come.
FTD80 A reference to the sale of dispensations, more fully discussed in the Address to the Christian Nobility.
FTD81 At the well-known disputation in the previous year.
FTD82 John Lonicer in Contra romanistam fratrem, etc., and John Bernhardi in Confutatio inepti et impii libelli, etc.; both replies to Alveld’s Latin treatise which appeared shortly before this treatise of Luther’s.
FTD83 Gemeinde.
FTD84 A promise fulfilled in his Address to the Christian Nobility.
FTD85 In the title of his Latin treatise.
FTD86 Of the German treatise.
