FT1 SeeCLEMEN, I, p. 175.
FT2 ENDERS, II, no. 254.SMITH, Luther’s Correspondence, I, no. 206.
FT3 GESS, Akten und Briefe zur Kirchenpolitik Herzog Georgs von Sachsen, Leipzig, 1905.
FT5 In this edition, Vol. I.
FT7 Treatise on the New Testament, Vol. I, pp. 297 ff.
FT8 SeeKOSTLIN, Luthers Theologie, I, 292 f.; alsoHERING, Die Mytikluthers, Leipzig, 1879, pp. 171-174 FT11 See Treatise concerning the Ban.
FT12 See Treatise on Baptism, Vol. I, pp. s6ff.
FT13 Note the advance in The Babylonian Captivity, below, pp. 178ff.
FT14 Cf. Babylonian Captivity.
FT15 Cf. Ser mo, 112, cap.(Mining, 38, 615).
FT16 See Vol. 1.
FT17 E.g., the danger of spilling the wine.
FT19 Used here and above in the New Testament sense of true Christians, living or dead, cf. 1 Corinthians 1:2.
FT22 The Virgin Mary.
FT23 Cf. Enarratio in Psalm 21 (MIGNE, 36, 178).
FT24 Penitential works.
FT25 Cf. Acts 2:46 f.
FT26 See Vol. 1.
FT27 In the Vulgate the Greek word “mystery” is translated by sacramentum . See below, p. aS8.
FT28 Luther still adheres to the doctrine of transubstantiation.
FT31 See Luther’s explanation of the First Commandment in the Catechisms.
Also the answer to the last question in Part V, Small Catechism.
FT32 Treatise on Penance (Weimer Ed., II, 721), where Luther exhorts the troubled conscience to pray with the father of the lunatic boy, “Lord, I believe, help Thou mine unbelief,” and with the Apostles, “Lord, increase our faith.”
FT34 The Church.
FT35 A transubstantiation in the communicant.
FT36 A work that is done without reference to the doer of it.
FT37 A work considered with reference to the doer of it.
FT38 An opus operatum.
FT39 An opus operantis.
FT40 Cf. 1 Corinthians 11:30.
FT41 Sodalities; see Introduction.
FT42 On festival days of the order and on saints’ days.
FT43 The Carmelites are supposed to have been the first to organize sodalities, having organized in the fourteenth century the Sodality of Our Lady of Carmel. St. Anne was the mother of the Holy Virgin. Her sodalities were, as Kolde says, epidemic in 1520. Luther’s appeal to St. Anne in the thunderstorm is well known (Comp. Kostlin-Kawerau, I, 55). There was a sodality of St. Anne, besides one of St. Augustine and one of St. Catherine, in the monastery at Erfurt in Luther’s day. St. Sebastian was a martyr of the fourteenth century. His day is January 20. Comp. Arts. Anna, Sebastian and Bruderschaften in Prot.
Realencyk., I, 552 ff; II, 534 ff.
FT44 A trades’ guild brotherhood.
FT45 Douay Version, based on Vulgate, from which Luther quotes.
FT47 I.e., in marriage.
FT51 SeeENDERS, I, No. 84.SMITH. Luther’s Correspondence, I, No. 69.
FT52 SeeENDERS, I, No. 90.SMITH, Luther’s Correspondence, I, No. 77.
FT53 In the preceding treatise on the Blessed Sacrament.
FT56 I.e., the necessaries of life.
FT57 E.g. the crusades against heretics, and the inquisition of the thirteenth century.Luther’s statement that to burn heretics is contrary to the will of the Holy Spirit was condemned in the Bull Exurg Domine , of July 15, 1520.
FT60 See Volume 1.
FT61 The officials were officers of the bishops’ courts.
FT62 In Vito, lib. 5, tit. 11, c.i, Cum medicinalis .
FT63 According to Luther’s interpretation of 1 Corinthians 5:5. Cf. also Acts 5:5.
FT64 The passage quoted from the canon law.
FT65 For instances see the Gravamina of the German Nation (1521),WREDE, Deutsche Reichstagsakten, II, 685.
FT66 THIELE, Luthers Sprichwortersammlung, No. 276.
FT67 I.e., a cleric.
FT68 This statement also was condemned in the papal bull.
FT69 The “officials” were the administrators of this discipline.
FT70 A very important limitation for Luther’s position.
FT71 See Open Letter to the Nobility.
FT72 Again an important limitation.
FT74 The ashes of Hus were cast into the Rhine (1415), and the body of Wyclif was exhumed and cremated and the ashes cast into the water (1427).
FT76 In 1518 both George and Frederick of Saxony took the position that spiritual jurisdiction should be limited to spiritual matters. GESS, AktenundBrief zur Kirchen politik Georgs 1,44.
FT77 Luther puts a peculiar construction upon this passage.
FT78 The ancient service was divided into the service of the Word (missacatechuinenorum ) and the celebration of the sacrament (missa fidelium ); before the second, those under the ban as well as the catechumens were required to withdraw.
FT79 The “great ban” excluded from all services.
FT80 According to Roman Catholic usage there is a distinction between hearing mass and receiving the sacrament.
FT81 Compare Treatise Concerning the Blessed Sacrament.
FTA2 ENDERS, II, 414; SMITH, L.’s Correspondence, I, No. 266.
FTA3 ENDERS, II, 424.
FTA5 See letter of June 7th to John Hess, ENDERS, II, 411; SMITH, I, No. 265.
FTA6 Published at Rome 1519; printed with Luther’s preface and notes, Weimar Ed., VI, 328 ff.; Erl. Ed., op. var. arg., II, 79 ff.
FTA7 Weimar Ed., VI, 329.
FTA8 See ENDERS, II, 415, 443; SMITH, Nos. 269, 279, and documents in St. Lo u i s Ed., XV, 1630 ff.
FTA9 See Kostlin-Kawerau, Martin Luther, I, 308 ff., and Weimar Ed., VI, 381 ff.
FTA10 See Luther’s letters to Lang and Staupitz, who wished to have the publication withheld (ENDERS, II, 461, 463).
FTA11 Clemen, I, 362.
FTA13 See Weimar Ed., VI, 397.
FTA14 See title B, ibid., 398.
FTA15 Printed as an appendix in Clemen, I, 421-425.
FTA16 So it was called by Johann Lang (ENDERS, II, 461).
FTA17 Unserm furnehmen nach. See Introduction, p.57 FTA18 An ironical comparison of the monks’ cowl and tonsure with the headgear of the jester.
FTA19 i:e., Which one tums out to be the real fool.
FTA20 The proverb ran, Monachus semper praesens, “a monk is always there.” SeeWANDER, Deutsches Sprichworterlexicon, under Monch; No. 130.
FTA21 Evidently a reference to the Gravamina of the German Nation; see GEBHART, Die Grav. der Deutschen Nation, Breslau, 1895.
FTA22 Councils of the Church, especially those of Constance (1414-18), and of Basel (1431-39).
FTA23 Charles V. was elected Emperor in 1519, when but twenty years of age. Hutten expresses his “hopes of good” from Charles in Vadiscus (Bocking, IV, 156).
FTA24 Frederick Barbarossa (1152-1190).
FTA25 Frederick II (1212-1250), grandson of Barbarossa and last of the great Hohenstaufen Emperors. He died under excommunication.
FTA26 Pope Julius II (1503-1513). Notorious among the popes for his unscrupulous pursuit of political power, he was continually involved in war with one and another of the European powers over the possession of territories in Italy.
FTA27 Luther’s recollection of the figures was faulty.
FTA28 The term “Romanist” is applied by Luther to the champions of the extreme form of papal supremacy. Cf. Vol. 1.
FTA29 i:e., The three rods for the punishment of an evil pope.
FTA30 Spuknisse, literally “ghosts.” The gist of the sentence is, “the Romanists have frightened the world with ghost-stories.”
FTA31 Oelgotze — “an image anointed with holy oil to make it sacred”; in modern German, “a blockhead.”
FTA32 Lay-baptism in view of imminent death is a practice as old as the Christian Church. The right of the laity to administer baptism in such cases was expressly recognized by the Council of Elvira, in the year 306, and the decree of that Council became a part of the law of the Church. The right of the laity to give absolution in such cases rests on the principle that in the absence of the appointed official of the Church any Christian can do for any other Christian the things that are absolutely necessary for salvation, for “necessity knows no law.” Cf.
Vol. I, p. 30, note 2.
FTA33 The canon law, called by Luther throughout this treatise and elsewhere, the “spiritual law,” is a general name for the decrees of councils (“canons” in the strict sense) and decisions of the popes (“decretals,” “constitutions,” etc.), promulgated by authority of the popes, and collected in the so-called Corpus juris canonici. It comprised the whole body of Church law, and embodied in legal forms the mediaeval theory of papal absolutism, which accounts for the bitterness with which Luther speaks of it, especially in this treatise. The Corpus includes the following collections of canons and decretals: The Decretum of Gratian (1142), the Liber Extra (1234), the Liber Sextus (1298), the Constitutiones Clementinae (1318 or 1317), and the two books of Extravagantes, — the Extravagantes of John XXII, and the Extravagantes communes. The last pope whose decrees are included is Sixtus IV (died 1484). See Catholic Encyclop., IV, pp. 391 ff.
FTA34 Augustine, the master-theologian of the Ancient Church, bishop of Hippo in Africa from 395-430.
FTA35 Ambrose, bishop of Milan from 374-397, had not yet been baptised at the time of his election to the episcopate, which was forced upon him by the unanimous voice of the people of the city.
FTA36 Cyprian, bishop of Carthage, 247-258, is said to have consented to accept the office only when the congregation surrounded his house and besought him to yield to their entreaties.
FTA37 Was ausz der Tauff krochen iSt. FTA38 The character indelebilis, or “indelible mark,” received authoritative statement in the bull Exultate Deo (1439). Eugenius IV, summing up the Decrees of the Council of Florence, says: “Among these sacraments there are three — baptism, confirmation, and orders — which indelibly impress upon the soul a character, i.e., a certain spiritual mark which distinguishes them from the rest” (MIRBT, Quellen, 2d ed., No. 150).
The Council of Trent in its XXIII Session, July 15, 1563 (MIRBT, No. 312), defined the correct Roman teaching as follows: “Since in the sacrament of orders, as in baptism and confirmation, a character is impressed which cannot be destroyed or taken away, the Holy Synod justly condemns the opinion of those who assert that the priests of the New Testament have only temporary power, and that those once rightly ordained can again be made laymen, if they do not exercise the ministry of the Word of God.”
FTA39 i.e., They are all Christians, among whom there can be no essential difference.
FTA40 The sharp distinction which the Roman Church drew between clergy and laity found practical application in the contention that the clergy should be exempt from the jurisdiction of the civil courts, This is the so-called privilegium fori, “benefit of clergy.” It was further claimed that the government of the clergy and the administration of Church property must be entirely in the hands of the Church authorities, and that no lay rulers might either make or enforce laws which in any way affected the Church. See LEA, Studies in Church History, 169-219 and Prot. Realencyk., VI, 594.
FTA41 It was the contention of the Church authorities that priests charged with infraction of the laws of the state should first be tried in the ecclesiastical courts. If found guilty, they were degraded from the priesthood and handed over to the state authorities for punishment.
Formula for degradation in the canon law, c. 2 in VI, de poen.(V, 9).
See Prot. Realencyk., VI, 589.
FTA42 The interdict is the prohibition of the administration of the sacraments and of the other rites of the Church within the territory upon which the interdict is laid (Realencyk., IX, 208 f.). Its use was not uncommon in the Middle Ages, and during the time that the power of the popes was at its height it proved an effective means of bringing refractory rulers to terms. A famous instance is the interdict laid upon the Kingdom of England by Innocent III in 1208. Interdicts of more limited local extent were quite frequent. The use of the interdict as punishment for trifling infractions of church law was a subject of complaint at the diets of Worms (1521) and Nurnberg (1524). See A.WREDE, Deutsche Reichstagsakten unter Kaiser Karl V., II, pp. 685 f, III, 665.
FTA43 The statement of which Luther here complains is found in the Decretum of Gratian, Dist. XL, c. 6, Si papa. In his Epitome (see Introduction, p. 58), Prierias had quoted this canon against Luther, as follows: “A Pontifex indubitatus (i.e., a pope who is not accused of heresy or schism) cannot lawfully be deposed or judged either by a council or by the whole world, even if he is so scandalous as to lead people with him by crowds into the possession of hell.” Luther’s comment is: “Be astonished, O heaven; shudder, O earth! Behold, O Christians, what Rome is!” (Weimar Ed., VI, 336).
FTA44 Gregory the Great, pope 590-604. The passage is found in MIGNE, LXXVI, 203; LXXVII, 34.
FTA45 Antichrist, the incarnation of all that is hostile to Christ and His Kingdom. His appearance is prophesied in 2 Thessalonians 2:3-10 (the “man of sin, sitting in the temple of God”); 1 John 2:18,22; 1 John 4:3, and Revelation 13. In the early Church the Fathers sometimes thought the prophecies fulfilled in the person of some especially pestilent heretic. Wyclif applied the term to the pope, — “the pope would seem to be not the vicar of Christ, but the vicar of Antichrist” (see LOOFS, Dogmengeschichte, 4th ed., p. 649). On Dec. 11, 1518, Luther wrote to Link: “You can see whether my suspicion is correct that at the Roman court the true Antichrist rules of whom St. Paul speaks”; and March 13, 1519, he wrote to Spalatin: “I am not sure but that the pope is Antichrist or his apostle.” It was the worldly pretensions of the papacy which suggested the idea both to Wyclif and to Luther. By the year 1520 Luther had come to the definite conclusion that the pope was the “man of sin, sitting in the temple of God,” and this opinion he never surrendered.
FTA47 According to academic usage, the holder of a Master’s degree was authorised to expound the subject named in the degree.
FTA48 The doctrine of papal infallibility was never officially sanctioned in the Middle Ages, but the claim of infallibility was repeatedly made by the champions of the more extreme view of papal power, e.g., Augustinus Triumphus (died 1328) in his Summa de potestate Papae. In his attack upon the XCV Theses (Dialogus de porestate Papae, Dec., 1517) Prierias had asserted, “The supreme pontiff (i.e., the pope) cannot err when giving a decision as pontiff, i.e., speaking officially (ex officio), and doing what in him lies to learn the truth”; and again, “Whoever does not rest upon the teaching of the Roman Church and the supreme pontiff as an infallible rule of faith, from which even Holy Scripture draws its vigor and authority, is a heretic” (Erl. Ed., op. var. arg., I, 348). In the Epitome he had said: “Even though the pope as an individual (singularis ersona) can do wrong and hold a wrong faith, nevertheless as pope he cannot give a wrong decision” (Weimar Ed., VI, 337).
FTA49 Most recently in Prierias’s Epitome. See preceding note.
FTA50 Luther had discussed the whole subject of the power of the keys in a Latin treatise, Resolutio super propositione xiii, de potestate papae, of 1519 (Weimar Ed., II, pp. 185 ff., and in the German treatise The Papacy at Rome (Vol. I, pp. 337-394).
FTA52 Another contention of Prierias. In 1518 (Nov. 28th) Luther had appealed his cause from the decision of the pope, which he foresaw would be adverse, to the decision of a council to be held at some future time. In the Epitome Priedas discusses this appeal, asserting, among other things, that “when there is one undisputed pontiff, it belongs to him alone to call a council,” and that “the decrees of councils neither bind nor hold (nullum ligant vel astringunt) unless they are confirmed by authority of the Roman pontiff” (Weimar Ed., VI, 335).
FTA53 1.e., A mere gathering of people.
FTA54 The Council of Nicaea, the first of the great councils of the Church, assembled in 325 for the settlement of the Arian controversy. Luther’s statement that it was called by the Emperor Constantine, and that its decisions did not derive their validity from any papal confirmation, is historically correct. On Luther’s statements about this council, see SCHAFER, Luther als Kirchenhistoriker, pp. 291 ff.; KOHLER, Luther und die Kg., pp. 148ff.
FTA55 Luther is here referring to the earlier so-called “ecumenical” councils.
FTA56 i.e., A council which will not be subject to the pope. Cf. Erl. Ed., xxvi, 112.
FTA57 i.e., They belong to the “spiritual estate”.
FTA58 Der Haufe, 1:e. Christians considered en masse, without regard to official position in the Church.
FTA59 The papal crown dates from the XI Century; the triple crown, or tiara, from the beginning of the XIV. It was intended to signify that very superiority of the pope to the rulers of this world, of which Luther here complains. See Realencyk., X, 532, and literature there cited.
FTA60 A statement made by Augustinus Triumphus.
FTA61 The Cardinal della Rovere, afterwards Pope Julius II, held at one time the archbishopric of Avignon, the bishoprics of Bologna, Lausanne, Coutances, Viviers, Mende, Ostia and Velletri, and the abbacies of Nonantola and Grottaferrata. This is but one illustration of the scandalous pluralism practiced by the cardinals. Cf. Lea, in Cambridge Mod. Hist., I, pp. 659f.
FTA62 The complaint that the cardinals were provided with incomes by appointment to German benefices goes back to the Council of Constance (1415). Cf. Benrath, p. 87, note 17.
FTA63 The creation of new cardinals was a lucrative proceeding for the popes. On July 31, 1517, Leo X created thirty-one cardinals, and is said to have received from the new appointees about 300,000 ducats.
Needless to say, the cardinals expected to make up the fees out of the income of their livings. See Weimar Ed., VI, 417, note I, and PASTOR, Gesch. der Papste IV, I, 137. Cf. Hutten’s Vadiscus (BOCKING IV, 188).
FTA64 The famous Benedictine monastery just outside the city of Bamberg.
FTA65 The proposal made at Constance was more generous. It suggested a salary of three to four thousand gulden.
FTA66 As early as the XIV Century both England and France had enacted laws prohibiting the very practices of which Luther here complains. It should be noted, however, that these laws were enforced only occasionally, and never very strictly.
FTA67 The papal court or curia consisted of all the officials of various sorts who were employed in the transaction of papal business, including those who were in immediate attendance upon the person of the pope, the so-called “papal family.” On the number of such officials in the XVI Century, see BENRATH, p. 88, note 18, where reference is made to 949 offices, exclusive of those which had to do with the administration of the city of Rome and of the States of the Church, and not including the members of the pope’s “family.” The Gravamina of 1521 complain that the increase of these offices in recent years has added greatly to the financial burdens of the German Church (WREDE, Deutsche Reichstagsakten unter Kaiser Karl V, II, 675).
FTA68 On the annates, see Vol. 1. Early in their history, which dates from the beginning of the XIV. Century, the annates (f ructus medii temporis) had become a fixed tax on all Church offices which fell vacant, and the complaint of extortion in their appraisement and collection was frequently raised. The Council of Constance restricted the obligation to bishoprics and abbacies, and such other benefices as had a yearly income of more than 24 gulden. The Council of Basel (1439) resolved to abolish them entirely, but the resolution of the Council was inoperative, and in the Concordat of Vienna (1448) the German nation agreed to abide by the decision of Constance. On the use of the term “annates” to include other payments to the curia, especially the servitia, see Catholic Encyclopedia, I, pp. 537 f.
Luther here alleges that the annates are not applied to their ostensible purpose, viz., the Crusade. This charge is repeated in the Gravamina of the German Nation presented to the Diet of Worms (1521), with the additional allegation that the amount demanded in the way of annates has materially increased (A. WREDE, Deutsche Reichstagsakten unter Kaiser Karl V., II, pp. 675 f.). Similar complaints had been made at the Diet of Augsburg (1518), and were repeated at the Diet of Nurnberg (WREDE, op. cit., III, 660). Hutten calls the annates” a good fat robbery” (Ed. BOCKING, IV, 207). In England the annates were abolished by Act of Parliament (April 10, 1532) FTA69 On the crusading-indulgences.
FTA70 i.e., As was done by the Council of Basel.
FTA71 The canons are the clergy attached to a cathedral church who constituted the “chapter” of that cathedral, and to whom the right to elect the bishop normally belonged.
FTA72 This whole section deals with the abuse of the “right of reservation,” i.e., the alleged right of the pope to appoint directly to vacant church positions. According to papal theory the right of appointment belonged absolutely to the pope, who graciously yielded the right to others under certain circumstances, reserving it to himself in other cases. The practice of reserving the appointments seems to date from the XII Century, and was originally an arbitrary exercise of papal authority.
The rules which came to govern the reservation of appointments were regarded as limitations upon the authority of the pope, The rule of the “papal months,” as it obtained in Germany in Luther’s time, is found in the Concordat of Vienna of 1448 (MIRBT, Quellen, 2d ed., No. 261, pp. 167 f.). It provides that livings, with the exception of the higher dignities in the cathedrals and the chief posts in the monasteries, which fall vacant in the months of February, April, June, August, October and December, shall be filled by the ordinary methods — election, presentation, appointment by the bishop, etc. — but that vacancies occurring in the other months shall be filled by appointment of the pope.
FTA73 i.e., Church offices which carried with them certain rights of jurisdiction and gave their possessors a certain honorary precedence over other officials of the Church.
See MEYER in Realencyk., IV, 658.
FTA74 Charles V, though elected emperor, was not crowned until October 22d.
FTA75 1:e., A living which has not hitherto been filled by papal appointment.
FTA76 This rule, like that of the “papal months,” is found in the Concordat of Vienna. Luther’s complaint is reiterated in the Gravamina of 1521. (WREDE, Deutsche Reichstagsakten, etc., II, 673.)
FTA77 Des Papstes und der Cardinale Gesinde, i.e., all those who were counted members of the “family” or “household” (called Dienstverwandte in the Gravamina of 1521) of the pope or of any of the cardinals. The term included those who were in immediate attendance upon the pope or the cardinals, and all those to whom, by virtue of any special connection with the curia, the name “papal servant” could be made to apply. These are the “courtesans” to whom Luther afterwards refers.
FTA78 In 1513 Albrecht of Brandenburg was made Archbishop of Magdeburg and later in the same year Administrator of Halberstadt; in 1514 he became Archbishop of Mainz as well. In 1518 he was made cardinal.
FTA79 This rule, like the others mentioned above, is contained in the Concordat of Vienna.
FTA80 Cf. The Gravamina of 1521, No. 20, Von anfechtung der cordissanen where the name cordissei is applied to the practice of attacking titles to benefices. (WREDE, op. cit., II, pp. 677 f.)
FTA81 The pallium is a woolen shoulder-cape which is the emblem of the archbishop’s office, and which must be secured from Rome. The bestowal of the pallium by the pope is a very ancient custom. Gregory I (590-604) mentions it as prisca consuetudo (Dist., C.c. 3). The canon law prescribes (Dist. C. c. I) that the archbishop-elect must secure the pallium from Rome within three months of his election; otherwise he is forbidden to discharge any of the duties of his office. It is regarded as the necessary complement of his election and consecration, conferring the “plenitude of the pontifical office,” and the name of archbishop.
Luther’s charge that it had to be purchased “with a great sum of money” is substantiated by similar complaints from the XII Century on, though the language of the canon law makes it evident that Luther’s other contention is also correct, viz., that the pallium was originally bestowed gratis. The sum required from the different archbishops varied with the wealth of their sees, and was a fixed sum in each case.
The Gravamina of 1521 complain that the price has been raised: “Although according to ancient ordinance the bishoprics of Mainz, Cologne, Salzburg, etc., were bound to pay for the pallium about 10,000 gulden and no more, they can now scarcely get a pallium from Rome for 20 or 24 thousand gulden.” (WREDE, op. cit., II, 675.)
FTA82 The oath of allegiance to the pope was required before the pallium could be bestowed (Dist. C, c. I). The canon law describes this oath as one “of allegiance, obedience and unity” (X, I, 6, c. 4).
FTA84 cf. Luther to Spalatin, June 25, 1520 (ENDERS, II, 424; SMITH, NO. 271).
FTA85 i:e., The benefices are treated as though they were vacant.
FTA86 In the case of certain endowed benefices the right to nominate the incumbent was vested in individuals, usually of the nobility, and was hereditary in their family. This is the so-called jus patronum, or “right of patronage.” The complaint that this right is disregarded is frequent in the Gravamina of 1521.
FTA87 Commendation was one of the practices by which the pope evaded the provision of the canon law which prescribed that the same man should not hold two livings with the cure of souls. The man who received an office in commendam was not required to fulfill the duties attached to the position and when a living or an abbacy was granted in this way during the incumbency of another, the recipient received its entire income during a subsequent vacancy. The practice was most common in the case of abbacies. At the Diet of Worms (1521), Duke George of Saxony, an outspoken opponent of Luther, was as emphatic in his protest against this practice as Luther himself (WREDE, op. cit., II, 665); his protest was incorporated in the Gravamina (ibid., 672), and reappears in the Appendix (ibid., 708).
FTA88 A monk who deserted his monastery was known as an “apostate.”
FTA89 i.e., Offices which cannot be united in the hands of one man.
FTA90 A gloss is a note explanatory of a word or passage of doubtful meaning. The glosses are the earliest form of commentary on the Bible.
The glosses of the canon law are the more or less authoritative comments of the teachers, and date from the time when the study of the canon law became a part of the theological curriculum. Their aim is chiefly to show how the law applies to practical cases which may arise.
The so-called glossa ordinaria had in Luther’s time an authority almost equal to that of the corpus juris itself. Cf. Cath. Encyc.,VI, pp.588 f.
FTA91 The thing which was bought was, of course, the dispensation, or permission to avail oneself of the gloss.
FTA92 Dataria is the name for that department of the curia which had to deal with the granting of dispensations and the disposal of benefices.
Datarius is the title of the official who presided over this department.
FTA93 For a catalogue of papal appointments bestowed upon two “courtesans,” Johannes Zink und Johannes Ingenwinkel, see SCHULTE, Die Fugger in Rom, I, pp. 282 ff, 291 ff. Between and 1521, Zink received 56 appointments, and Ingenwinkel received, between 1496 and 1521, no fewer than 106.
FTA95 So Albrecht of Mainz bore the title of “administrator” of Halberstadt.
FTA96 The name of this practice was “regression” (regressus).
FTA97 The complaint was made at Worms (1521) that it was impossible for a German to secure a clear title to a benefice at Rome unless he applied for it in the name of an Italian, to whom he was obliged to pay a percentage of the income, a yearly pension, or a fixed sum of money for the use of his name (WREDE, op. cit., II, 712).
FTA98 Simony — the sin of Simon Magus ( Acts 8:18-20) — the sin committed by the sale or the purchase of an office or position which is formally conferred by a ritual act of the Church. In the ancient and earlier medieval Church the use of money to secure preferment was held to invalidate the title of the guilty party to the position thus secured, and the acceptance of money for such a purpose was an offense punishable by deposition and degradation. The “heresy of Simon” was conceived to be the greatest of all heresies. The traffic in Church offices, which became a flagrant abuse from the time of John XXII (1316-1334), would have been regarded in earlier days as the most atrocious simony.
FTA99 The reservatio mentalis or in pectore is the natural consequence of the papal theory that the right of appointment to all Church offices of every grade belongs to the pope. According to the theory of the canonists (LANCELOTTI, Institutiones juris canonici, Lib. I, Tit. XXVII) this right is exercised either per petitione malterius, i.e., by confirmation of the election, appointment, etc., of others, or proprio motu, i.e., “on his own motion.” In ordinary cases the exercise of the appointing power was limited by rules, which though bitterly complained of (see above, pp. 86 ff, and notes), were generally understood, but the theory allowed any given case to be made an exception to the rules. Of such a case it was said that it was “reserved in the heart of the Pope,” and the appointment was then made “on his own motion.” Hutten says of this reservatio in pectore that “it is an easy, agile and slippery thing, and bears no comparison to any other form of cheating” (Ed. BOCKING, IV, 215).
FTA100 For a similar instance quoted at Worms (1521), see WREDE, op. cit., II, 710.
FTA101 The three chief centers of foreign commerce in the XV and the early XVI Century. The annual fairs (Jahrmarkt), held at stated times in various cities, brought great numbers of merchants together from widely distant points, and were the times when the greater part of the wholesale business for the year was done.
FTA102 Built by Innocent VIII (1484-1490).
FTA104 The Church law forbade the taking of interest on loans of money.
FTA105 During the Middle Ages all questions touching marriage and divorce, including, therefore, the question of the legitimacy of children, were governed by the laws of the Church, on the theory that marriage was a sacrament.
FTA106 i.e., By buying dispensations.
FTA107 The sums paid for special dispensations were so called.
FTA108 The toll which the “robber-barons” of the Rhine levied upon merchants passing through their domains.
FTA109 Ja wend das blat umb szo findistu es — The translators have adopted the interpretation of O. CLEMEN, L’ s. Werke, I, 383.
FTA110 The Fuggers of Augsburg were the greatest of the German capitalists in the XVI Century. They were international bankers, “the Rothschilds of the XVI Century.” Their control of large capital enabled them to advance large sums of money to the territorial rulers, who were in a chronic state of need. In return for these favors they received monopolistic concessions by which their capital was further increased.
The spiritual, as well as the temporal lords, availed themselves regularly of the services of this accommodating firm. They were the pope’s financial representatives in Germany. On their connection with the indulgence against which Luther protested, see Vol. 1; on their relations with the papacy, see SCHULTE, Die Fugger in Rom, 2 Vols., Leipzig, 1904. Vol. II — FTA111 Certificates entitling the holder to choose his own confessor and authorizing the confessor to absolve him from certain classes of “reserved” sins; referred to in the XCV Theses as confessionalia. Cf.
Vol. I, p. 22.
FTA112 Certificates granting their possessor permission to eat milk, eggs, butter and cheese on fast days.
FTA113 The word is used here in the broad sense, and means dispensations of all sorts, including those just mentioned, relating to penance.
FTA114 Equivalent to “carrying coals to Newcastle.”
FTA115 The Campo di Fiore, a Roman market-place, restored and adorned at great expense by Eugenius IV (1431-1447), and his successors.
FTA116 A part of the Vatican palace notorious as the banqueting-hall of Alexander VI (1492-1503), turned by Julius II (1503-1513) into a museum for the housing of his wonderful and expensive collection of ancient works of art. Luther is hinting that the indulgence money has been spent on these objects rather than on the maintenance of the Church. Cf. CLEMEN, I, 384, note 15.
FTA117 i.e., The offices and positions in Rome which were for sale. See BENRATH.
FTA119 The passage is chapter 31, Filiis vel nepotibus. It provides that in case the income of endowments bequeathed to the Church is misused, and appeals to the bishop and archbishop fail to correct the misuse, the heirs of the testator may appeal to the royal courts. Luther wishes this principle applied to the annates.
FTA123 i.e., Promises to bestow on certain persons livings not yet vacant.
Complaint of the evils arising out of the practice was continually heard from the year 1416. For the complaints made at Worms (1521), see WREDE., op. Cit., II, 710.
FTA128 Rules for the transaction of papal business, including such matters as appointments and the like. At Worms (1521) the Estates complain that these rules are made to the advantage of the “courtesans” and the disadvantage of the Germans. (WREDE, op. cit., II, pp. 675 f.)
FTA129 The local Church authorities, here equivalent to “the bishops.” On use of term see Realencyk., XIV, 424.
FTA130 The sign of the episcopal office; as regards archbishops, the pallium.
FTA132 The first of the ecumenical councils (A. D. 325). The decree to which Luther here refers is canon IV of that Council. Cf. KOHLER, L. und die Kg., pp, 139 ff.
FTA133 The primate is the ranking archbishop of a country.
FTA134 “Exemption” was the practice by which monastic houses were withdrawn from the jurisdiction of the bishops and made directly subject to the pope. The practice seems to have originated in the X Century with the famous monastery of Cluny (918), but it was almost universal in the case of the houses of the mendicant orders. The bishops made it a constant subject of complaint, and the Lateran Council (Dec. 19, 1516) passed a decree abolishing all monastic exemptions, though the decree does not seem to have been effective. See CREIGHTON, History of the Papacy, V, 266.
FTA135 i.e., Antichrist.
FTA136 The papal interference in the conduct of the local Church courts was as flagrant as in the appointments, of which Luther has heretofore spoken. At Worms (1521) it was complained that cases were cited to Rome as a court of first instance, and the demand was made that a regular course of appeals should be re-established.WREDE, op. cit., II, 672, 718.
FTA137 The reference is Canon V of the Council of Sardica (A. D. 343), incorporated in the canon law as a canon of Nicaea (Pt. II, qu. 6, c. 5).
SeeKOHLER, L. und die Kg., 151.
FTA138 i.e., Appealed to Rome for decision. This is the subject of the first of the 102 Gravamina of 1521 (WREDE, op. cit., II, 672).
FTA139 The judges in the bishops’ courts. The complaint is that they interfere with the administration of justice by citing into their courts cases which properly belong in the lay courts, and enforce their verdicts (usually fines) by means of ecclesiastical censures. The charges against these courts are specified in the Gravamina of 1521, Nos. 73-100 (WREDE., op. cit., II, 694-703).
FTA140 The signatura gratiae and the signatura justitiae were the bureaus through which the pope regulated those matters of administration which belonged to his own special prerogative.
FTA144 i.e., The cases in which a priest was forbidden to give absolution.
The reference here is to cases in which only the pope could absolve. Cf.
The XCV Theses, Vol. I, p. 30.
FTA145 A papal bull published annually at Rome on Holy Thursday. It was directed against heretics, but to the condemnation of the heretics and their heresies was added a list of offences which could receive absolution only from the pope, or by his authorisation. In 1522 Luther translated this bull into German as a New Year present for the pope (Weimar Ed., VIII, 691). On Luther’s earlier utterances concerning it, seeKOHLER, L. u. d i e Kg., pp. 59 ff.
FTA146 The breve is a papal decree, of equal authority with the bull, but differing from it in form, and usually dealing with matters of smaller importance.
FTA147 Cf. Luther’s earlier statement to the same effect in A Discussion of Confession, Vol. I, pp. 96 f.
FTA149 The Fifth Lateran Council (1512-17).
FTA151 In the canon law, Decretal. Greg. lib. I, tit. 6, cap. 4. The decretal forbids the bestowing of the pallium(see above, p. 89, note 3) on an archbishop elect, until he shall first have sworn allegiance to the Holy See.
FTA152 The induction of Church officials into office. The term was used particularly of the greater offices — those of bishop and abbot. These offices carried with them the enjoyment of certain incomes, and the possession of certain temporal powers. For this reason the right of investiture was a bone of contention between popes and emperors during the Middle Ages.
FTA153 Especially in the time of the Emperors Henry IV and V (1056 — 1125).
FTA154 The German Empire was regarded during the Middle Ages as a continuation of the Roman Empire. (See below, p. 153.) The right to crown an emperor was held to be the prerogative of the pope; until the pope bestowed the imperial crown, the emperor bore the title, “King of the Romans.”
FTA155 In the canon law, Decretal. Greg. lib. l, tit. 33, cap. 6.
FTA156 In the treatise, Resolutio Lutheriana super propositione XIII, de potestate papae (1520). Weimar Ed.,II, pp. 217 ff.; Erl. Ed., op. vat. arg., III, pp. 293 ff.
FTA158 Cf. The Papacy at Rome, Vol. I, pp. 357 f.
FTA159 A decree of Pope Clement V of 1313, incorporated subsequently in the canon law, Clement. lib. ii, tit. II, cap. 2.
FTA160 A forged document of the VIII Century, professing to come from the hand of the Emperor Constantine (306-337). The Donation conveyed to the pope title to the city of Rome (the capital had been removed to Constantinople), certain lands in Italy and “the islands of the sea.” It was used by the popes of the Middle Ages to support their claims to worldly power, and its genuineness was not disputed. In 1440, however, Laurentius Valla, an Italian humanist, published a work in which he proved that the Donation was a forgery. This work was republished in Germany by Ulrich von Hutten in 1517, and seems to have come to Luther’s attention in the early part of 1520, just before the composition of the present treatise (Cf. ENDERS II, 332). Luther subsequently (1537) issued an annotated translation of the text of the Donation (Erl. Ed., XXV, pp. 176 ff.).
FTA161 The papal claim to temporal sovereignty over this little kingdom, which comprised the island of Sicily and certain territories in Southern Italy, goes back to the XI Century, and was steadily asserted during the whole of the later Middle Ages. It was one of the questions at issue in the conflict between the Emperor Frederick II (1200-1260) and the popes, and played an important part in the history of the stormy times which followed the fall of the Hohenstaufen. The popes claimed the right to award the kingdom to a ruler who would swear allegiance to the Holy See. The right to the kingdom was at this time contested between the royal houses of France and of Spain, of which latter house the Emperor Charles V was the head.
FTA162 The popes claimed temporal sovereignty over a strip of territory in Italy, beginning at Rome and stretching in a northeasterly direction across the peninsula to a point on the Adriatic south of Venice, including the cities and lands which Luther mentions. This formed the so-called “States of the Church.” The attempt to consolidate the States and make the papal sovereignty effective involved Popes Alexander VI (1492-1503) and Julius II (1503-1513) in war and entangled them in political alliances with the European powers and petty Italian states. It resulted at last in actual war between Pope Clement VII and the Emperor Charles V (1526-1527). See Cambridge Modern History, I, 104-143; 219 — 252, and literature cited pp. 706-713; 727 f.
FTA163 A free translation of the Vulgate, Nemo militans Deo.
FTA164 The kissing of the pope’s feet was a part of the “adoration” which he claimed as his right.
FTA165 The three paragraphs enclosed in brackets were added by Luther to the 2d edition; see Introduction.
FTA166 The holy places of Rome had long been favorite objects of pilgrimage, and the practice had been zealously fostered by the popes through the institution of the “golden” or “jubilee years.” Cf. Vol. 1.
FTA167 Cf. the Italian proverb, “God is everywhere except at Rome; there He has a vicar.”
FTA168 Cf. Hutten’s saying in Vadiscus : “Three things there are which those who go to Rome usually bring home with them, a bad conscience, a ruined stomach and an empty purse.” (Ed. BOCKING, IV, p. 169.)
Vol. II — FTA169 The “golden” or “jubilee years” were the years when special rewards were attached to worship at the shrines of Rome. The custom was instituted by Boniface VIII in 1300, and it was the intention to make every hundredth year a jubilee. In 1343 the interval between jubilees was fixed at fifty, in 1389 at thirty-three, in 1473 at twenty-five years.
Cf. Vol. I, p. 18.
FTA170 Cf. the statements in the Treatise on Baptism and the Discussion of Confession, Vol. I, pp. 68 ff, 98.
FTA171 The houses, or monasteries, of the mendicant or “begging” orders — the “friars.” The members of these orders were sworn to support themselves on the alms of the faithful.
FTA172 The three leading mendicant orders were the Franciscan (the Minorites, or “little brothers”), founded by St. Francis of Assisi (died 1226), the Dominican (the “preaching brothers”), founded by St. Dominic (died 1221), and the Augustinian Hermits, to which Luther himself belonged, and which claimed foundation by St. Augustine (died 430).
FTA173 The interference of the friars in the duties of the parish clergy was a continual subject of complaint through this period.
FTA174 By the middle of the XV Century there were eight distinct sects within the Franciscan order alone (See Realencyk., VI, pp. 212 if.), and Luther had himself taken part in a vigorous dispute between two parties in the Augustinian order.
FTA175 St. Agnes the Martyr, put to death in the beginning of the IV Century, one of the favorite saints of the Middle Ages. See SCHAFER, L. als Kirchenhistoriker, p. 235.
FTA176 One of the most famous of the German convents, founded in 936.
FTA177 The celebrated Church Father (died 420). The passages referred to are in Migne, XXII, 656, and XXVI, 562.
FTA178 Or “community” (Gemeine). Cf. The Papacy at Rome, Vol. I, p. 345, note 4. See also Dass eine christl, Gemeine Recht und Macht habe, etc.
Weimar Ed. XI, pp. 408ff.
FTA179 Or “congregation.”
FTA180 i.e., At a time later than that of the Apostles.
FTA181 The first absolute prohibition of marriage to the clergy is contained in a decree of Pope Siricius and dated 385. See H. C. LEA, History of Sacerdotal Celibacy, 3d ed. (1907), I, pp. 59 ff.
FTA182 The priests of the Greek Church are required to marry, and the controversy over celibacy was involved in the division between the Greek and Roman Churches.
FTA183 Cf. Hutten’s Vadiscus (BOCKING, IV, 199).
FTA184 i.e., Lie in Roman appointment.
FTA185 i.e., The ministry in the congregation.
FTA186 Quantum fragilitas humana permittit. A qualification of the vow.
FTA187 i.e., Celibacy. Non promitto castitatem.
FTA188 Fragilitas humana non permittit caste vivere.
FTA189 Angelica fortitudo et coelestis virtus.
FTA190 The court-jester was allowed unusual freedom of speech. See Prefatory Letter above.
FTA191 The laws governing marriage were entirely the laws of the Church.
The canon law prohibited marriage of blood-relatives as far as the seventh degree of consanguinity. In 1204 the prohibition was restricted to the first four degrees; lawful marriage within these degrees was possible only by dispensation, which was not all too difficult to secure, especially by those who were willing to pay for it (see above, p. 96).
The relation of god-parents to god-children was also held to establish a “spiritual consanguinity” which might serve as a bar to lawful marriage.
See BENRATH, p. 103, note 74, and in the Babylonian Captivity.
FTA192 This Luther actually did. When he burned the papal bull of excommunication (Dec. 10, 1520) a copy of the canon law was also given to the flames.
FTA193 i.e., The marriage of the clergy.
FTA194 On this sort of reserved cases see Discussion of Confession, Vol. 1 FTA195 “Irregularity” is the condition of any member of a monastic order who has violated the prescriptions of the order and been deprived, in consequence, of the benefits enjoyed by those who live under the regula, viz., the rule of the order.
FTA196 The three kinds of masses are really but one thing, viz., masses for the dead, celebrated on certain fixed days in each year, in consideration of the enjoyment of certain incomes, received either out of bequeathed endowments or from the heirs of the supposed beneficiaries.
FTA197 i.e., Even when the mass is decently said.
FTA200 Das geistliche Unrecht.
FTA201 The Treatise concerning the Ban.
FTA202 i.e., To those who teach and enforce the canon law.
FTA203 Luther means the saint’s-days and minor religious holidays. See also the Discourse on Good Works, Vol. 1.
FTA204 Or “congregation.”
FTA205 i.e., City-council.
FTA206 Kirchweihen, i.e., the anniversary celebration of the consecration of a church. These days had become feast days for the parish, and were observed in anything but a spiritual fashion.
FTA207 i:e., Occasions for drunkenness, gain and gambling.
FTA210 Letters entitling their holder to the benefits of the masses founded by the sodalities or confraternities. See BENRATH, p. 103.
FTA212 The pun is untranslatable, — Netz, Gesetz solt ich sagen.
FTA213 What the pope sold was release from the “snares” and “nets,” viz., dispensation.
FTA214 i.e., Even into the law of the church.
FTA215 Die wilden Kapellen und Feldkirchen, i.e., churches which are built in the country, where there are no congregations.
FTA216 A little town in East Prussia, where was displayed a sacramental wafer, said to have been miraculously preserved from a fire which destroyed the church in 1383. It was alleged that at certain times this wafer exuded drops of blood, reverenced as the blood of Christ, and many miracles were said to have been performed by it. Wilsnack early became a favorite resort for pilgrims. In 1412 the archbishop of Prague, at the instigation of John Hus, forbade the Bohemians to go there. Despite the protests of the Universities of Leipzig and Erfurt, Pope Eugenius IV in 1446 granted special indulgences for this pilgrimage, and the popularity of the shrine was undiminished until the time of the Reformation. Cf. Realencyk, xxi, pp. 347 ff.
FTA217 In Mecklenburg, where another relic of “the Holy Blood” was displayed after 1491. Cf.BENRATH, pp. 104 f. Vol. II — FTA218 The “Holy Coat of Trier” was believed by the credulous to be the seamless coat of Christ, which the soldiers did not rend. It was first exhibited in 1512, but was said to have been presented to the cathedral church of Trier by the Empress Helena, mother of Constantine the Great.
FTA219 Pilgrimage to the Grimmenthal in Meiningen began in 1499. An image of the Virgin, declared to have been miraculously created, was displayed there, and was alleged to work wonderful cures, especially of syphilis.
FTA220 The “Fair Virgin (die schone Maria) of Regensburg” was an image of the Virgin similar to that exhibited in the Grimmenthal. The shrine was opened March 25, 1519, and within a month 50,000 pilgrims are said to have worshiped there. (Weimar Ed., VI, 447, note I). For another explanation see BENRATH, p. 105.
FTA221 The pilgrimages were a source of large revenue, derived from the sale of medals which were worn as amulets, the fees for masses at the shrines, and the free-will offerings of the pilgrims. A large part of this revenue accrued to the bishop of the diocese, though the popes never overlooked the profits which the sale of indulgences for worship at these shrines could produce. In the Gravamina of 1521 complaint is made that the bishops demand at least 25 to 33 per cent. of the offerings made at shrines of pilgrimage (WREDE, op. cit., II, 687).
FTA222 i.e., Every bishop.
FTA223 The possession of a saint gave a church a certain reputation and distinction, which was sufficiently coveted to make local Church authorities willing to pay roundly for the canonisation of a departed bishop or other local dignitary. Cf. Hutten’s Vadiscus (BOCKING, IV, 232).
FTA224 Archbishop of Florence (died 1459). He was canonised, May 31, 1523, by Pope Hadrian VI. When Luther wrote this the process of cannonisation had already begun.
FTA225 Indulta, i.e., grants of special privilege.
FTA226 “Lead,” the leaden seal attached to the bull; “hide”, the parchment on which it is written; “the string,” the ribbon or silken cord from which the seals depend; “wax,” the seal holding the card to the parchment.
FTA227 Franciscans, Dominicans, Augustinians, Camelites and Servites.
FTA228 Botschaften, interpreted by Benrath (p. 105), Clemen (I, 406, note) and Weimar Ed. (VI, 406, note 1) as a reference to the stationarii. They were wandering beggars who, for an alms, would enroll the contributor in the list of beneficiaries of their patron saint, an alleged insurance against disease, accident, etc. They were classified according to the names of their patron saints, St. Anthony, St. Hubert, St. Valentine, etc. Protests against their operations were raised at the Diets of Worms (1521) and Nurnberg (1523). Included in these protests are the terminarii, i.e., the collectors of alms sent out by the mendicant orders.
See WREDE, op. cit., II, 678, 688, III, 651, and BENRATH, loc. cit.
FTA229 Wallbruder, the professional pilgrims who spent their lives in wandering from one place of pilgrimage to another and subsisted on the alms of the faithful.
FTA230 i:e., If the plan above proposed were adopted.
FTA232 See Treatise on the New Testament, Vol. 1.
FTA233 In the Babylonian Captivity Luther definitely excludes penance from the number of sacraments.
FTA234 The sodalities (“ fraternities,” “confraternities”), still an important institution in the Roman Church, flourished especially in the XVI Century. They are associations for devotional purposes. The members of the sodalities are obligated to the recitation of certain prayers and the attendance upon certain masses at stipulated times. By virtue of membership in the association each member is believed to participate in the benefits accruing from these “good works” of all the members. In the case of most of the sodalities membership entitled the member to the enjoyment of certain indulgences. In 1520 Wittenberg boasted of 20 such fraternities, Cologne of 80, Hamburg of more than (Realencyk., 3, 437). In 1519 Degenhard Peffinger, of Wittenberg, was a member of 8 such fraternities in his home city, and of 27 in other places. For Luther’s view of the sodalities see above, pp. 8, 26 ff. On the whole subject see BENRATH, pp. 106 f.; KOLDE in Realencyk., 3, pp. 434 ff.; LEA, Hist. of Conf. and Indulg, 3, pp. 470 ff.
FTA237 The excesses committed at the feasts of the religious societies were often a public scandal. See LEA, Hist. of Conf. and Indulg, III, pp. ff.
FTA238 “Faculties” were extraordinary powers, usually for the granting of indulgences and of absolution in “reserved cases” (see above, p. 105, note 3). They were bestowed by the pope and could be revoked by him at any time. Sometimes they were given to local Church officials, but were usually held by the legates or commissaries sent from Rome.
Complaints were made at the Diets of Worms (1520) and Nurnberg (1523) that the papal commissaries and legates interfered with the ordinary methods of ecclesiastical jurisdiction and appointment. See WREDE, op. cit., II, 673, III, 653.
FTA239 Wladislav I forced the Sultan to sue for peace in 1443. At the instigation of the papal legate, Cardinal Caesarini, who represented that the treaty had not been approved by the pope, and absolved the king from the fulfillment of its conditions, he renewed the war in 1444. At the battle of Varna, Nov. 10th, 1444, the Hungarians were derisively defeated, and Wladislav and Caesarini both killed. See CREIGHTON, Hist. of the Papacy, III, 67.
FTA240 John Hus and Jerome of Prague were convicted of heresy by the Council of Constance and burned at the stake, the former July 6th, 1415, the latter May 30th, 1416. Hus had come to Constance under the safe-conduct of the Emperor Sigismund. Luther is in error when he assumes that Jerome had a similar safe-conduct. In September, 1415, the Council passed a decree which asserted that “neither by natural, divine or human law was any promise to be observed to the prejudice of the catholic faith.” On the whole matter of the safe-conduct and its violation see LEA, Hist. of the Inquisition in the M.A., II, pp. 453ff.
FTA241 The League of Cambray, negotiated in 1508 for war against Venice.
In 1510 Venice made terms with the pope and detached him from the alliance, and the result was war between the pope and the King of France. See Cambridge Modern History, I, pp. 130 ff., and literature there cited.
FTA242 i.e., The Hussites. After the martyrdom of Hus his followers maintained for a time a strong organisation in Bohemia, and resisted with arms all attempts to force them into conformity with the Roman Church. The Council of Basel succeeded (1434) in reconciling the more moderate party among the Bohemians (the Calixtines) by allowing the administration of the cup to the laity. The more extreme party, however, refused to subscribe the Compactata of Basel. Though they soon ceased to be a factor in the political situation, they remained outside the Church and perpetuated the teachings of Hus in sectarian organisations. The most important of these, the so-called Bohemian Brethren, had extended into Poland and Prussia before Luther’s time.
See Realencyk., III, 465-467.
FTA244 See Kohler, L. und die Kirchengesch., 139, 151.
FTA245 The Archbishop of Prague was primate of the Church in Bohemia.
FTA246 The dioceses of these bishops were contiguous to that of the Archbishop of Prague.
FTA247 Bishop of Carthage, 249-258 A.D.
FTA248 Lass man ihn ein gut jar haben, literally,”Bid him good-day.”
FTA249 One of the chief points of controversy between the Roman Church and the Hussites. The Roman Church administered to the laity only the bread, the Hus-sites used both elements.
FTA250 Luther had not yet reached the conviction that the administration of the cup to the laity was a necessity, but see the argument in t h e Babylonian Captivity.
FTA251 The Bohemian Brethren, who are here distinguished from the Hussites, Cf. Realencyk., III, 452, 49.
FTA252 St. Thomas Aquinas, the great Dominican theologian of the XIII.
Century (1225-74), whose influence is still dominant in Roman theology.
FTA253 The view of the sacramental presence adopted by William of Occam.
For Luther’s own view at this time.
FTA254 i.e., If they did not believe in the real presence of the body and blood of Christ in the Lord’s Supper. Vol. II. — FTA255 Places for training youths in Greek glory.
FTA256 The philosophy of Aristotle dominated the mediaeval universities. It not only provided the forms in which theological and religious truth came to expression, but it was the basis of all scientific study in every department. The man who did not know Aristotle was an ignoramus.
FTA257 Or, “I have read him.” Luther’s lesen allows of either interpretation.
FTA258 Duns Scotus, died 1308. In the XV and XVI Centuries he was regarded as the rival of Thomas Aquinas for first place among the theological teachers of the Church, FTA259 i.e., In the universities.
FTA261 i.e., “The chamber of his heart.” Boniface VIII (1294-1303) had decreed, Romanus pontifex jura omnia in scrinio pectoris sui censetur habere, “the Roman pontiff has all laws in the chamber of his heart.”
This decree was received into the canon law (c. I, de cons t. in VIto (I, 2)).
FTA262 Doctores decretorum, “Doctor of Decrees,” an academic degree occasionally given to professors of Canon Law; doctor scrinii papalis, “Doctor of the Papal Heart.”
FTA263 The introduction of Roman law into Germany, as the accepted law of the empire, had begun in the XII Century. With the decay of the feudal system and the increasing desire of the rulers to provide their government with some effective legal system, its application became more widespread, until by the end of the XV Century it was the accepted system of the empire. The attempt to apply this ancient law to conditions utterly different from those of the time when it was formulated, and the continual conflict between the Roman law, the feudal customs and the remnants of Germanic legal ideas, naturally gave rise to a state of affairs which Luther could justly speak of as “a wilderness.”
FTA264 “Sentences” (Sententiae, libri sententiarum) was the title of the textbooks in theology. Theological instruction was largely by way of comment on the most famous hook of Sentences, that of Peter Lombard.
FTA265 Cf. Vol. 1.
FTA266 i.e., Doctors.
FTA267 The head-dress of the doctors.
FTA269 i.e., The monasteries and nunneries.
FTA270 i.e.: The name of Christian.
FTA271 This section did not appear in the first edition; see Introduction.
FTA272 Charles the Great, King of the Franks, was crowned Roman Emperor by Pope Leo III in the year 800 A.D. He was a German, but regarded himself successor to the line of emperors who had ruled at Rome. The fiction was fostered by the popes, and the German kings, after receiving the papal coronation, were called Roman Emperors. From this came the name of the German Empire of the Middle Ages, “the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation.” The popes of the later Middle Ages claimed that the bestowal of the imperial dignity lay in the power of the pope, and Pope Clement V (1313) even claimed that in the event of a vacancy the pope was the possessor of the imperial power (cf. above, p. 109). On the whole subject see BRYCE, Holy Roman Empire, 2d ed. (1904), and literature there cited.
FTA273 The city of Rome was sacked by the Visigoths in 410.
FTA274 Luther is characteristically careless about his chronology. By the “Turkish Empire” he means the Mohammedan power.
FTA275 So sol man die Deutschen teuschen und mit teuschen teuschenn, i.e., made Germans (Deutsche) by cheating (teuschen) them.
FTA276 See Cambridge Mediaeval History, I (1911), pp. 244 f.
FTA277 Such a law as Luther here suggests was proposed to the Diet of Worms (1521). Text in WREDE, Reischstagsakten, II, 335-341.
FTA278 Cf. Luther’s Sermon von Kaufbandlung und Wucher, of 1524. (Weim. Ed. XV, pp. 293 ff) FTA279 Spices were one of the chief articles of foreign commerce in the XVI Century. The discovery of the cape-route to India had given the Portuguese a practical monopoly of this trade. A comparative statement of the cost of spices for a period of years was reported to the Diet of Nurnberg (1523). See WREDE, op. cit.., III, 576.
FTA280 The Zinskauf or Rentenkauf was a means for evading the prohibition of usury. The buyer purchased an annuity, but the purchase price was not regarded as a loan, for it could not be recalled, and the annual payments could not therefore be called intereSt. FTA281 The practice was legalised by the Lateran Council, 1512.
FTA282 The XVI Century was the hey-day of the great trading-companies, among which the Fuggers of Augsburg easily took first place. The effort of these companies was directed toward securing monopolies in the staple articles of commerce, and their ability to finance large enterprises made it possible for them to gain practical control of the home markets. The sharp rise in the cost of living which took place on the first half of the XVI Century was laid at their door. The Diet of Cologne (1512) had passed a stringent law against monopolies which had, however, failed to suppress them. The Diet of Worms (1521) debated the subject (WREDE, Reichstagsakten II, pp. 355 ft.) “in somewhat heated language” (ibid., 842), but failed to agree upon methods of suppression. The subject was discussed again at the Diet of Nurnberg (1523) and various remedies were proposed (ibid., III, 556- 599).
FTA283 The profits of the trading-companies were enormous. The 9 per cent.
Annually of the Weiser (EHRENBERG, Zeitalter der Fugger, I, 195), pales into insignificance beside the 1634 per cent. by which the fortune of the Fuggers grew in twenty-one years (SCHULE, Die Fugger in Rom, 1, 3). In 1511 a certain Bartholomew Rem invested 900 gulden in the Hochstetter company of Augsburg; by 1517 he claimed 33,000 gulden profit. The company was willing to settle at 26,000, and the resulting litigation caused the figures to become public (WREDE, op. cit.:, II, 842, note 4; III, pp. 574 f.). On Luther’s view of capitalism see ECK, Introduction to the Sermon von Kaufshand-lung und Wucher, in Berl. Ed., VII, 494-513.
FTA284 The Diets of Augsburg (1500) and Cologne (1512) had passed edicts against drunkenness. A committee of the Diet of Worms (1521) recommended that these earlier edicts be reaffirmed (WREDE., op. cit., II, pp. 343 f.), but the Diet adjourned without acting on the recommendation (ibid., 737).
FTA285 Sie wollen ausbuben, so sich’s vielmehr hineinbubt.
FTA286 Cf. MULLER, Luther’s theol. Quellen, 1912, ch. 1.
FTA287 In the Confitendi Ratio Luther had set the age for men at eighteen to twenty, for women at fifteen to sixteen years. See Vol. 1.
FTA288 Translated in this edition, Vol. 1.
FTA289 These sentences did not appear in the first edition.
FTA290 See Letter to Staupitz, Vol. 1.
FTA291 This “ little song “ is the Prelude on the Babylonian Captivity of the Church.
FTA292 Born at Steinheim, near Paderborn, in Westphalia; a proofreader in Melchior Lotter’s printing-house at Leipzig, with whose oldest son he went to Wittenberg in 1519; professor of poetry at the university; rector of the same, 1525; one of Luther’s staunchest supporters; rector of the school at Luneberg, 1532 until his death in 1540. Compare ENDERS, Luther’s Briefwechsel, II, 490;TSCHACKERT, op. cit., 203, and literature inCLEMEN, I, 426.
FTA293 Resolutiones disputationum de indulgentiarum virtute, 1518; others think he refers to the Sermon von Ablass und Gnade, of the same year.
FTA294 Sylvester Prierias and the Dominicans. Comp.KÖSTLIN-KAWERAU, Luther I, 189 ff.
FTA295 Resolutiones super prop. xiii., 1519.
FTA296 Comp. The Papacy at Rome, Vol. 1.
FTA297 Comp.FR.LEPP, Schlagwörter des Ref. zeitalters (Leipzig, 1908).
FTA298 The Franciscan Augustin Alveld. See Introduction, and compare LEMMENS, Pater Aug. 5:Alveld (Freiburg, 1899).
FTA299 Isidoro Isolani. See Introduction.
FTA300 Luther pokes fun at the use of revocatio with an objective genitive.
FTA301 See above and comparePRESERVED SMITH, Luther’s Correspondence, Vol. 1, letter no. 265.
FTA302 Cf. The Papacy at Rome, Vol. 1. The title-page of Alveld’s treatise contained twenty-six lines.
FTA303 A satiric reference to a section in Alveld’s treatise, on the name of Jesus, which he spells IHSVH and brings proofs for this form from the three languages mentioned. SeeSECKENDORF, Hist. Luth., lib. I, sect. 27, § lxx, add. ii.
FTA304 Alveld calls himself, on his title-page, Fra nciscanus regularis observantiae Sanctae Crucis. The Observantines were Franciscan monks of the stricter rule, who separated from the Conventuals in the XV. Century. See Prot. Realencyklopadie 8 ,3 VI, 213 ff.
FTA305 In the Treatise on the Blessed Sacrament.
FTA306 The universities of Cologne and Louvain had ratified Eck’s “victory” over Luther at the Leipzig Disputation. SeeKÖSTLIN-KAWERAU, I, 266, 298.
FTA307 De disputatione Lipsicensi, 1519.
FTA307a A venatione Luteriana Aegocerotis assertio, 1519.
FTA308 Some theologians — e.g., Cajetan and Durandus - doubted whether the Sacrament of Order was received by deacons; the Council of Trent decided against them. — Cath. Encyclop., IV, 550.
FTA309 For Luther’s opinion of Aristotle see above.
FTA310 The Franciscans are meant. The allusion may be to the seraphic vision of St. Francis.
FTA312 A less lenient view was taken by Boniface Amerbach, writing to his brother Basil at Basle, October 20, 1520: “The good man (Luther) was not a little injured by the libel of a poor impostor, who, by pretending that Martin had recanted, brought back even those who had entered upon the way of truth to their former errors.” SeeSMITH, op. cit., I, no. 316.
FTA313 The present did not last very long.
FTA314 So called because of the withholding of the wine from the laity.
FTA315 Cf. 1 Timothy 3:16. SeeKÖSTLIN, Theology of Luther (E. Tr.),I, 403.
FTA316 TheTreatise on the Blessed Sacrament, 1510.
FTA319 Decretal. Greg., lib. III, tit. xli, cap. 17.
FTA320 Migne, XLIV, 699 f.
FTA321 Verklärung etlicher Artikel, 1520. Weimar Ed., VI, 80, II ff.
FTA322 An allusion to his opponents’ doctrine of the complete freedom of the will, which Luther denied. Compare his De servo arbitrio (1525).
Weimar Ed., XVIII, 6oo ff. He finds in their treatment of Scripture and of logic a practical expression of this doctrine of theirs.
FTA323 Luther humbly identifies himself with the erring priesthood.
FTA324 Alveld.
FTA325 The res sacramenti. The sacrament consisted of these two parts- (I) the sacramentum, or external sign, and (2) the res sacramenti, or the thing signified, the sacramental grace. Another distinction is that between (I) materia, or the external sign, and (2) forma, or the words of institution or administration.
FTA326 Cf. Weimar Ed., VI, 505, note 1.
FTA327 Cf. Vol. I, p. 325, and Realencyklopädie, X, 289, pp. 2 ff.
FTA328 Cf. Weimar Ed., VI, 506, note 2.
FTA329 Cf. W.KÖHLER, Luther und die Kirchengeschichte (Erlangen,1900), chap. viii.
FTA330 On the spiritual reception of the sacrament see H.HERING, Die Mystik Luthers (1879.
FTA332 John Wyclif ( . 1384), the keenest of the mediaeval critics of the doctrine of transubstantiation.
FTA333 Pierre d’Ailly (t1425), who, with his master Occam, greatly influenced Luther.
FTA334 The Sentences of Peter Lombard, the text-book of mediaeval theology.
FTA335 In the dogma of transubstantiation (Fourth Lateran Council, 1215) the Church taught that the substance of bread and wine was changed into the substance of Christ’s body and blood, while the accidents of the former — i.e., their attributes, such as form, color, taste, etc. — remained.
FTA336 Aquinas.
FTA337 Thus the Erlangen Ed.; the Weimar Ed. reads: an accidentia ibi sint sine substantia.
FTA339 i.e., the host, or wafer.
FTA340 Decretal. Greg. lib. I, tit. i, cap. 1, §3.
FTA343 Comp. Vol. 1.
FTA344 The Douay Version has here been followed.
FTA345 See Luther’s own definition above.
FTA353 On “fruits of the mass” compareSEEBERG, Dogmengesch., III.
FTA354 Comp. Vol. 1.
FTA355 Comp, Vol. FTA358 See Vol 1.
FTA360 That portion of the mass included between the Sanctus and the Lord’s Prayer.
FTA361 See Vol. 1, and Prot. Realencyklop., XIV, 679, 41 ff.
FTA364 See Vol 1.
FTA365 The offertory prayers in the mass. Cf, Prot, Rea1encyk1opädie, XII, 720, 46 ff.
FTA366 The private mass does not require the presence of a congregation.
Besides the celebrant there need be present only a ministrant, There is no music, the mass is only read. SeeRealencyklopädie, XII, 723.
FTA367 The res sacramenti.
FTA368 Masses celebrated by special request or in honor of certain mysteries (e.g., of the Holy Trinity, of the Holy Spirit, or of angels).
Rea1encyklopädie, XII, 722.
FTA369 Pope Gregory I. See Realencyklopädie, XII, 681 f.
FTA370 SEEBERG, Dogmengesch., III, 461 f.
FTA371 For letters of indulgence.
FTA372 Ep. 130, 9 (MIGNE, XXII, 1115).
FTA373 Factions in the monastic orders.
FTA374 The reference may be to Blandina, who suffered martyrdom under Marcus Aurelius.
FTA375 The three parts of penance.
FTA376 See Vol. I.
FTA377 Peter Lombard, the fourth book of whose Sentences treats of the sacraments.
FTA379 The scholastics distinguished between the “material” and the “form” of a sacrament. In baptism, the material was the water; the form, the words, “I baptise thee in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.”
FTA380 Alexander, of Hales, denied the validity of baptism “in the name of Jesus,” which Peter Lombard defended. Cf. Realencyklopadie, XIX, 412.
FTA381 Cf. Weimar Ed., I, 544, and Erlangen Ed., XLIV, 114ff.
FTA383 A point at issue between Thomists and Franciscans. The former held that the grace of the sacrament was contained in the sacramental sign and directly imparted through it; thus Aquinas. The Franciscans contended that the sign was merely a symbol, but that God, according to a pactio, or agreement, imparted the grace of the sacrament when the sign was being used; thus Bonaventura, and especially Duns Scotus. SeeSEEBERG, DG., III, 455 ff., and in Realencyklopadie, V, 73.
FTA388 Baptisma.
FTA390 Res baptismi.
FTA393 The position of Thomas Aquinas, going back to Augustine, and ratified by Clement V at the Council of Vienna, 1311-12.
FTA396 For a full discussion of this “baptism,” see SCHEEL, in the Ber1in Edition of Luther’s works, Erganzungsband II, pp. 134-157.
FTA398 The threefold vow of the mendicant orders.
FTA399 Bu1la means both a papal bull and a bubble.
FTA401 An obscure allegorical reference to the Babylonian captivity of the Jews. “The people of the captivity” (comp. Psalm 64:1, Vulgate) are the better portion of the people who were carried captive, together with their possessions, to Babylon; “the people of the earth,” am haarez, the common people, were left behind and became the nucleus of the hybrid Samaritan nation.
FTA404 See Decretal. Greg., lib. III, tit. xxxiv, cap. 7.
FTA405 Cf. Kohler, Luther und die KG., pp. 222 ff.
FTA407 This time came during Luther’s sojourn at the Wartburg, when he wrote Devotis monasticis, 1521 See Vol. IV.
FTA408 The XCV Theses, the Resolutiones, the Sermon von Ablass uud Gnade, the Confitendi Ratio; the first and last of these in Vol. I.
FTA409 Reference to a probably spurious bull of Clement VI. In his Grund u.
Ursach aller Artikel D. Martin Luthers, so durch rom. Bulle unrechtlich verdammt sind (1521), Luther writes: “Thus it happened in the days of John Hus that the pope commanded the angels of heaven to conduct to heaven the souls of the Roman pilgrims who died en route. Against this dreadful blasphemy and more than devilish presumption Hus raised his voice, and though he lost his life therefor, yet forced the pope to pipe a different tune and in future to refrain from such blasphemy.” Compare KOHLER, Luther u.die Kirchengeschichte, p. 206.
FTA410 longe viliorem; the Jena Ed., followed by Lemme and Kawerau, reads, longe meliorem.
FTA417 A play on the word observantia, which means both observation and observance. A scriptural fling at the Observantines.
FTA418 Luther quotes correctly, confortatus, but thinks confirmatus.
FTA419 Vulgate: confirmet.
FTA421 Vulgate: sacramenta.
FTA422 Erasmus edited the first published Greek New Testament in March, 1516 (Basle: John Froben), the Complutensian Polyglot being the first printed edition (1514). Luther used Erasmus’ work as soon as it came out, as may be seen in his lectures on Romans, 1515-16 (cf. FICKER , Luthers Vorlesung uber den Romerbrief; also PRESERVED SMITH Luther’s Correspondence, etc., I, nos. 21 and 65). In an interesting letter to Luther of Feb. 14, 1519, Froben announces the second edition of Erasmus’ New Testament, which Luther used in making his translation. Cf. SMITH , op. cit., no. 125.
FTA424 Namely, for Paul.
FTA425 The precise meaning is not clear. The Latin is: vel proprio spiritu vel generali sententia.
FTA426 Here follows a passage that clearly breaks into the context and belongs elsewhere. See Introduction. “I admit that the sacrament of penance existed also in the Old Law, yea, from the beginning of the world. But the new promise of penance and the gift of the keys are peculiar to the New Law. For as we now have baptism instead of circumcision, so we have the keys instead of the sacrifices and other signs of penance. We said above that the same God at divers times gave divers promises and signs for the remission of sins and the salvation of men, but that all nevertheless received the same grace. Thus it is said in 2 Corinthians 4, ‘Having the same spirit of faith, we also believe, for which cause we speak also’; and in 1 Corinthians 10, ‘Our fathers did all eat the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink.; and they drank of the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ.’ Thus also in Hebrews 11, ‘These all died, not receiving the promise; God providing some better thing for us, that they should not be perfected without us.’ For Christ Himself is, yesterday, and today and forever, the Head of His Church, from the beginning even to the end of the world. Therefore there are divers signs, but the faith of all is the same.
Indeed, without faith it is impossible to please God, by which faith even Abel pleased Him ( Hebrews 11).”
FTA427 The Summa angelica of Angelus de Clavassio of Genoa (died about 1495), published 1486, one of the favorite handbooks of casuistry, in which all possible cases of conscience were treated in alphabetical order. Cf. Zeitchrift fur Kirchengesch., XXVII, 296 ff. The Summa angelica was among the papal books burned by Luther, together with the bull, December 10, 1520. Cf. SMITH , Luther’s Correspondence, I, no. 355.
FTA428 For a full discussion of the hindrances see article Eherecht, by SEHLING, in Prot. Realencyklopadie, V.
FTA429 On this whole paragraph compare Vol. I.
FTA430 It is to be borne in mind that all that follows is in the nature of advice to confessors in dealing with difficult cases of conscience, and is parallel to the closing paragraphs of the section on The Sacrament of the Bread..
FTA431 Namely, by officiating at the marriage ceremony.
FTA432 Namely, by betrothal (sponsalia de praesenti).
FTA433 Lemme pertinently reminds the reader that by “laws of men” Luther here understands the man-made laws of the Church of Rome.
FTA435 Relationship arising from sponsorship and legal adoption.
FTA436 Cognatio spiritualis.
FTA437 The res sacramenti.
FTA438 Cognatio legalis.
FTA439 Disparilitas religionis.
FTA440 Impedimentum criminis.
FTA441 Impedimentum ligaminis.
FTA442 The fides data et accepta, which Luther finds in the fides (faith) of Galatians 5:22 FTA444 Impedimentum erroris. With fine sarcasm Luther here plays off one hindrance against another.
FTA445 Impedimentum ordinis.
FTA446 Impedimentum publicae honestatis.
FTA447 An untranslatable pun: non iustitia sed inscitia.
FTA451 The following points need to be borne in mind in order to a fair evaluation of this much criticized section: (1) What is here given is in the nature of advice to confessors, and the one guiding principle is the relief of souls in peril. (2) It must not be forgotten that Luther wrote the treatise in Latin, and not for the general public. There is without doubt a certain betrayal in turning into the vernacular a passage written in the language of the learned. Yet we have done this, being unwilling to fall under the charge of giving a garbled version. (3) The hindrance Luther is here discussing was one recognized and provided for by the Church of Rome, and the remedy suggested by him was prescribed by the German Volksrecht in many localities. (4) Divorce was absolutely forbidden. (5) Luther’s error grew out of an unhistorical interpretation of the Old Testament, and consisted in his undervaluing the importance of the public law. “To make the individual conscience the sole arbiter in matters belonging to public law, leads to dangerous consequences.” (See KAWARAU , Berlin Ed., II, 482 f., where references are given.)
FTA452 As he actually did in the case of Henry VIII and Philip of Hesse.
FTA455 An allusion to the fact that what he is writing is a “Prelude.” See Introduction.
FTA456 Contra epistolam Manichaei, 5, 6 (MIGNE XLII, 176).
FTA457 De trinitate, 9, 6, 10 (MIGNE, VIII, 966).
FTA459 The council that condemned and burned John Hus (1414-1418).
FTA460 Dionysius Areopagita, the pseudonym (cf. Acts 17:54) of the unknown author (about 500, in Syria?) of the neoplatonic writings, Of t h e Celestial, and Of the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy, etc.
FTA461 William Durandus the elder, died 1296.
FTA462 The Franciscan Bonaventura (†1274) in his De reductione artium ad theologiam.
FTA463 Donatus (ab. 350 A.D.), a famous Latin grammarian, whose Ars minor was a favorite mediaeval text-book. The chancellor of the University of Paris, John Gerson (1429), published a Donatus moralisatus seu per allegoriam traductus — a mystical grammar, in which the noun was compared to man, the pronoun to man’s sinful state, the verb to the divine command to love, the adverb to the fulfillment of the divine law, etc.
FTA465 The so-called character indelebilis, the peculiar gift of ordination, so that “once a priest, always a priest.” See above, p. 68, note 5.
FTA467 The stated daily prayers, fixed by canon, of the clergy. The seven hours are respectively: matins (including nocturns and lauds), prime, tierce, sext, nones, vespers, and compline.
FTA468 The fullest development of Luther’s doctrine of the spiritual priesthood of believers is to be found in his writings against Emser, especially Auf das uberchristliche, ubergeistliche und uberkunstliche Buch Bock Emsers Antwort, 1521.
FTA475 Covers for the chalice.
FTA476 This promise was fulfilled in the Liberty of a Christian Man.
FTA477 Thus Erasmus: Fieri potest ut nomen commune cum apostolo praebuerit occasionem ut haec epistola Iacobo apostolo ascriberetur, cum fuerit alterius cuiusdam Iacobi. — MOFFATT, Introduction to the Lit. of the N. T., p. 472.
FTA486 The res sacramenti.
FTA487 Vergil’s Eclogues, VIII, 63.
FTA489 The remainder of Luther’s “recantation” was the De libertate. In the letter to the pope, which accompanied it, he gave ample proof of his obedience.
FTA490 The eighth stanza of Coelius Seclulius’ Hymnus acrostichis totam vitam Christi continens (beginning, A solis ortus cardine), of the fifth century. Stanzas 8, 9, 11 and 13 were used as an Epiphany hymn, which Luther translated on December 12, 1541, — “Was furchtst du, Feind Heredes, sehr.” The above translation is taken from Hymns Ancient and Modern, No. 6o.
FTA491 Catholic Encyclopedia, x, 318.
FTA492 Church History, vi, 224f, FTA493 De consideratione, i, I.
FTA494 Martin Luther and the Reformation in Germany. London, 1589, p. 3?0.
FTA495 Luther, I, 351.
FTA496 Du Lutheranisme au Protestantisrne, 1511, p. 199.
FTA497 KOLDE, Luther, I, 274.
FTA498 SCHAFF, VI, 224.
FTA501 Enders, ii, p. 496, gives as the date when the letter was written, “after Oct. 13th”; Smith, Life and Letters of Martin Luther, p. 91, dates it Oct. 20th.
FTA502 Nation, May 29, 1913.
FTA504 Sylvester Prierias.
FTA505 Preface to Prierias’ Epitome, Weimar E d., VI, 329.
FTA506 Virgil, Georgics, I, 514.
FTA507 Pope Eugene III, 1145-1153, for whom Bernard of Clairvaux wrote a devotional book, De conideratione, in which he rehearsed the duties and the dangers of the pope. See Realencyklopadie II, 632; KOHLER, Luther u. die Kirchengeschichte, 311 f. Cf. Resolutiones disput. de indulg, virtute, 1518, CLEMENS, I, 113.
FTA508 John Maier, born in Eck an der Gunz, and generally known as John Eck; an ambitious theologian, who first attacked his professor in Freiburg, then Erasmus’ Annotations to the New Testament, and next wrote against Luther’s XCV Theses (see Vol. I, 10, 176, etc.). He was the opponent of Luther and Carlstadt at the Leipzig Disputation (1519), to which Luther here refers.
FTA509 Jacopo de Vio, born in Gaeta, Italy, in 1469, died in 1534. The name Cajetan he derived from his birthplace, the Latin name of which is Cajeta. In the Dominican Order he was known as Thomas, so that his writings are published under the title, Thomae de Vio Cajetani opera.
He was made cardinal presbyter with the title of S. Sisto in 1517, and in the following year was sent as papal legate to the Diet of Augsburg.
Here he met and examined Luther, but accomplished nothing because he insisted that Luther must recant. See KOLDE in Realencyklopadie 3, 632 ff.
FTA510 Carl von Miltitz was educated at Cologne, was prebendary at Mainz, Trier and Meissen, and later went to Rome, where he acted as agent for Frederick, Elector of Saxony, and Duke George the Bearded. “After the endeavors of Cardinal Cajetan to silence Luther had failed, Miltitz appeared to be the person most suited to bring the negotiations to a successful ending.” (Catholic Encyclopedia, X, 318, where, however, the statement that Miltitz was educated at Mainz, Trier and Meissen is evidently a slip.) It seems that Miltitz returned to Rome for a time, but in 1522 again came to Germany, where he was drowned in the Main, November 20, 1529. See FLATHE, Art. Miltitz, in Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie, 21, 759f.
FTA511 The German reads: “Thus I always did what was required of me, and neglected nothing which it was my duty to do.”
FTA512 This was the usual title of the pope, with which the bull of excommunication opened: Leo Episcopus Servus Servorum Dei.
FTA513 Compare the letters of Miltitz to the elector Frederick in Smith, Luther’s Correspondence, I, pp. 367 f.
FTA514 Here the German is more accurate: “Every Christian man.”
FTA515 German: Wie man sein brauchen und niessen soil, “how we are to benefit by and enjoy what He is for us.”
FTA516 German: der heubt gerechtigkteit.
FTA517 Possibly a reminiscence of the Leviathan serpentem tortuosum in Isaiah 27:1. Cf. Erl. Ed., lxiv, 73; xxvii, 323 f; xviii, 91. Lemme translates Teufelswahn.
FTA518 German: die fasten und gepett etlichen heyligen sonderlich gethah.
FTB1 COHRS, Evang. Katechismusversuche, I, 4.
FTB2 von Zezschwitz, Katechetik, II, 176, 265 ff.
FTB3 Weimar Ed., X’, 475.
FTB4 Weimar Ed., IX, 122 ff. The same series was republished by Luther himself, ibid., IV, 74 ff.
FTB5 Weimar Ed., I, 248 ff.
FTB6 Weimar Ed., VI, 9 ff.
FTB7 Weimar Ed., VI, 20 ff.
FTB10 Weimar Ed., II, 47 ff.
FTB11 On the exact date, see Weimar Ed., vii, 195; Clemen, II, 38.
FTB12 SeeCOHRS, 4, 326 ff.
FTB13 For this information I am indebted to the Revelation J. F. Bornhold, of Mount Holly, N.J. The fact was discovered almost simultaneously by Prof. M. Reu, of Dubuque, Iowa.
FTB14 For this translation see Vol. I.
FTB15 The law that we have outside of divine revelation. Cf. Romans FTB16 The possessor of these letters (Himmels-und Teufelsbriefe) was thought to be under the special protection of the spirits.
FTB17 Magical formulas.
FTB18 Practices popularly ascribed to the witches.
FTB20 Luther believed, with the mediaeval Church, that the lending of money at interest was a sin. Weimar Ed., 25, 293 ff FTB21 i.e., In the confession made to the priest. See Vol. I, p. 285, and Introduction.
FTB22 Cf. Vol. I, pp. 58, 285.
FTB23 In the manuals for confession with which Luther was familiar sins were divided into the various classes mentioned here. Cf. Vol. I, pp. ff.; Geffcken, Der Bilderkatechismus des XV Jhs., and especially 5:ZEZSCHWITZ, II, 197 ff.
FTB24 Serm., 96, 2; Migne,27, 585.
FTB25 Cf. Vol. I, p. 187.
FTB27 Luther has here departed from the customary Roman division of the Creed into twelve articles.
FTB28 Gemein.
FTB29 Gemeine.
FTB30 Christenheit, cf. Vol. I, p. 358.
FTB31 Kirche.
FTB32 In the catechisms of 1529 Luther abandons this interpretation of the bread.
FTB33 i.e. The sacrament of the Lord’s Supper.
FTB34 1 The consequent closing of the churches except for preaching services leads Muller (Luther und Karlstadt, p. 52) to see in this the origin of the Protestant custom of closing churches on weekdays.
FTB35 August I, 1521. ENDERS, Luthers Briefwechsel, in, 208.
FTB36 December 20, 1521. ENDERS, in, 257.
FTB37 Date of both, November, 1521. Both in Weimar Ed., viii, and in Erl.
Ed., Op. var. arg., VI. The latter also in German (Vom Misbrauch der Messe), Erl. Ed., 28.
FTB38 24 Theses (July 1521).BARGE, Andreas Bodenstein von Karlstadt, I, 291. Repeated in De celebratione missae (October), ibid., 487.
FTB39 De scandalo et missa (Oct. or Nov.), ibid., 491.
FTB40 De cantu gregoriano disputatio (1520), ibid., 492.
FTB41 Von Abthuung der Bilder (January, 1522), ibid., 387.
FTB42 SeeKOSTLIN-KAWERAU, Martin Luther, I, 484.
FTB43 Published by H.LIETZMANN in Kleine Texte, no. 21; also inRICHER, Kirchenordnumgen, II 484.
FTB44 Weimar Ed., 8, 670 ff. Erl. Ed., 22, 43 ff.
FTB45 Luther’s letter to the elector on March 7th.DE WETTE, 2, 138; Weimar Ed., Xc, Introd., xlvii f.
FTB46 ENDERS, in, 484.
FTB47 Kessler, Sabbata, St. Gallen, 1902. Quoted at length in Weimar Ed., X, Introduction, lii.
FTB48 Letter of Albert Burer, Briefwechsel des Beatus Rhenanus, 303. See also Introd., lift, in Weimar Ed.,Xc .
FTB49 Weimer Ed., Xb; Erl. Ed., 28.
FTB50 SeeKAWERAU, Luthers Ruckkehr von der Wartburg, 67. Fragment in full in Weimar Ed., X c , Introduction, lv ff., where see also a recently discovered short Latin fragment, which served a similar purpose.
FTB51 Cp. his experiences at the Wartburg. SeeKOSTLIN-KAWERAU, I, ff.
FTB52 Carlstadt, without authority, preached, administered the sacrament and brought about the upheaval in the parish church — Luther’s own.
He was archdeacon and preacher at the castle church. See Muller, Luther und Karlstart, 69 and passim.
FTB53 In the Open Letter to the Christian Nobility and the Babylonian Captivity.
FTB54 Right to speak.
FTB55 Power to do.
FTB56 Melanchthon.
FTB58 Justus Jonas, probost at the castle church .
FTB59 Gabriel Zwilling, an Augustinian, who, next to Carlstadt, was the leader in forcing the reforms which Luther is here discussing. See Introduction.
FTB60 Was Luther led by the name of Gabriel to add a last touch by the mention of the other archangel, in the thought of St. Paul, that even an angel from heaven cannot change the Gospel, Galatians 1:8. See note in Weimar Ed.,Xc , 438. See also a similar outburst in a letter to Johann Lang in 1516, six years previous, where Gabriel Biel’s name furnished the incitement.ENDERS, I, 54;SMITH, I, 42.
FTB61 Namely, of the monasteries.
FTB62 A monastic order, founded 1084, noted for the strictness of its rule.
FTB63 The Iconoclastic controversy in the Eastern church, which called forth the Seventh Ecumenical Council at Nice in 787, whose decrees were favorable to images in the churches. The controversy, which raged for over a century, was finally settled in 843. Since the promulgation of this decree the First Sunday in Lent has been celebrated annually as the “Feat of Orthodoxy.” See Realencyk., III 222 ff.
FTB65 1: e., Castor and Pollux.
FTB66 Luther’s great objection to the mass was its turning of the Sacrament into a sacrifice. This view of the mass was for him an utter perversion of the gospel, and, therefore, comes under the category of essentials.
FTB69 ln the canon law, C. 12, X, de poenitentiis.
FTB71 On this title, See Introduction.
FTB72 “Let there be iudgment and righteousness.” To keep judgment is to accuse and condemn ourselves; ‘but to do righteousness is to trust in the mercy of God.
FTB73 The treatise Von der Beichte, ob die der Papst Macht habe zu gebieten, written during the sojourn on the Wartburg. See Weimar Ed., VIII, 129; Erl. Ed., XXVII, 318.
FTB75 Goldfasts are the ember-fasts, on the three ember-days of each of the four seasons of the year; possibly called “goldfasts” because on these days rents were collected. See Realencyklopladie, 5:780, 9.
FTB76 The fasts enjoined upon a people by a public edict or ban. The term “ban” as here used does not denote the Church’s excommunication, but an authoritative proclamation.
FTB77 The Tatianists, followers of Tatian, who lived in Syria in the middle of the second century. Tatian, apparently basing his view of marriage upon 1 Corinthians 7:5, ascribes the institution of marriage and the whole Old Testament Law to the devil. Eusebius held that Tatian was the founder of a sect known as the Encratites, or Abstainers. Modern historians see in the Encratites a groups of ascetic Christians found frequently in the early Church, somewhat similar to the later monks and nuns, so that Harnack can write that Tatian “joined the Encratites.”
Dogmengeschichte 3 , I, 227n. See Realencyklopadie 2 ,19, 386-394 on Tatian; 5, 392 f. on the Encratites.
FTB78 The Manicheans, strictly speaking not a Christian sect, but a rival religious community, which made inroads upon the Christian Church.
Founded by the Babylonian Mani, who was born in the third century, they taught the inherent evil of all matter, and consequently had many fasts, averaging seven days in each month, while the “perfect” among them abstained from meat, wine and marriage. See Realencyklopadie 3 , 12, 193-228;VON ORELLI, Religionsgesehichte, 279-291.
FTB79 The Greek a n anathema Luther here translates ein Bann, “let him be a ban.” This explains the reference to the ban below.
FTB80 Stehet unter euch, whereas above Luther writes ist inwendig in euch.
FTB81 1 Contra Epistolam Manichaei, vi, Paris Ed., 1839, 28:185: Ego vero Evangelio non crederem, nisi me ecclesiae catholicae commoveret anctoritas. On the preceding page Augustine had written: “If the claim of truth be shown to be so evident that it cannot be called into question, it is to be preferred before all those things by which I am held in the Catholic faith.”
FTB82 O raging madness, worthy of our age!
