# Thirty-five Years of Luther Research/Fields in Which New Material Was Discovered

II. FIELDS IN WHICH NEW MATERIAL WAS DISCOVERED
Thus with the year 1883 there began an industrious research in archives and libraries, confined not only to Germany, for old printed writings of Luther, and for such manuscripts that might shed light upon his life and work. Here also Kolde must first be mentioned. For, whereas, those who were fortunate enough to discover many relics of Luther by chance, as, for example, Buchwald, or those who were aided in an extraordinary measure by the State, or through the arrangement of libraries and archives meanwhile much improved, as, for example, Albrecht, Kolde undertook extended journeys at his own expense to collect material from the archives for a new biography of Luther. As a result of these journeys he introduced the public for the first time to many archives which were important in themselves, and in their relation to the research work on Luther. Then he published his discoveries in his "Analecta Lutherana," which appeared in 1883, and in which he not only pointed out new paths for further investigation, but also aroused widespread interest in it.10 However, in this part of our essay we shall treat of a different thing.By means of a comprehensive survey, we shall concern ourselves with those phases of Luther's life and activities, concerning which new manuscripts have been discovered in the last thirty-five years.
To be considered in the first place is such material which sheds light upon his religious and theological ​development up until 1517, when he posted his ninety-five theses. It was of no small value, when Buchwald discovered various printed matter that had belonged to Luther in the library of the "Ratschule" at Zwickau, and which often contained comments written by Luther himself. Such comments were written on the margin of writings of Augustine, 1503, the Sententiæ of Petrus Lombardus, 1510-1511, the sermons of Tauler, possibly 1516, the works of Anselm of Canterbury, and Tritheim (born 1462, died 1516), 1513-1516. Since 1893 these comments may be found in the ninth volume of the Weimar Luther edition (pp. 2-114). It was of greatest importance that Kawerau, by means of the Dresden Manuscript found by Franz Schnorr v. Carolsfeld, and too literally rendered in Seidemann's publication of 1876, and by means of the Wolfenbuettel manuscript, which Walch had already copied and published in an altogether deficient German translation, created a very trustworthy text of Luther's lectures in the monastery, 1513-1516, on the Psalms, "Dictata super Psalterium" (see third and fourth volumes of the Weimar edition).
The same importance, however, cannot be attached to a copy of Luther's lecture on the Book of Judges from the year 1516, which Buchwald found in Zwickau; although among other things this copy contains some excellent directions for the basis and aim of the truly evangelical sermon. Thus we read, for example: "Holy Scriptures alone are the criterion according to which everything must be weighed and evaluated whether it is right or wrong," or "Sinners can only be directed to Christ, for from sin we can only be freed by Christ;" or, "Pray to God incessantly, that we may have sanctified teachers who know the way of truth and who can preach ​us Christ and His Cross." In 1884 Buchwald published this lecture separately with an introduction by Koestlin. For the Weimar edition Kawerau supplied the text (Vol. IV, pp. 527-586). — Thanks are also due to Buchwald that a number of Luther's sermons, from 1514- 1517, hitherto unknown, found in copies at Zwickau, were brought to light. They are now to be found in the Weimar edition, fourth volume, p. 587 ff.
The most important find, however, was made in 1899 by John Ficker, of Strassburg, through the aid of his friend and pupil. Dr. H. Vopel, who worked in the Vatican Library at Rome, for he discovered in the "Palatina"11 a manuscript containing Luther's commentary on Romans from 1515-1516. Entrusted by the Weimar Luther Commission with the publication of this, he found in a showcase of the Royal Library of Berlin Luther's original handwriting of this commentary, which had been kept here for a long time, and in some curious manner was never used by any one.12 It was known of what importance the Epistle to the Romans had always been to Luther, and that especially Romans I, 16-17, played a large role in his pre-Reformation development, but as to details there was complete groping in the dark.13 Because the taking over of this newly found commentary into the Weimar edition necessitated further preliminary work, Ficker decided on an earlier edition, which appeared in 1908 with Dietrich (Th. Weicher) in Leipzig, as the first volume of "Anfaenge Reformatorischer Bibelauslegung," to the great joy of all researchers on Luther. It comprised two parts, the first containing the "Glosse" (Glossae), the second the "Scholien" (Scholiae). Through it we are not only well informed, in confirmation of what Oldecop, one of Luther's hearers at the time, ​has told us (Koestlin-Kawerau I, p. 106), concerning the methods used in exegetical lectures of that time, but we watch the inner man of the Reformer develop in an astonishing manner. Especially in the "Scholien" we see the lightning flashes of the great themes of the following years much more frequently and distinctly than in the lectures on the Psalms. In the "Palatina" Ficker also found a copy of Luther's expositions on the Epistles to the Hebrews which Luther had treated in lectures (1517). At Elberfield there is also in the possession of Dr. Krafft a manuscript containing the expositions of Galatians, begun by Luther October 26, 1516. This, however, is not identical with the printed commentary on Galatians of 1519. It is to be lamented that both of these are as yet not published, and that the exposition of the Epistle to Titus, which belongs in this collection, is not yet discovered.14
Concerning the methods used in these exegetical lectures of Luther we can say the following, thanks to these discoveries: Luther had the respective biblical book, which he was about to explain, printed as a separate book for himself and his audience, its lines widely separated and its margins very broad (the text used was that of the Vulgata). Between the lines and on the margin there was room for all kinds of comments. "These explanatory comments," says Ficker, "that briefly give the meaning of the words and the intention of the text are according to the medieval habit either interlinear or marginal. The comments placed above the individual words give in the shortest form the explanation of the word and connect in strictly logical fashion words and phrases. Whereas in the marginal explanation such notes are given that pertain to the strictly linguistic, more than that, to the sense and the context, to the ultimate proofs of the word-explanation: proofs, explanatory, circumscribed, religious and ethical, historical and literary notes and references to contemporaneous history are found here." To be distinguished from these two kinds of "Glossen" are the "Scholien." These ​are longer and are attached to the explained texts co-ordinately. Ficker remarks: "These 'Scholien' of the 'Magister' are, as a rule, not intended as explanations for the individual phrases; in arbitrary manner they are based on one passage and ignore the other, and they do not always adhere strictly to the sequences of the verses. Their object lies more in the representation of the main thoughts, and they are more examining and systematical. Here was — also in this respect Luther had his predecessors — the place for mental excursions, which he used at the same time for clear definitions of the basic problems of religion and for arguments with his opponents, or which, through the strength of his ethical energy, he used for practical explanations and uses of the scriptural truth. Sometimes they reach out far, and later on they concern themselves more and more with contemporaneous history." Combining "Glossen" and "Scholien" Luther created the text which he gave in his lectures to the students.
New material from the years following this period has made us better acquainted with seven fields of endeavor in Luther's work: his exegetical lectures, his own debates, his translation work of the Bible, his homiletical and catechetical endeavors, his large correspondence, and his table-talks.
Of his exegetical lectures we now know the following, either for the first time or in their revised text: Operationes in Psalmos of 1519-1521 (Weim. ed. vol. V); the Lectures on Deuteronomy of 1523-1524 (Wei. ed. vol. 14); Prælectiones in Prophetas minores of 1524-1526 (Wei. ed. vol. 20); Lectures on First Epistle of St. John of 1527 (Wei. ed. vol. 20); Declamationes in Genesin of 1527 (Weim. ed. vol. 24); Lectures on Epistles to Titus and Philemon of 1527 (Wei. ed. vol. 25); Lectures on Isaiah of 1527-1530 (Wei. ed. vols. 25; 31, 2); Lectures on First Epistle to Timothy of 1528 and Lectures on Song of Solomon of 1530 (Wei. ed. vol. 31, 3); Lec​tures on Galatians of 1531 (Wei. ed. vol. 40, I); Annotationes in aliquot capita Matthæi of 1536 (Wei. ed. vol. 38); Lectures on Genesis of 1534-1545 (Wei. ed. vols. 42-44). Then there are the expositions of single Psalms (for ex., 110, 68, 118, 119, etc.), of different biblical passages (for ex., Magnificat, Isaiah 9, Isaiah 53, Ezekiel 38-39, Daniel 12, I Kings 7, etc.) and explanations of entire biblical books in the German language (I Peter of 1523, II Peter and Jude of 1523-1524, Jonah and Habbakuk of 1526, Zechariah of 1527, etc.) which from the very first were meant for wider circles. The publication of these lectures, in as much as they were completed by means of the manuscripts, do not only enable us to form a more clean-cut conception of Luther in the midst of his academical activities, but they also put us in a position to compare that which he dictated to his audience with the form in which some of these lectures were published by his pupils.
A hitherto almost unknown province in the work of Luther were the debates which he arranged while professor at Wittenberg. Kawerau writes on this as follows: "We were acquainted with the theses which he prepared for these debates (for ex. Wei. ed. vol. 9), but concerning the course they took, we had only a fragment given us by Valentine Loescher and a complete copy of one debate from the year 1644, which Mollenhauer in 1880 extracted from a manuscript at Dorpat." We are indebted to the early deceased Paul Drews,15 who by dint of tiresome investigations in manuscripts at Muenchen and Wolfenbuettel discovered much new material for this branch of Luther's activity, so that in 1895 he could give us copies of twenty-four debates from the years 1535-45, among which was such an important one as the ​debate with Agricola and against the antinomistic doctrine he advocated.
Concerning Luther's homiletical work it can be said that, thanks especially to G. Buchwald's happy discoveries, a huge mass of manuscripts consisting of copies of Luther's sermons has been piled up. Buchwald16 already in 1884 has given us the sermons which Luther preached at Koburg in 1530, and in 1884-1885 the sermons from the year 1528, 1529 and 1537. Then in 1888 eleven sermons from 1539, and finally in 1905 those from 1537-1540, as Aurifaber had them, from a manuscript in Heidelberg. In the Weimar edition there are 22 large volumes filled solely with sermons, and in 10 further volumes sermons constitute more or less the bulk of their contents. It is wonderful how in these Luther gradually assumes gigantic proportions as a preacher. On the other hand, we may also say with Kawerau that the copies of these sermons, with their promiscuous use of the German and Latin — a defect due to the scribes — and with their abbreviations and unsatisfactory references, do not make the best of reading. One can also readily admit that the loss would not have been unsustainable, if some of these copies had perished. But, because most of the sermons, given into print by the hands of his pupils, show a much revised form, it is of great value that, through these copies, we approach very closely to the sermons just as Luther spoke them. They also contain many a helpful hint concerning contemporaneous history and personal reminiscences of Luther.
We are now also enabled to see more clearly into Luther's catechetical work. It was Buchwald again
Luther as 'Junker Joerg', 1522.
A Woodcut by L. Cranach.
​for the first time the three series of catechism-sermons of 1529, which constituted the foundation for what today we call the Larger Catechism. More particulars concerning this in the fourth part of this essay.
We always knew what great care Luther devoted to the translation of the Bible, concerning not only the preparation of the first editions, but also the revisions of the later ones. But since Thiele and Pietsch have published Luther's own manuscripts of his translations, we clearly see his first rendition and all the corrections he made as a result of further reflection. The third volume of the "Deutsche Bibel," being a part of the Weimar Luther edition, even contains the minutes of what we would call the Committee on Bible Revision.
Not a little was accomplished in these thirty-five years in the way of discovering letters from the pen of Luther. The principal ones were already collected and edited by De Wette in five volumes (Berlin, 1825-1828). To these Seidemann in 1856 added the sixth volume, which brought to light a multitude of hitherto overlooked or unknown letters; this, together with his addition of an index and many erudite notes, made the production doubly useful. After Seidemann in 1859 had published another volume of Luther's letters, and especially since the Director of Archives at Weimar, Burckhardt, had brought out his valuable "Luther's Korrespondenz" in 1866, in which he attempted for the first time to collect even the letters addressed to Luther, it seemed, as if it were now only possible to collect stray letters. here and there. Nevertheless, Kolde in 1883, in his already mentioned "Analecta Lutherana" offered a surprisingly great number of unknown Luther letters, and each of the following years added a few more. Kawerau counted ninety numbers ​for the period between 1883 and 1908 (Theol. Studien und Kritiken, 1908, p. 354), exclusive of the thirty letters which the aged Burckhardt contributed to the "Archiv fuer Reformationsgeschichte," volume IV, pp. 184 ff., and the new material in Enders', shortly to be mentioned, "Luther's Korrespondenz." In the year 1913 P. Flemming contributed five unknown letters from the Roerer manuscript at Jena (Theol. Stud. u. Krit., 1913, p. 288 ff.). O. Clemen published another unknown letter of Luther to Gabriel Zwilling from 1526 (Zeitschr. f. Kirchengesch., vol. 34, pp. 93 ff.), while O. Albrecht already in 1907 in "Theol. Stud. u. Krit.," pp. 564 ff., had made an investigation concerning the collection of Luther letters by Michael Stiefel.
In 1884 Enders took up anew the plan of Burckhardt, and contributed to the Luther edition of Erlangen the part entitled "Luther's Korrespondenz." With this he accomplished a stupendous piece of work. Ten volumes were completed, when death, in 1906, claimed this unassuming man and thorough student of Luther, a man who was ever ready to assist, as we can vouch for from our own experience. Kawerau followed up with the eleventh volume, edited according to the principles laid down by Enders; a little later on he published the twelfth to fourteenth volumes, so that soon the entire work will be completed. Kawerau was exactly the right man to continue the work of Enders, not only because he had published in 1884 and 1885 the letters of Justus Jonas, but because, together with Kolde he must be reckoned as the most thorough and all-sided student of the history of the Reformation that the Church possessed in these thirty-five years. He proved this not only through his excellent "Geschichte der Reformation und Gegenrefor​mation" (third volume of "Lehrbuch der Kirchengeschichte," by W. Moeller), but also through the great number of his instructive articles on the different characters of the Reformation in Hauck's "Real-Enzyklopaedie," and through his far-reaching collaboration in the Luther edition of Weimar. Because the German letters of Luther, which had been taken into "Luther's Korrespondenz" (Luther edition of Erlangen, volumes 53-56), could not be included again in this work, and because the first volumes of "Luther's Korrespondenz," notwithstanding its many supplements, are nevertheless incomplete, it will devolve upon the Weimar edition to offer a final edition of Luther's letters.
In the meantime, alongside of the endeavors of Enders and Kawerau, the 21st volume of the St. Louis Luther edition (St. Louis, Mo., 1903-1904) with its German translation of the Latin by A. F. Hoppe, renders satisfactory service. By dint of Enders and Kawerau there appeared "Luther's Correspondence and other contemporary letters" translated and edited by Preserved Smith (volume I, 1507-1521, Philadelphia, 1913), who had already in his "Life and Letters of Martin Luther" (1911) 30 letters of Luther translated into English. The readers will in all likelihood be acquainted with "Letters of Martin Luther," by Margaret A. Currie, published in New York in 1908. Professor Dau, of St. Louis, has also translated a number of Luther letters for the Theological Quarterly, of which he is editor. Without much merit are T. H. Lachmann's "Technische Studien zu Luther's Briefen an Friederich den Weisen" (Leipzig, Voightlaender, 1913).
Luther in the year 1523. Copper engraving by Daniel Hopfer.
​be edited, but the task remained to search farther for material that might still be accessible.
The latter was done first, and with good success. H. Wrampelmeyer found a collection of notes from the pen of Luther's friend and companion Conrad Cordatus, in Zellerfeld, and published it in 1885. As a matter of fact, the title of his publication19 is very misleading, for according to it one expects to find just as trustworthy and original notes of Luther's table-talks for the year 1537, as one does for the year 1538 in Lauterbach's diary. But this is by no means the case. Cordatus, who since 1532 was pastor at Niemeck, near Belzig, and, therefore, fully three German miles from Wittenberg, could hardly have kept a daybook on the table-talks of Luther, as often as he may have come to Wittenberg, and as faithfully as he probably recorded everything he heard Luther mention across the table. As a matter of fact, this collection of Cordatus only in one part contains notes by Cordatus himself; the other part consists of copies, extractions, as reviews from the notes of other table companions; these again do not all date back to 1537, but really to an earlier year. Cordatus concluded his collection in 1537.20 At that, Cordatus was inclined to be brief and to condense everything, so that, as a rule, we have mere excerpts from him instead of literal rendition.
We must, therefore, rank the publication that the member of the higher consistory at Muenchen, Preger, gave us three years later far higher as a true source.21 For here we have, thanks to Preger's care in the matter of handling the text, a truly, and in every respect, chronologically arranged, continual series of conversations from the end of the year 1531 until late fall of 1532. Four ​years later, a publication by Georg Loesche appeared22 that has further enriched our knowledge of Luther's table-talk. Using Seidemann's handwritings, he published a manuscript from Nuernberg, which, though indirectly, is traceable to Johann Matthesius. But this lost a good deal of its value, when, ten years later, Ernst Kroker in a manuscript at Leipzig found trustworthier reproductions of the notes of Matthesius, the most important parts of which he published in 1903.23 How much had already been accomplished through these findings, and how much closer the actual table-talk had been brought us! And since the endeavors of Seidemann several other written collections were found, especially the one in Veit Dietrich's own handwriting. Even Wrampelmeyer contributed another part out of a manuscript, that is traceable back to Cordatus, and is now kept at the Royal Library at Berlin (1905).24
Not only was it deemed satisfactory to make all these sources accessible through publication, but it was also made the beginning of submitting them to critical examination. Preger especially proved himself a very keen witted critic in the introduction to his publication of the notes of Schaginhaufen, mentioned above. But more than others, Wilhelm Meyer25 busied himself with this object in a special investigation (1896). He shed light especially on the work Lauterbach performed in arranging and grouping the table-talks.
In America Preserved Smith26 acquainted different circles with the questions connected with Luther's table-talk, through his critical study. New York, 1907.
In the last decade, commissioned by the committee for the Luther edition of Weimar, Ernst Kroker devoted himself to an intensive and critical study of the manu​scripts at hand. At three different times (1908, 1910, 1911) he dwelt upon the subject in the "Archiv fuer Reformationsgeschichte." In these essays he points out the relations existing between the collection of table-talks of George Roerer and those traceable back to Matthesius, the relation existing between Roerer and Schlaginhaufen, and finally that between Roerer and Veit Dietrich. All of this collected material, equipped with excellent introductions, is made easily accessible to every one in the edition of Weimar by Kroker since 1912. The first volume offers the notes of Veit Dietrich (pp. 1-308 with app., pp. 309-330), also the collection of Veit Dietrich und Nicolaus Medler (pp. 331-614), the second volume, the notes of Schlaginhaufen (pp. 1-252) the collection of L. Rabe (pp. 253-272), and the first part of Cordatus' collection (pp. 273-672). The coming volumes will include the last part of this collection, notes of Weller and Lauterbach of the years 1536 and 1537, Lauterbach's diary for 1538 and the one for 1539, finally the conversations for the year 1540 as written by Matthesius, and the other collections of the forties. The conclusion will consist in the publication of the undated table-talks. The last volume is to explain the origin of Lauterbach's and Aurifaber's large collections. An alphabetically arranged index of the individual conversations and a complete index of the names and events will facilitate the ready use of these volumes. A large series of volumes will be necessary to complete this gigantic task, but then a foundation will be laid upon which all further attempts in this direction can be built. Then also can it be ascertained how much of the offensive and vulgar, which Roman Catholic writers seem to find in the table-talks, is really to be attributed to Luther, and in what connection these ​outspoken statements were made. So it is already proven that the saying: "Wer nicht liebt Wein, Weib und Gesang, der bleibt ein Narr sein Leban lang" is not to be traced to Luther, but is of Italian origin. In short, when their publication in the Weimar edition has been completed these table-talks for their greater part will only afford a true estimate of Luther's personality.
An attempt, well worthy of mention, was made by Kawerau in the Braunschweig-Berlin edition of Luther (vol. VIII, pp. 105-308) to create a "Life of Luther as told by Himself," by taking Luther's memoirs, as they were contained in the table-talks, and linking them with the events of his life. It is to be lamented, however, that in this case Kawerau could only consider the German text of Aurifaber's collection. Preserved Smith and H. B. Gallinger did the same, at least in the first part of their choice collection of table-talks, 1916. But their collection had the benefit of the newer publications in this subject. It is based especially on the conversations, as they are published by Kroker and in the Weimar edition, and so has entirely supplanted the old English edition by W. Hazlitt, which since 1848 has been often reprinted. By means of a good introduction they also prepare their readers for the reading of the table-talk. A good introduction into the table-talks, intended for the common people, is the booklet by K. Bauer, "An Luther's Tisch" (1911). Like Smith and Gallinger, he assembles in it at first the home and table companions of Luther, then gives biographical sketches of them, discusses the subject of the conversations and the handing-down of the table-talk. At last on the strength of systematically
Luther in the year 1525.
Painting by Cranach.