The surge of energy that helped Luther get through ten months in the Wartburg Castle lasted through the first years of his return to Wittenberg. His return while under papal excommunication and the imperial ban was an act of great courage, but something that he also seems to have felt driven to do. He was rightly aware of the possibility of death throughout this period, as is evident in the first sermons that he preached on his return. Yet his health was basically very good for these next three years, and he seemed to thrive on sorting through the crises and challenges and responding to eachāespecially by continuing writing. His production of sermons and treatises in this period continues the remarkable pattern that he had sustained since the beginning of 1519.
This was somewhat problematic because the Imperial Council of Regency in Nuremberg, acting in the emperorās absence, was always putting pressure on Frederick to see that Luther did not write anything else, lest he stir the people even more. Luther had to write a great many letters of explanation to the elector detailing his reasons for each new publication. Sometimes it was to respond to an enemy who had written first, such as King Henry VIII of England (although he was writing in response to an earlier version of Lutherās writing). Sometimes he claimed simply to be interpreting the Scriptures and argued that no legislation could block Godās word.
On the way back to Wittenberg, Luther had one last bit of fun with his disguise as Knight George. At the Black Bear Inn in Jena he met Johannes Kessler and another student who were making their way back to Wittenberg. The knight bought the students drinks and dinner, discussed the importance of studying biblical languages, and asked what people thought of Luther in their hometowns. The innkeeper told them the strange knight was Luther himself, but they could not believe this. A few days later in Wittenberg they met Luther again, now in his monkās cowl and without his beard.
On his return, Luther wrote to Frederick one more time, providing a letter arranged with the lawyer Jerome Schurff which made it very clear he was defying the electorās orders by appearing in public. He cites his pastoral responsibilities for the Wittenberg congregation, the divisions and scandals caused by the changes introduced so abruptly, and the real dangers of rebellion. A postscript to a draft version that still exists tells the elector that if he is dissatisfied with this reasoning, he may provide his own draft that Luther will sign and that may be made public. Luther was in one sense defying Frederick and creating a host of new headaches for him; on the other hand, his presence in Wittenberg was already reassuring Frederickās more cautious advisors.
Lutherās made his presence felt in Wittenberg through preaching, a task he made the central part of his work for the next three years. He did not resume his professorial duties until the summer of 1524, perhaps because he was under imperial ban or perhaps because he was so busy with the basics: preaching and Bible translation. He continued to have great confidence that only the startling liveliness of the word proclaimed could create the right conditions for changes that must be made. His critique of Carlstadt was largely that he had failed to build support through recurrent preaching for what he intended to doāinstead simply forcing the issue with support from the town council.
Luther appeared in the pulpit of the town church on March 9, Invocavit Sunday (the first Sunday in Lent), and preached a series of sermons that lasted for eight days. In these sermons, he discussed the recent changes in Wittenberg and offered his own critique of how things had been done. He admitted that he agreed with almost all of the changes that had been made, but he totally disapproved of the way they had been carried out. Love was the missing elementālove for the traditionalists, love for the weaker brothers and sisters, love for those not yet convinced.
Luther also complains he had not been consulted about the changes made, though he was their regular preacher and his writings had stirred up so many of these issues. Yes, he was far away, but they could have written. So they went ahead, and in doing the right things in the wrong way they had potentially injured their cause. What had become of Christian freedom?
Luther took up one issue after anotherācommunion in both kinds, the role of images, private masses, the eating and avoiding of meatāand showed how he intended they move ahead: slowly and in an orderly, disciplined, and loving way.
The sermons were very effective in calming the situation, according to reports that have survived, especially letters written by Wittenberg students to their families. The town council rather quickly negated the ordinance of January 24 and gave Luther several presents honoring his return, including a new cowl. Of all the changes that Carlstadt had introduced, the only one sustained for the time being was the offering of both bread and wine to those laity who requested it, although communion in one kind continued to be an option for several years.
Gabriel Zwilling, the other leader of the changes made in Lutherās absence, quickly accepted the new arrangements and reconciled with Luther. In fact, Luther worked to secure various preaching positions for him in the years ahead. But relations with Carlstadt were much more difficult. He was held responsible for the mess, and Lutherās return was the beginning of ongoing trouble between them. Relations had never been particularly friendly, even at the time of the Leipzig Debate when they faced John Eck together. Carlstadt had also been named specifically in one of the papal bulls, and Frederick had sent him for a time after Worms to Denmark, but he returned to Wittenberg very soon.
There were now several issues between Luther and his senior colleague. Luther felt that Carlstadt had no concept of Christian liberty but instead wanted to force his way by regulation. They also had different views of the binding character of the Mosaic or Old Testament law. Luther too was critical of images and the risk of idolatry that had surrounded their veneration. But he was willing to proceed cautiously to remove them or reduce their number. Luther had also become very suspicious of direct revelations of the Holy Spirit after the affair of the Zwickau Prophets. He wanted things settled by reference to the word because he refused to believe that the true Holy Spirit would work against the Spirit-inspired biblical books. In fact, Lutherās later developed writings on the Holy Spirit are written in such a way that the Spirit and the word tied very tightly together: the Spirit is that which fixes the word in the believerās heart.
Carlstadt hoped for an opportunity to pursue his differences with Luther in a debate in writing, but the university senate would not allow this. They forbade the publication of Carlstadtās response to Luther in April 1522. By that time, Carlstadt was spending less and less time in Wittenberg, although still drawing his salary for his responsibilities there. Much of the time he lived on a farm in Worlitz. Occasionally he appeared in Wittenberg, making a fuss, for example, about the appropriateness of granting degrees in February 1523.
The issues that had shaken Wittenberg were also problems throughout Electoral Saxony and beyond. The Invocavit sermons were published and circulated, but not by Luther himself. He intended to respond to changes in worship in a more systematic way. In letters from that spring to Nicholas Hausmann in Zwickau and to George Spalatin at the court, he describes the steps he had taken in Wittenberg and his plans for writing more generally about the gap between popular expectations for change and the continuing uncertainty of many official and ordinary Christians. He urges Hausmann to calm Zwickau by proceeding in a way parallel to what he is doing in Wittenberg.
The treatise āReceiving Both Kinds in the Sacramentā was written partly in answer to the young prince John Frederick about whether to receive the sacrament in this way, but its scope is much larger than its title. It is a summary statement of Lutherās whole plan for changes in worship and Christian life that will need several years to be carried out. Luther had made many suggestions in Appeal to the German Nobility (1520), but they were a catalog of possibilities rather than a clear plan. With the crisis in Wittenberg and other towns now a reality, he lays out a specific set of ten proposals:
1. Let most of the old practices conti...
