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Image Credits
374, 377, 418, 422, 424, 443, 466: Courtesy of the Digital Image Archive, Pitts Theology Library, Candler School of Theology, Emory University.
379 (Photo © photos.com), 391 (Photo © Chris Dascher / iStock), 392 (Photo © somor / iStock), 399 (Photo © photos.com): Thinkstock.
122 (4 P.lat. 800 m, titlepage), 145 (Res/4 Th.u. 104,I,1, titlepage): Bayerische Staatsbibliothek München. Used with permission.
449: Gianni Dagli Orti / The Art Archive at Art Resource, NY.
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To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation concerning the Improvement of the Christian Estate, 1520 (James M. Estes)
a.See James M. Estes, Peace, Order, and the Glory of God: Secular Authority and the Church in the Thought of Luther and Melanchthon, 1518–1559 (Leiden: Brill, 2005), 7–17. See also Brecht 1:369–79.
d.WA 6:328–29 (Luther’s preface to the annotated edition of the Epitome that he published in mid-June 1520).
g.For Luther’s suspicions about church councils, see p. 341 above.
h.See Martin Luther, Sämmtliche Werke, ed. Johann Georg Walch et al., 2d ed., vol. 15: Reformations-Schriften, erste Abtheilung, zur Reformationshistorie gehörige Documente: A. Wider die Papisten aus den Jahren 1517 bis 1524. (St. Louis: Concordia, 1899), 453–71. For the more extensive list presented at the Diet of Worms in 1521, see RTA 2:661–718.
i.See, e.g., John Dillenberger’s introduction to the treatise in Martin Luther: Selections from His Writings (New York: Random House, 1961), 403: “In this work of 1520 … Luther calls upon the ruling class to reform the Church, since the Church will not reform itself.” See also Roland Bainton, Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther (New York/Nashville: Abingdon, 1950), 152: “[B]y what right, the modern reader might well inquire, might Luther call upon [the German nobility] to reform the Church?”
j.In the treatise On Secular Authority, To What Extent It Should Be Obeyed (LW 45:75–129).
l.See Estes, Peace, Order, and the Glory of God, 17–30.
m.See LW 39:305–14 (That a Christian Assembly or Congregation Has the Right and Power to Judge All Teaching and to Call, Appoint, and Dismiss Teachers, Established and Proven by Scripture, 1523).
n.On Secular Authority (1523).
p.See Estes, Peace, Order, and the Glory of God, ch. 5. In Luther’s case, the key texts are his commentaries on Psalms 82 (1530) and 101 (1534–35), particularly the latter; see LW 13:51–60, 166–201.
q.See above, p. 264, n. 11.
r.An early example of Luther’s use of a “Pauline greeting” (cf. 1 Cor. 1:3) here combined with an older form where he simply employed the word “Jesus.” By 1522 this new form, an indication of identification of his office with that of the Apostle Paul, would completely replace the other.
s.I.e., who will declare whom to be a clown.
t.The proverb monachus semper praesens is attested in Wander, 3:703, n. 130.
u.The biblical text mentions only twenty-two thousand slain.
w.For the claim of sole authority to interpret Scripture, see Friedberg 1:58–60 (Decret. prima pars, dist. 19, can. 1f).
y.See above, Treatise on Good Works, p. 341f.
z.The word here translated as “married,” ehelich, can also mean “of legitimate birth.” Canon law made both marriage and illegitimate birth a disqualification for ordination.
a.Pope Gregory the Great (c. 540–604), Regula pastoralis 2.6.
b.I.e., to a single letter of Scripture to support their claim.
c.Luther is referring to the passage quoted in n. 25.
d.Singular in the original.
e.Matt. 16:19; 18:18; and John 20:23. See above, pp. 195–96 (The Sacrament of Penance, 1519). For the “Keys,” see above, p. 37, n. 36.
f.Citing the Nicene Creed, according to the standard German translation.
h.I.e., a miserable little invalid gathering rather than a true council.
i.Luther’s word is der hauff (literally, “the crowd,” i.e., ordinary people without ecclesiastical office).
j.I.e., convoke a council and do whatever else they can to restore health to the church.
k.German: Stift. This refers to university foundations and the collegiate foundations of cathedrals.
l.Cf. Treatise on Good Works, above, p. 340f.
m.I.e., the Michaelsberg Abbey in Bamberg.
n.See RTA 2:675, par. 11.
p.That is, by decree of the imperial diet.
q.Here Luther summarizes provisions of the Concordat of Vienna.
r.I.e., one not previously subject to appointment by the pope.
s.Elsewhere Luther put the price at thirty thousand; see LW 39:60 (On the Papacy in Rome).
t.Luther’s word is kurtisan (from the Latin curtisanus), the common (pejorative) term for a member of the papal Curia, or for a clergyman who secured his appointment from the Roman Curia.
u.Literally, “reservation in the breast or heart.”
w.I.e., the opposite is the case.
x.The curial offices that could be purchased; see p. 396, n. 36.
y.With the exception of gratiae expectivae (promises to bestow a benefice not yet vacant), these “tricks” were explained earlier; see above, pp. 401–5, with the explanatory notes.
z.Cf. p. 403, n. 49 and note t.
