The Early Luther

Stages in a Reformation Reorientation

Berndt Hamm

• Publisher: Fortress Press
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN:
  9781506427218
• eBook ISBN:
  9781506427225
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Denominations

The development of Martin Luther's thought has commanded much scholarly attention because of the Reformation and its remarkable effects on the history of Christianity in the West. But much of that scholarship has been so enthralled by certain later debates that it has practically ignored and even distorted the context in and against which Luther's thought developed. In The Early Luther Berndt Hamm, armed with expertise both in late-medieval intellectual life and in Luther, presents new perspectives that leave old debates behind.

A master Luther scholar, Hamm provides fresh insights into the development of Luther's theology from his entry into the monastery through his early lectures on the Bible to his writing of the 95 Theses in 1517 and The Freedom of a Christian in 1520. Rather than looking for a single breakthrough, Hamm carefully outlines a series of significant shifts in Luther's late-medieval theological worldview over the course of his early career. The result is a more accurate, nuanced portrait of Reformation giant Martin Luther.

Chapter 5

Luther’s Instructions for a Blessed Death, Viewed against the Background of the Late Medieval Ars Moriendi

1. Luther’s “Sermon on Preparing to Die” in Its Time

The Reformation’s deep roots in late medieval religiosity and, at the same time, the serious break with traditional piety are both exemplified in the pastoral instructions for a Christian death. The first Reformation writing on the subject of the well-prepared death is especially telling on this point, also deserving of attention because it was one of the most widely spread and influential writings about death from the period. This was Martin Luther’s “Sermon on Preparing to Die,” which was probably written in the first half of October 1519 and published before the end of that month.^[1] Only two short 1529 tracts on dying by the Augsburg theologians Caspar Huberinus and Urbanus Rhegius (often printed together) enjoyed a similar, if not greater, circulation.^[2]

Luther’s sermon belongs to a whole chain of sermons that he wrote in early modern High German in 1519 and 1520.^[3] By putting these works in the genre of “sermon,” Luther emphasized that they were not learned tracts that rationally discussed problems and provided detailed authoritative references; instead, they were simple documents in everyday language that were close to the pastoral situations of the pulpit, the confessional, and the deathbed. They were intended to communicate the essential elements of his theology in a basic, elementary, and catechetical way to a theologically untrained public.^[4] In this, Luther was continuing the popularizing impulse of the late medieval theology of piety, which sought to help Christians live out and deepen their spirituality, overlooking those complicated questions and disputes that were typical of the academic and systematic theologies of the “schools.”^[5]

2. The Ars Moriendi Literature between Suso and Luther

Catechetical efforts to simplify theology into the language of the people appeared in the many themes of praxis pietatis (the practice of piety), above all in the literature concerning ars moriendi (the art of dying).^[6] Although this was really an innovation of the fifteenth century, we must not forget that the mystic Henry Suso (Heinrich Seuse) wrote the first ars moriendi tract in German lands — and in the German language — sometime between 1328 and 1330. This was not a separate book but was instead chapter 21 of his Little Book of Eternal Wisdom, entitled “How One Should Learn to Die and How an Unprepared Death Happens.”^[7] No other German text of the Middle Ages had as wide a circulation as the handwritten form of this work.

By synthesizing mystical inwardness and practical everyday piety, Suso gained a prominent and quintessential place in how theology was applied to spiritual instruction, edification, admonition, and consolation. The removal of chapter 21 of Suso’s book and its transmission either as a separate manuscript or publication show how the teaching about dying grew apart from its wider original context and became an independent theme.^[8] But the real beginning of ars moriendi as its own genre came with Jean Gerson, whose small tract De arte moriendi (written around 1400-1401) created the definitive prototype for the next century.^[9] The work was originally written in French as Médicine de l’âme or La science de bien mourir, but was soon thereafter translated into Latin, and after that into other vernacular languages.^[10] Above all, the tract set the mold through its concentration on the deathbed scene, its pragmatic brevity and clear structure, its simple way of speaking, its elementary pastoral and catechetical theology, and — last but not least — its successful use of the vernacular. These traits also mark Luther’s sermon.

For the period between Gerson and Luther, we should especially mention those writings about death that were seen as important and typical representatives of ars moriendi within German-speaking lands. The widely circulated Speculum artis bene moriendi was written in Latin by an unknown author in the second quarter of the fifteenth century; it then appeared in several German translations, as well as in other languages.^[11] Somewhat later (probably around 1450) was published the Illustrated Ars Moriendi (hereafter, the Illustrated Ars) with its five Anfechtungen. Related to the Speculum and combining series of wood engravings with its texts, it was available in Latin and in vernaculars and beloved everywhere.^[12] Other works included “Die Künst von dem heilsamen sterben,” written by the court priest in Vienna, Thomas Peuntner (d. 1434),^[13] and a booklet by the preacher in the cathedral at Strasbourg, Johannes Geiler von Kayserberg, entitled “Wie man sich halten sol by eym sterbenden menschen” (1482),^[14] along with Kayserberg’s brief instruction “Ein ABC. Wie man sich schicken sol zü einem kostlichen seligen tod” (1497).^[15] Finally, we should mention the writings of two Augustinian monks from Luther’s immediate vicinity: the booklet “Die himlische funtgrub” by the professor of theology in Erfurt, Johannes von Paltz, with its third sermon, “Von der wollgebrauchung des todes”^[16] (which appeared in twenty-one editions between 1490 to 1521), and the booklet “Von der nachfolgung des willigen sterbens Christi” (1515) by Johannes von Staupitz, Luther’s superior in the order and his predecessor in the chair at Wittenberg.^[17]

3. Addressing the Reading Public: The Great Importance of the Lay Element

Asking about the audience for the late medieval ars moriendi literature reveals insightful information about how Luther’s sermon came to work.^[18] Markus Schart (d. 1529), one of the court counselors of Elector Frederick the Wise, had asked Luther in the spring of 1519 for instruction on how to prepare for dying. Because he was overworked, Luther initially declined to write this. He first recommended that Schart read the booklet on dying by his fatherly friend Staupitz^[19] before he himself took up the pen. Here is the typically strong connection between ars moriendi literature and the pastoral care of the laity. Texts in Latin were primarily meant to be practical handbooks for pastoral care. Works in the vernacular, however, were directed not only to priests or members of a monastic order with less linguistic proficiency but even more to the bourgeois and noble laypeople who could read or who were at least interested in increasing their piety. These were the ones who pressed for written and illustrated works of pastoral care and catechesis for dying.^[20] They desired not only better instruction from the clergy but also the pious self-help that they could receive through their own reading, recitation, and visual contemplation. In this way, in the immense circulation of literature about dying from the time of Gerson until the Reformation, two innovative tendencies met and reinforced one another. On the one hand, there was the popular impetus of a practical reforming theology, which sought to reach into the daily lives of as many people as possible. On the other hand, there was the need of more discriminating educated and religious citizens, their wives, nobility, nuns, and other readers who did not have formal theological training.^[21]

It is therefore telling that Staupitz dedicated his comforting work about dying to a secular noblewoman, Countess Agnes von Mansfeld: “To the blessed instruction of Your Grace and anyone else who may well come to it.”^[22] Johannes von Paltz also wrote and published his very successful “Heavenly Treasury” at the request of Elector Frederick the Wise (to whom he dedicated the work) and Frederick’s brother Duke John.^[23] This connection to the laity was characteristic of the ars moriendi literature as a whole, ever since its very beginning in France around 1270^[24] and in Germany with Suso’s instructions for dying, written in the vernacular. It is therefore misleading to assert that the ars moriendi was originally intended for instructing priests in their care of the dying and that only later — when there were not enough priests during outbreaks of the plague — laypeople were also instructed as to how they “could effectively accompany their neighbors in the last affliction.”^[25] In the period that followed, Gerson led the way by writing his instructions about dying for a wide readership of less educated people who needed it. He wrote as much for priests (sacerdotes) and ministers (curati) who were engaged in pastoral care as for laypeople (personae saeculares) and members of religious orders (personae religiosae).^[26] He could also hope “to teach the ordinary people (simplices) who never or rarely heard a sermon, or if they did, then only a bad one.”^[27]

4. The Goal of Ars Moriendi Literature: To Visualize Death and Prepare to Die

Right in the introduction of the Latin version of his work, Gerson formulated the broad and popular goal of his tract: “Though the following writing hopes to serve as a k...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Front Matter
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Table Of Contents
• Foreword
• Translator’s Preface
• Preface to the English Edition
• Preface
• Abbreviations
• From the Medieval “Love of God” to Luther’s “Faith”: A Contribution to the History of Repentance
• Impending Doom and Imminent Grace: Luther’s Early Years in the Cloister as the Beginning of His Reformation Reorientation
• Why Did Luther Turn Faith into the Central Concept of the Christian Life?
• The Ninety-five Theses: A Reformation Text in the Context of Luther’s Early Theology of Repentance
• Luther’s Instructions for a Blessed Death, Viewed against the Background of the Late Medieval Ars Moriendi
• Luther’s Discovery of Evangelical Freedom
• Freedom from the Pope and Pastoral Care to the Pope: The Compositional Unity of The Freedom of a Christian and Its Dedication Letter to Pope Leo X
• How Mystical Was Luther’s Faith?
• Justification by Faith Alone: A Profile of the Reformation Doctrine of Justification
• Bibliography
• Name Index
• Topic Index