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The Annotated Luther: Christian Life in the World
The Annotated Luther: Christian Life in the World
The Annotated Luther: Christian Life in the World
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The Annotated Luther: Christian Life in the World

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This volume (volume 5) features Luther's writings that intersect church and state, faith and life lived as a follower of Christ. His insights regarding marriage, trade, public education, war and are articulated. His theological and biblical insights also colored the way he spoke of the "Jews" and Turks, as well his admonition to the German peasants in their uprisings against the established powers.
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Release dateAug 1, 2017
ISBN9781451472332
The Annotated Luther: Christian Life in the World

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    The Annotated Luther - Hans J. Hillerbrand

    THE ANNOTATED LUTHER

    Volume 5

    Christian Life in the World

    VOLUME EDITOR

    Hans J. Hillerbrand

    GENERAL EDITORS

    Hans J. Hillerbrand

    Kirsi I. Stjerna

    Timothy J. Wengert

    Fortress Press

    Minneapolis

    THE ANNOTATED LUTHER, Volume 5

    Christian Life in the World

    Copyright © 2017 Fortress Press. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical articles and reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher. Email copyright@1517.media or write to Permissions, Fortress Press, PO Box 1209, Minneapolis, MN 55440-1209.

    Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are from New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 by the Division of Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America.

    Fortress Press Publication Staff: Scott Tunseth, Project Editor; Alicia Ehlers, Production Manager; Laurie Ingram, Cover Design; Michael Moore, Permissions.

    Copyeditor: David Lott

    Proofreader: Paul Kobelski, The HK Scriptorium

    Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.

    ISBN: 978-1-4514-6273-9

    eISBN: 978-1-4514-7233-2

    Contents

    Series Introduction

    Abbreviations

    Maps

    Introduction to Volume 5

    HANS J. HILLERBRAND

    Luther’s Will, 1542

    HANS J. HILLERBRAND

    A Sermon on the Estate of Marriage Revised and Corrected by Dr. Martin Luther, Augustinian at Wittenberg, 1519

    MARJORIE ELIZABETH PLUMMER

    On the Estate of Marriage, 1522

    MARJORIE ELIZABETH PLUMMER

    On Secular Authority: To What Extent It Should Be Obeyed, 1523

    JAMES M. ESTES

    On Business and Usury, 1524

    HANS J. HILLERBRAND

    Whether Soldiers, Too, Can be Saved, 1526

    JOHN D. ROTH

    To the Councilmen of All Cities in Germany That They Establish and Maintain Christian Schools, 1524

    H. ASHLEY HALL

    Admonition to Peace: A Reply to the Twelve Articles of the Peasants in Swabia, 1525

    ASHLEY NULL

    On War against the Turk, 1529

    JOHN D. ROTH

    That Jesus Christ Was Born a Jew, 1523

    KIRSI I. STJERNA

    About the Jews and Their Lies, 1543

    HANS J. HILLERBRAND

    On the Schem Hamphoras and On the Lineage of Christ, 1543

    BROOKS SCHRAMM

    Image Credits

    Index of Scriptural References

    Index of Names

    Index of Works by Martin Luther and Others

    Index of Subjects

    Series Introduction

    Engaging the Essential Luther

    Even after five hundred years Martin Luther continues to engage and challenge each new generation of scholars and believers alike. With 2017 marking the five-hundredth anniversary of Luther’s 95 Theses, Luther’s theology and legacy are being explored around the world with new questions and methods and by diverse voices. His thought invites ongoing examination, his writings are a staple in classrooms and pulpits, and he speaks to an expanding assortment of conversation partners who use different languages and hale from different geographical and social contexts.

    The six volumes of The Annotated Luther edition offer a flexible tool for the global reader of Luther, making many of his most important writings available in the lingua franca of our times as one way of facilitating interest in the Wittenberg reformer. They feature new introductions, annotations, revised translations, and textual notes, as well as visual enhancements (illustrations, art, photos, maps, and timelines). The Annotated Luther edition embodies Luther’s own cherished principles of communication. Theological writing, like preaching, needs to reflect human beings’ lived experience, benefits from up-to-date scholarship, and should be easily accessible to all. These volumes are designed to help teachers and students, pastors and laypersons, and other professionals in ministry understand the context in which the documents were written, recognize how the documents have shaped Protestant and Lutheran thinking, and interpret the meaning of these documents for faith and life today.

    The Rationale for This Edition

    For any reader of Luther, the sheer number of his works presents a challenge. Well over one hundred volumes comprise the scholarly edition of Luther’s works, the so-called Weimar Ausgabe (WA), a publishing enterprise begun in 1883 and only completed in the twenty-first century. From 1955 to 1986, fifty-five volumes came to make up Luther’s Works (American Edition) (LW), to which Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis, is adding still more. This English-language contribution to Luther studies, matched by similar translation projects for Erasmus of Rotterdam and John Calvin, provides a theological and historical gold mine for those interested in studying Luther’s thought. But even these volumes are not always easy to use and are hardly portable. Electronic forms have increased availability, but preserving Luther in book form and providing readers with manageable selections are also important goals.

    Moreover, since the publication of the WA and the first fifty-five volumes of the LW, research on the Reformation in general and on Martin Luther in particular has broken new ground and evolved, as has knowledge regarding the languages in which Luther wrote. Up-to-date information from a variety of sources is brought together in The Annotated Luther, building on the work done by previous generations of scholars. The language and phrasing of the translations have also been updated to reflect modern English usage. While the WA and, in a derivative way, LW remain the central source for Luther scholarship, the present critical and annotated English translation facilitates research internationally and invites a new generation of readers for whom Latin and German might prove an unsurpassable obstacle to accessing Luther. The WA provides the basic Luther texts (with some exceptions); the LW provides the basis for almost all translations.

    Defining the Essential Luther

    Deciding which works to include in this collection was not easy. Criteria included giving attention to Luther’s initial key works; considering which publications had the most impact in his day and later; and taking account of Luther’s own favorites, texts addressing specific issues of continued importance for today, and Luther’s exegetical works. Taken as a whole, these works present the many sides of Luther, as reformer, pastor, biblical interpreter, and theologian. To serve today’s readers and by using categories similar to those found in volumes 31–47 of Luther’s works (published by Fortress Press), the volumes offer in the main a thematic rather than strictly chronological approach to Luther’s writings. The volumes in the series include:

    Volume 1: The Roots of Reform (Timothy J. Wengert, editor)

    Volume 2: Word and Faith (Kirsi I. Stjerna, editor)

    Volume 3: Church and Sacraments (Paul W. Robinson, editor)

    Volume 4: Pastoral Writings (Mary Jane Haemig, editor)

    Volume 5: Christian Life in the World (Hans J. Hillerbrand, editor)

    Volume 6: The Interpretation of Scripture (Euan K. Cameron, editor)

    The History of the Project

    In 2011 Fortress Press convened an advisory board to explore the promise and parameters of a new English edition of Luther’s essential works. Board members Denis Janz, Robert Kolb, Peter Matheson, Christine Helmer, and Kirsi Stjerna deliberated with Fortress Press publisher Will Bergkamp to develop a concept and identify contributors. After a review with scholars in the field, college and seminary professors, and pastors, it was concluded that a single-language edition was more desirable than dual-language volumes.

    In August 2012, Hans Hillerbrand, Kirsi Stjerna, and Timothy Wengert were appointed as general editors of the series with Scott Tunseth from Fortress Press as the project editor. The general editors were tasked with determining the contents of the volumes and developing the working principles of the series. They also helped with the identification and recruitment of additional volume editors, who in turn worked with the general editors to identify volume contributors. Mastery of the languages and unique knowledge of the subject matter were key factors in identifying contributors. Most contributors are North American scholars and native English speakers, but The Annotated Luther includes among its contributors a circle of international scholars. Likewise, the series is offered for a global network of teachers and students in seminary, university, and college classes, as well as pastors, lay teachers, and adult students in congregations seeking background and depth in Lutheran theology, biblical interpretation, and Reformation history.

    Editorial Principles

    The volume editors and contributors have, with few exceptions, used the translations of LW as the basis of their work, retranslating from the WA for the sake of clarity and contemporary usage. Where the LW translations have been substantively altered, explanatory notes have often been provided. More importantly, contributors have provided marginal notes to help readers understand theological and historical references. Introductions have been expanded and sharpened to reflect the very latest historical and theological research. In citing the Bible, care has been taken to reflect the German and Latin texts commonly used in the sixteenth century rather than modern editions, which often employ textual sources that were unavailable to Luther and his contemporaries.

    Finally, all pieces in The Annotated Luther have been revised in the light of modern principles of inclusive language. This is not always an easy task with a historical author, but an intentional effort has been made to revise language throughout, with creativity and editorial liberties, to allow Luther’s theology to speak free from unnecessary and unintended gender-exclusive language. This important principle provides an opportunity to translate accurately certain gender-neutral German and Latin expressions that Luther employed—for example, the Latin word homo and the German Mensch mean human being, not simply males. Using the words man and men to translate such terms would create an ambiguity not present in the original texts. The focus is on linguistic accuracy and Luther’s intent. Regarding creedal formulations and trinitarian language, Luther’s own expressions have been preserved, without entering the complex and important contemporary debates over language for God and the Trinity.

    The 2017 anniversary of the publication of the 95 Theses is providing an opportunity to assess the substance of Luther’s role and influence in the Protestant Reformation. Revisiting Luther’s essential writings not only allows reassessment of Luther’s rationale and goals but also provides a new look at what Martin Luther was about and why new generations would still wish to engage him. We hope these six volumes offer a compelling invitation.

    Hans J. Hillerbrand

    Kirsi I. Stjerna

    Timothy J. Wengert

    General Editors

    Abbreviations

    Introduction to Volume 5

    HANS J. HILLERBRAND

    The topic is as old as the gospels in the New Testament. In the Gospel of Matthew we read that Jesus was asked whether it was right to pay taxes to the Roman occupation forces. Jesus’ response is well known: Render to God what is God’s and to Caesar what is Caesar’s (Matt. 22:21). This response, which seemed to draw a clear line between the spiritual and the secular realm, is assuredly one of Jesus’ better-known statements; it must have left the hearers somewhat baffled as to what, concretely, came under each heading.

    Elsewhere in the New Testament the apostle Paul addressed the topic of what it meant to be a Christian living in society, in terms of specific issues, such as the Christian and governmental authority—the response to a hostile Roman Empire—or the Christian and marriage, but at once placed those into the broad context that Christian believers knew they were in the end times. The early Christian community’s conviction that they were living in the end of days meant that it was not necessary to think through all theological or moral issues that being a Christian posed. The shortness of time until the end rendered the exposition of what the followers of Jesus should believe and do somewhat moot. Thus, Paul left the Corinthian congregation ambivalent about marriage, generally a long-term proposition. And his advisory seemed to be borne by the reality of the end times. Celibacy, he intimated, was the ideal, but then added that it is better to marry than burn with desire (1 Cor. 7:9), hardly a ringing endorsement of the married estate.

    In the centuries that followed, as Christian communities became more numerous and influential in Roman society, critical observers commented on the Christian aloofness from society. Christians stayed away from the venues of popular Roman entertainment. The refusal of Christians to serve in the Roman military or as judges appears to have been a universal principle that allowed the Roman state to view Christians as disloyal citizens who had to be forced to pledge loyalty to the emperor. At the same time, the Christian self-understanding underwent a change, in that a bifurcation occurred within the Christian community. While most Christians practiced faith to a degree, a smaller number strove for holiness and Christian perfection. This explains the rise of the monastic ideal, the commitment to live in poverty and celibacy, distant from the world and society, though always with a commitment to acts of Christian mercy in the world. In the Middle Ages, monasteries and convents were lodging places, hospitals, soup kitchens, and much more. The biblical rationales for the pursuit of perfection were undoubtedly the categorical pronouncements of Jesus, such as his challenge to the young ruler to sell all that he had and follow him. In addition, there were the strictures of the Sermon on the Mount.

    As has been pointed out frequently, an incisive change occurred when, early in the fourth century, the Christian religion first became a licensed religion and a few decades later was the sole authorized religion of the Roman Empire. The church concluded an alliance with the body politic. It was supported and defended by the Roman state, which had first become evident when Emperor Constantine (c. 280–337) convened the Council of Nicaea and his sister paid for building churches. And when the Roman Empire succumbed to the onslaught of the barbarians, the church miraculously survived and her principles became normative for European society.

    The privileged recognition of the Christian religion forced the church to rethink its traditional stance of aloofness, if not hostility, toward the society of which it was part. This was superbly done by St. Augustine of Hippo (354–430) in North Africa, who in his vastly influential work De Civitate Dei (On the City of God)¹ argued that from the beginnings of history, two powers stood in tension with one another: the community (city) of God and the community (city) of this world. Christians were citizens of both. Part of Augustine’s brilliance lay in the way he elucidated this reality.

    A page from the 1475 printing of De Civitate Dei (The City of God), originally published in 426 CE

    This broader topic included the question of whether true Christians may serve as soldiers. Until the fourth century Christians would have generally answered the question negatively; now, St. Augustine’s powerful reflections persuaded them that there were just wars in which a Christian might surely participate as soldier. This was a new understanding of the issues of war and peace.² The right to go to war concerned the legitimacy of the concept of a just war, that a nation must give in order for it to have a moral right to wage war. Augustine’s presupposition was that the decision by a country or a ruler to go to war had to be based on a legitimate political and legal process. Augustine’s criteria were revised and expanded, notably by Thomas Aquinas³ (1225–1274) in the thirteenth century, but the basic notion that it was proper for a Christian to participate in a just war continued to be universally affirmed.

    There was another fateful legacy for Luther in the realm of social ethics. It was a mode of thinking about the relationship of church and state in a society that allowed no public expression of religion than Christianity. Church and state had a symbiotic relationship, where each supported the other and where to be member of one meant one was also member of the other. The term of this relationship was corpus Christianum, the Christian body.

    The Ottoman Empire’s aggressive foray into southeast central Europe in the late 1520s brought their forces just outside the gates of Vienna. Because of this threat the deliberations on the religious issues of just about every diet were overshadowed by the emperor’s effort to get the estates to contribute financially to raising an army for defense. Both situations prompted Luther’s reflection as captured in the treatises On War against the Turks (1529) and Whether Soldiers, Too, Can Be Saved (1526).

    Luther was heir to the medieval tradition. It is evident, from some of his earliest publications in the indulgences controversy, that his vision of a vitalized Christian faith had ramifications for the public square as well. In 1519 he published the first of several sermons on usury, a major point of controversy in business circles at the time. His treatise published in 1524, titled Business and Usury in this volume, addresses this subject.

    In his Letter to the Christian Nobility of the German People Concerning the Improvement of the Christian Estate (1520),a Luther started out with some theological reflection, but then went on to discuss at length the several areas in German society that desperately needed reform, such as the curricula at universities, but also the curtailment of imports. Clearly, Luther understood renewal to have relevance for the market square in addition to church and theology. In this volume, he returns to this issue in To the Councilmen of All Cities in Germany That They Establish and Maintain Christian Schools (1524). Luther argued vigorously against those who considered a formal education unnecessary, and perhaps even an obstacle, to the Christian life.

    Luther’s religious piety and education led him to assert that the Holy Spirit inspired through diligent study and prayerful reflection. Further, he averred that personal revelation must be tested by the church. Only those who were properly trained for the office of ministry and those duly educated as doctors (i.e., teachers) of theology had the right to preach and teach publicly and with authority.

    At this same time in Luther’s Germany, a peasant rebellion rose against the ruling class, who were wealthy landowners. Luther judged the rebellion of the peasants to achieve their political and economic goals to be totally unacceptable because it was against the established order of societal living. Early on, Luther had expressed sympathy for the peasant grievances, but later he shied away from endorsing their actions.

    In his Admonition to Peace: A Reply to the Twelve Articles of the Peasants in Swabia (1525), Luther’s underlying notion was that God ruled and worked in the world in two ways—through the gospel for the believers, and through law for all humankind.b The gospel pertained solely to the relationship with God, while the law was God’s way to have harmonious and orderly structures that allowed humans to live in peace and fellowship one with the other. The Twelve Articles offered a summary of peasant grievances, with the important addendum, if any were found to be incompatible with Scripture, they would be withdrawn. Precisely at this point lay Luther’s fundamental misgiving. The Twelve Articles were in error, according to Luther, because the peasants mistakenly assumed that economic or political issues can be resolved with Scripture. But this was a new Luther speaking, not the author who had written To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation in 1520.c

    Nineteenth-century Lutheran theologians coined the term orders of creation to refer to the sphere that here was labeled law. These orders, such as government or marriage, were universally human and operated on principles that were secular. It thus becomes understandable, to cite one flagrant case in point, that many German Lutheran theologians remained silent in 1933, when the new Nazi government promulgated a law with the inoffensive title for the restoration of a professional civil service, even though it was evident that the purpose of the new law was to remove socialists and Jews. Several Lutheran theologians argued that governments could pass such a law.

    Some four centuries earlier Luther himself addressed the subject of the Jews and their teachings. The three treatises on this subject included in this volume reveal an evolution in Luther’s thinking. When the 1523 treatise That Jesus Christ Was Born a Jew was published, it was greeted with appreciation for its sympathetic tone. Luther hoped that dealing in a kindly way with the Jews and instructing them carefully from Holy Scripture, many of them would become genuine Christians and turn again to the faith of their fathers, the prophets and patriarchs. Twenty years later, Luther’s treatises About [On] the Jews and Their Lies and On the Schem Hamphoras and On the Lineage of Christ, both published in 1543, had an altogether different tone. Luther now treated the Jews with the arrogance and scorn that he had condemned in 1523.

    Several explanations, based on psychological, sociological, or theological grounds, are given for Luther’s tone and his shocking suggestions, but these do not soften the harsh and bitter tone. One hardly knows whether to be more astonished at the crudity of Luther’s language or at the cruelty of his proposals: let their synagogues be burned, their houses razed, their prayer books seized, let them be reduced to a condition of agrarian servitude, and—as a final solution—let them be expelled from the country. With these recommendations, Luther ventured away from even the most generous understanding of religion and embraced tenets of what might be called cultural anti-Judaism. The fact that Luther was largely repeating the anti-Jewish commonplaces of the time and that much of his theological argumentation was borrowed from earlier Christian polemics against Judaism is a mitigating factor, though by no means an excuse for Luther’s views. Many of Luther’s colleagues rejected About the Jews and Their Lies, and the immediate effect of Luther’s severe proposals was minimal.d

    Luther’s Will

    1542

    HANS J. HILLERBRAND

    INTRODUCTION

    This document is arguably one of the most personal statements Martin Luther ever made. It displays not the insightful theologian, nor the committed church reformer, nor the implacable foe of the papacy and of all who disagreed with him. It is simply the personal statement of a husband and father who realized that ill health and advancing years should mean not only a spiritual preparation for the last hour, but also the practical foresight about what then should be done with his property.a The topic of writing a will and testament had come up for Luther before, but he had not done anything about it. When the year 1542 turned, however, Luther must have suddenly realized that at his age—he was fifty-seven years old at the time—he was delinquent for not having legal provision for his property and thereby for the well-being of his wife, Katie,¹ and their children. Clearly growing out of what must have been a sudden impulse, on Epiphany, 6 January 1542, Luther sat down and wrote his will. Philip Melanchthon (1497–1560), Caspar Cruciger (1504–1548), and Johannes Bugenhagen (1485–1558), his three theological colleagues and brethren, were present to co-sign the will. No public official or attorney lawyer was present to point to legal necessities; as a result, the document signed lacked proper legal form, a fact that led to unfortunate legal hassles.

    A portion of Luther’s will, written on Epiphany in 1542. The signatures are of Philip Melanchthon, Caspar Cruciger, and Johannes Bugenhagen, who served as witnesses.

    The opening sentences of the document make clear that Luther was fully aware that he was drafting a document that would not conform to proper legal norms and practices of the time. As far as he was concerned this was done for a good reason, thus providing us with an uncannily honest and profound characterization of Luther the human being and husband. Luther was concerned about Katie’s financial well-being in her widowhood, and he expressed this concern in touchingly loving words. And while he emphasized that his sons would exercise filial responsibility toward their mother, nonetheless Luther’s language does not avoid a tone of slight concern. In due time the Saxon elector John Frederick (1503–1554) was willing to honor Luther’s wishes and officially declared the will to be valid and acceptable, even after he had expressly noted that it lacked proper legal form. Upon Luther’s death, the elector must have had some second thoughts, however, for guardians were appointed for the children, precisely what Luther had hoped to avoid, and which Katie resisted. For Katie the years of her widowhood were clearly a time of hardship, financially and legally, and her correspondence shows her as an energetic and determined individual.

    Luther’s will also provides us with insight into Luther’s financial circumstances. He was the highest-paid professor in the university, and while he did not address this fact in his will, he did specify both his assets and his debts (amounting to just about half of his assets). He also noted prominently the two real-estate properties he had acquired, one at Zülsdorf and, in cryptic wording, a dwelling, the house of Bruno which I have bought under the name of my man Wolf.²

    Portrait of John Frederick, elector of Saxony, by Titian (1550)

    No inventory of Luther’s assets was compiled when he died in February 1546. We know a little bit about Katie’s financial circumstances as widow (she died in 1552),³ and they were not that good. The will is found in the archives of the Hungarian Lutheran Church in Budapest, Hungary.

    The gravestone and epitaph of Katharine von Bora in Marienkirche in Torgau

    LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT OF MARTIN LUTHER

    b

    Wittenberg, 6 January 1542

    I, Martin Luther, Doctor of Sacred Scripture, etc., acknowledge with this my own handwriting that I have given to my beloved and faithful wife Katherine as an endowment (or whatever one can call it) for as long as she will live, which she will be at liberty to manage according to her desire and best interest, and give it to her by means of this document on this present day;

    To wit, the small holding at Zülsdorf,⁴ which I purchased and made productive until the present day;

    Second, Bruno’s house, which I bought under the name of my footman Wolf;

    Third, goblets and valuables, such as rings, necklaces, gratuities, gold and silver, which should be worth about a thousand gulden.

    I do this because, above all, as a pious and faithful spouse she has at all times held me dear, worthy, and well and with God’s rich blessings gave birth to and reared for me five living children (who are still living, God may grant them a long life).

    Second, that she should herself assume and pay off the debt, insofar as I am still indebted (what I do not pay off during my lifetime), which may be about four hundred fifty florin as far as I am able to ascertain. There could perhaps also be more.

    Third, and most important of all, that I do not want her to have to look to the children for a handout, but rather that the children should be obligated to her, honor her, and be subject to her as God has commanded.⁷ For I have surely seen and experienced how the Devil agitates and provokes the children, be they ever so pious, contrary to this commandment through evil and jealous gossips. This is especially true when the mothers are widows and the sons take wives and the daughters, husbands, and, in turn, mother-in-law daughter-in-law, daughter-in-law mother-in-law! For I maintain that a mother will be the best guardian for her children and will use such a holding and endowment not for the harm or to the disadvantage of her children, but to their use and betterment, since they are her flesh and blood whom she carried under her heart.

    And even if after my death out of necessity or for some other reason (for I cannot limit God’s works and will) she would remarry, I have confidence, and wish herewith to have such confidence expressed, that she will act motherly toward our children and faithfully share everything with them, be it the endowment or something else, as is only right.

    And I hereby also humbly beg my most gracious lord, Duke John Fredrich, our elector,⁸ to protect and facilitate the administration of this gift or endowment.

    I also ask all my good friends to be witnesses for my dear Katie and to help defend her, when some idle gossips want to trouble or defame her, as though she perhaps had a sum of ready cash on the side, which she would purloin or embezzle from our poor children. I bear witness that there is no ready cash except for the goblets and valuables listed above in the endowment.

    Indeed, such a reckoning can be manifest to everyone, since people know how much income I have had from my most gracious lord and beyond that I have not received as income one heller or kernel from anyone, except what was a gift, which is to be found cited above under the valuables and which in part is still tied up with the debt. And yet, with this income and with donations I have built and bought so much, and I ran such a big and burdensome household, that among other things I must acknowledge it as an extraordinary, remarkable blessing that I have been able to manage. The miracle is not that there is no ready money but that there is not a greater debt. I ask this for this reason that the Devil, since he can come no closer to me, shall no doubt persecute my Katie in all sorts of ways for this reason alone that she was, and (God be praised) still is, the married wife of Dr. Martin.

    Finally, I also ask everyone, since in this gift or endowment I am not using legal forms and terminology (for which I have good reasons), that they would allow me to be the person which I in truth am, namely, a public figure, known both in heaven and on earth, as well as in hell, having respect or authority enough that one can trust or believe more than any notary. For as God, the Father of all mercies, entrusted to me, a condemned, poor, unworthy, miserable sinner, the gospel of his dear Son and made me faithful and truthful, and has up to now preserved and grounded me in it, so that many in this world have accepted it through me and hold me to be a teacher of the truth, without regard for the pope’s excommunication, and the anger of the emperor, kings, princes, clerics, yes, of all the devils, one should surely believe me much more in these trifling matters; and especially since this is my well-known handwriting, the hope is that it should suffice, when one can say and prove that it is Dr. Martin Luther’s (who is God’s notary and witness in his gospel) earnest and well-considered opinion to confirm this with his own hand and seal.

    Executed and delivered on Epiphany Day, 1542.

    M. Luther

    I, Philip Melanchthon, attest that this is the opinion and will and hand of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther, our most beloved teacher and father.

    And I, Kaspar Cruciger, d., attest that this is the design and will and hand of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther, our most beloved father, wherefore I myself have signed with my own hand.

    And I, Johann Bugenhagen Pomeranus, d., likewise attest with my own hand.c

    A Sermon on the Estate of Marriage

    Revised and Corrected by Dr. Martin Luther, Augustinian at Wittenberg

    1519

    MARJORIE ELIZABETH PLUMMER

    The original revised title page from Martin Luther’s Sermon on the Estate of Marriage (Ein Sermon von dem Ehelichen standt vorendert und corrigiret durch D. Martin Luther Augustiner zu Wittenbergk), published by Rhau-Grunenberg in Wittenberg, 1519

    INTRODUCTION

    Unlike many other works titled sermon published in the early sixteenth century, this work can be definitively traced to a sermon Martin Luther gave in Wittenberg on 16 January 1519, the second Sunday after Epiphany. In accordance with the liturgical calendar, Luther preached on the text of John 2:1–11, celebrating Jesus’ first miracle at the wedding at Cana in Galilee.¹ Someone in the congregation that day transcribed the sermon and prepared these notes for publication. This unauthorized version appeared soon thereafter in Leipzig and Breslau.a The texts of these publications exhibit qualities consistent with their production from a sermon: no paragraph breaks or headings and more narrative examples to illustrate the points being made.

    Luther, unhappy with these versions and noting the vast difference between using the spoken word to make something clear and having to use the written word, produced a revised and corrected version of his sermon for publication in May 1519. This edited version subsequently was published in Wittenberg, Leipzig, Augsburg, Nuremberg, Basel, and Strassburg in 1519, and reprinted once in Wittenberg and twice in Augsburg in 1520.² These texts focus more on the theological discussions of marriage and are organized in sections with numbered subsections to illustrate the main points. The argument is developed systematically with fewer narrative examples than the unofficial version and the text uses more formal language.

    The sermon on which this published work was based took place several months after Luther’s meeting with Cardinal Thomas Cajetan,³ papal legate, in Augsburg in October 1518, and the revisions of his text appeared a couple of months before his meeting with Johannes Eck⁴ in Leipzig in 1519. During the months between these events Luther undertook a reconsideration of his theological position on a number of topics, including, in this case, marriage, and began to question papal authority over a whole range of subjects.

    Instead of mentioning the miracle of turning water to wine, as the unauthorized version did, or focusing on the relationship between Jesus and Mary, as he did in subsequent sermons on the wedding at Cana,b Luther used his edited version to outline his definition of marriage and describe the establishment of the estate of marriage. Luther’s work did not make the same doctrinal break on marriage from traditional church teachings as his subsequent writings on weddings and married life in On the Babylonian Captivity of the Church (1520)c and On the Estate of Marriage (1522).d Perhaps most notably, Luther upholds marriage as a sacrament and presents chastity as better if given by the grace of God. Thus, two markers of Luther’s later teachings on marriage as the highest estate and his rejection of clerical celibacy were not yet evident. In many ways this publication was a very traditional work on marriage that shared many common themes with the popular late medieval Book on Marriage [Ehebüchlein] (1472), first published by Albrecht von Eyb⁵ in the fifteenth century, and frequently republished throughout the early sixteenth century.⁶ The close connection between Luther’s sermon and von Eyb’s book can been seen in the latter, which was republished in 1520 with the title, On the Estate of Marriage [Von dem Ehelichen Standt], by the same publisher in Augsburg that published Luther’s sermon.

    Portrait of Albrecht von Eyb (1420–1475), jurist and humanist

    Title page of Albrecht von Eyb’s Sermon on the Estate of Marriage (Uon dem Eelichen Standt) (Augsburg: Johann Schönsperger d. J., 1520). This reissued excerpt of von Eyb’s work published around the same time as Luther’s sermon in Augsburg emphasizes the wedding.

    Luther’s work does introduce themes that characterize his later work on marriage and connects ideas found in popular works like von Eyb’s to theological doctrine. In particular, Luther emphasizes the centrality of marriage in social and spiritual life, arguing that married love and sexuality are natural and honorable if God-given. His focus on married love as different from physical sexual attraction or lust also introduces married love as necessary in the establishment of families for spiritual reasons. While he does declare procreation as the major purpose of marriage, Luther stresses that this is due to the role of a married couple in bringing up children rather than in giving birth to children. In the last section of the work, Luther elevates the role of parents in raising children to a form of good works and piety equivalent to the devotional piety: your children are the churches, the altar, the testament, the vigils, and masses for the dead for which you make provision in your will.

    The following translation and annotations of Ein Sermon von dem Ehelichen Standt vorendert und corrigiret durch D. Martin Luther Augustiner zu Wittenbergk are based in part on the 1519 Wittenberg version of the text, WA 2:166–71, and LW 44:5–14.

    The 1520 version of A Sermon on the Estate of Marriage published in Augsburg by the printer Jörg Nadler uses Predigt rather than Sermon, both which mean sermon, in the title and has an elaborate title page with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden with the Serpent before the fall, picking up on the text from Genesis 2 discussed at the outset of Luther’s text.

    A SERMONe ON THE ESTATE OF MARRIAGE⁷ REVISED AND CORRECTED BY DR. MARTIN LUTHER AUGUSTINIAN AT WITTENBERG

    Preface

    A sermon on the estate of marriage has already been published in my name, but I would much rather it had not been printed. I know perfectly well that I have preached on the subject [of marriage], but have not yet put anything into writingf as I am about to do. For this reason I am determined to revise this same sermon, and improve it as much as possible. I ask every good soul to disregard the published first sermon and discard it. Further, if anybody wants to start writing my sermons for me, let him restrain himself, and let me have a say in the publication of my words as well.⁸ There is a vast difference between using the spoken word and the written word to discuss something in public.⁹

    [On the Married Estate]

    1. God created Adam and brought all the animals before him. Adam did not find a proper companion among them suitable for marriage [Gen. 2:19] so God then said [Gen. 2:18], It is not good that Adam should be alone; I will make him a partner as helper.¹⁰ And God sent a deep sleep upon Adam, and took a rib from him, and closed his side up again. And out of this very rib taken from Adam, God created a woman and brought her to him. Then Adam said, This at last is bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh. This one shall be called Woman, for out of Man this one was taken. Therefore a man leaves his father and mother and clings to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh [Gen. 2:20–24].

    All of this is from God’s word.¹¹ These words teach us where man and woman come from, how they were given to one another, for what purpose a wife was created, and what kind of love there should be in the estate of marriage.

    Image of Adam and Eve before and after the fall with a preface from Luther’s A Sermon on the Estate of Marriage (Ein Predigt von der Eelichen Standt) (Basel: Adam Peter, 1519)

    2. If God does not give the wife or the husband, anything can happen.¹² For the truth indicated here is that Adam found no marriageable partner for himself, but as soon as God had created Eve and brought her to him, he felt a real married love¹³ toward her, and recognized that she was his wife. Those who want to enter into the estate of marriage should learn from this that they should earnestly pray to God for a spouse. For the sage¹⁴ says that parents provide goods and houses for their children, but a wife is given by God alone [Prov. 19:14], everyone according to his need, just as Eve was given to Adam by God alone.¹⁵ And true though it is that because of excessive lust of the flesh lighthearted youth pays scant attention to these matters, marriage is nevertheless a weighty matter in the sight of God.¹⁶ For it was not by accident that Almighty God instituted the estate of matrimony only for humans, before all animals, and gave such forethought and consideration to marriage. To the other animals God says quite simply, Be fruitful and multiply [Gen. 1:22]. It is not written that God brings the female to the male. Therefore, there is no such thing as marriage among animals. But in the case of Adam, God creates for him a unique, special kind of wife out of his own flesh. God brings her to him and gives her to him, and Adam agrees to accept her. Therefore, that is what marriage is.

    3. A woman is created to be a companionable partner to the man in everything, particularly to bear children. And that still remains, except that since the fall marriage has been blendedg with wicked lust. And now [i.e., after the fall] the desire of the man for the woman, and vice versa, is sought after not only for companionship and children, the purposes for which marriage was instituted, but also is now strongly sought after due to wicked lust.

    4. God makes distinctions between the different kinds of love, and shows that the love of a man and woman is (or should be) the greatest and purest of all loves. For God says, A man leaves his father and mother and clings to his wife [Gen. 2:24], and the wife does the same, as we see happening around us every day. Now there are three kinds of love: false love, natural love, and married love.¹⁷ False love is that which seeks [things] for selfish reasons, as a man loves money, possessions, honor, and women taken outside of marriage against God’s command.h Natural love is that between father and child, brother and sister, friend and relative, and similar relationships. But over and above all these is married love, that is, a bride’s love, which glows like a fire and desires nothing but the husband. She says, "I want nothing that is yours; I want neither your gold nor your silver; neither this or that. I only want you.i I want you entirely, or not at all." All other kinds of love seek something other than the loved one: this kind [of love] wants only to have the beloved’s own self completely. If Adam had not fallen, the love of bride and groom would have been the loveliest thing.¹⁸ Now this love is not pure either, for admittedly a married partner desires to have the other, yet each seeks to satisfy his desire with the other, and it is this desire which now falsifiesj this [perfect] kind of love. Therefore, the married state is now no longer pure and free from sin. The temptation of the flesh has become so strong and consuming that marriage may be likened to a hospital for incurables¹⁹ that prevents inmates from falling into graver sin.²⁰ Before Adam fell it was a simple matter to remain virgin and chaste, but now it [celibacy] is barely possible, and without special grace from God, quite impossible.k For this very reason neither Christ nor the apostles sought to make celibacy²¹ a matter of obligation. Indeed, they [Christ and the apostles] counseled [Matt 19:10; 1 Cor. 7:6–9] virginity and left it up to individuals to test themselves, so if unable to remain continent, one was free to marry, but if one could be continent by God’s grace, then celibacy is better.²²

    Thus, the doctors²³ have found three good and useful things about the married estate, by means of which the sin of lust, which flows beneath the surface, is counteracted and ceases to be a cause of damnation.

    First, [the doctors say] that it is a sacrament. A sacrament is a sacred sign of something spiritual, holy, heavenly, and eternal, just as the water of baptism, when the priest pours it over the child, means that the holy, divine, eternal grace is poured into the soul and body of that child at the same time, and cleanses that child from his original sin.²⁴ This means that the kingdom of God, an inestimable benefit immeasurably greater than the water that conveys this meaning, is within the child. In the same way the estate of marriage is a sacrament.²⁵ It is an outward and spiritual sign of the greatest, holiest, worthiest, and noblest thing that has ever existed or ever will exist: the union of the divine and human natures in Christ. The holy apostle Paul says [Eph. 5:29–31] that as man and wife united in the estate of matrimony and become two in one flesh, so God and man are united in the one person Christ, and so Christ and Christendom are one body.l It is indeed a wonderful sacrament, as Paul says [Eph. 5:32], that the estate of marriage truly signifies such a great reality. Is it not a wonderful thing that God is human and that [God] gives self to humanity and will be theirs, just as the husband gives himself to his wife and is hers? But if God is ours, then everything is ours.m

    Consider this matter with the respect it deserves. Because the unionn of man and woman signifies such a great mystery, the estate of marriage has to have this special significance.²⁶ This means that the wicked lust of the flesh, which nobody is without, is a conjugal duty and does not deserve condemnationo when expressed within marriage,p but in all other cases outside the bond of marriage, it is mortal sin.²⁷ In a parallel way the holy humanity of God coversq the shame of the wicked lust of the flesh. Therefore, a married person should have regard for such a sacrament, honor it as holy thing, and maintain self-control in conjugal duties,r so that those things that originate in the lust of the flesh do not occur [among us] as they do in the world of brute beasts.

    Second, [the doctors say] that marriage is a pacts of fidelity. The whole basis and essence of marriage is that each gives himself or herself to the other, and they promise to remain faithful to each other and not give themselves to any other. Because they bind and surrendert themselves to each other, the way is barred to the body of anyone else so that they must content themselves in the marriage bed with their one companion.u In this way God sees to it that the flesh is subdued so as not to rage wherever and however it pleases, and allows within such fidelity more than enough occasion than is necessary for the begetting of children.²⁸ But, of course, a man has to control himself and not make a filthy sow’s sty of his marriage.

    At this point I want to say what kind of wordsv should be used when two people become engaged to each other.²⁹ The matter has been dealt with at such length, in such depth, and in such concise fashion that I myself am much too inadequate to understand it all, but I am afraid that there are many who are as married people, whom before now we thought unmarried.³⁰ Because the estate of marriage consists essentially in consent having been freely and previously given one to another and God is wonderfully merciful in all his judgments, I will leave it all to the care of God. The generally accepted formula is I am yours, you are mine.³¹ Though some hold to this [wording] most strictly, and believe that it is not enough when they [a couple] say, I will take thee or I am willing to take thee³² or use some other form of words. Nevertheless I would still prefer to consider the words in the sense in which they have been understood up to the present.³³

    Similarly, when someone has made a clandestine [secret] marriage promise,³⁴ and subsequently takes another, either publicly or secretly, I am still not sure whether what we write about it or the judgment we make on it is altogether right.³⁵

    My advice is that parents persuade their children not to be ashamed to ask their parents to find a marriage partner for them. Parents should make it clear from the start that they want to advise their children so that they in their turn may remain chaste and persevere in expectation of marriage. In return, children should not become engaged without the knowledge of their parents.³⁶ You are not ashamed, are you, to ask your parents for a coat or a house? Why be foolish then, and not ask for what is far greater, a partner in marriage? Samson did it. He entered a city and saw a young maiden who pleased him. Thereupon he immediately goes back home and says to his father and mother, I have seen a young maiden whom I love. Dear parents, get me this girl for a wife [Judg. 14:1–2].

    Third, [the doctors say] that marriage produces offspring, for that is the end and chief purpose of marriage.w It is not enough, however, merely for children to be born, and so what they³⁷ say about marriage excusing sin does not apply in this case. Heathen, too, bear offspring. But, unfortunately, it seldom happens that we bring up children to serve, praise and honor God, and want nothing else of them. People seek only heirs in their children, or pleasure in them; the serving of God finds what place it can. You also see people rush into marriage and become mothers and fathers before they know what the Commandments are or can pray.

    But this at least all married people should know. They can do no better work and do nothing more valuable either for God, for Christendom, for the entire world, for themselves, and for their children than to bring up their children well. In comparison with this one work, that married people should bring up their children properly, there is nothing at all in pilgrimages to Rome, Jerusalem, or to St. Jacob [James],³⁸ nothing at all in building churches, endowing masses, or whatever good works could be named. For bringing up their children properly is their shortest road to heaven. In fact, heaven itself could not be made nearer or achieved more easily than by doing this work.³⁹ It is also their appointed work. Where parents are not conscientious about this, it is as if everything were the wrong way around, like fire that will not burn or water that is not wet.

    By the same token, hell is no more easily earned than with respect to one’s own children. You could do no more disastrous work than to spoil the children, let them curse and swear, let them learn profane words and vulgar songs, and just let them do as they please.x What is more, some parents use enticements to be more alluring to meet the dictates of the world of fashion, so that they may please only the world, get ahead, and become rich, all the time giving more attention to the care of the body than to the due care of the soul. There is no greater tragedy in Christendom than spoiling children.⁴⁰ If we want to help Christendom, we most certainly have to start with the children, as happened in earlier times.

    This third point seems to me to be the most important of all, as well as being the most useful. For without a shadow of doubt it is not only a matter of marital duty, but can completely eclipse all other sins. False natural love⁴¹ blinds parents so that they have more regard for the bodies of their children than they have for their souls. It was because of this that the sage said, Those who spare the rod hate their children, but those who love them are diligent to discipline them [Prov. 13:24]. Again, Folly is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of discipline drives it far away [Prov. 22:15]. Or again, If you beat them with the rod you will save their lives from hell [Prov. 23:14]. Therefore, it is of the greatest importance for every married person to pay closer, more thorough, and continuous attention to the health of their child’s soul than to the body which they have begotten, and to regard their child as nothing else but an eternal treasure God has commanded them to protect, and so prevent the world, the flesh, and the Devil from stealing children away and bringing them to destruction. For at their death and on Judgment Day they will be asked about their children and will have to give a most solemn account. For what do you think is the cause of the horrible wailing and howling of those who will cry, O blessed are the wombs which have not bore children, and the breasts which have never suckled [Luke 23:29]? There is not the slightest doubt that it is because they have failed to restore their children to God, from whom they received them to take care of them.

    O what a truly noble, important, and blessed condition the estate of marriage is if it is properly regarded! O what a truly pitiable, horrible, and dangerous condition it is if it is not properly regarded! And to those who bear these things in mind the desire of the flesh may well pass away, and perhaps they could just as well take on virginityy as the married state. The young people take a poor view of this and follow only their desires, but God will consider it important and wait on those who are in the right.

    Finally, if you really want to atone for all your sins, if you want to obtain the fullest remissionz of them on earth as well as in heaven, if you want to see many generations of your children, then look but at this third point with all the seriousness you can muster and bring up your children properly. If you cannot do so, seek out other people who can and ask them to do it. Spare yourself neither money nor expense, neither trouble nor effort, for your children are the churches, the altar, the testament, the vigils, and masses for the dead for which you make provision in your will. It is they who will lighten you in your hour of death, and to your journey’s end.⁴²

    On the Estate of Marriagea

    1522

    MARJORIE ELIZABETH PLUMMER

    Undecorated original title page from Luther’s On the Estate of Marriage (Von dem Eelichen Leben), published in Wittenberg, 1523

    INTRODUCTION

    Published in late 1522,¹ just three years after his Sermon on the Estate of Marriage (1519), On the Estate of Marriage illustrates Martin Luther’s break with doctrinal positions on celibacy, clerical marriage, and marriage as a sacrament held by the medieval church. It also shows Luther’s progress from participation in theological debate to his active involvement in the calling for implementation of reforms. In the interim between writing these two works, Luther had been condemned at the Diet of Worms in April 1521 and had spent from 4 May 1521 until 6 March 1522 living in the Wartburg.² During that time, not only did Luther work on his translation of the New Testament, he also

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