Works of Martin Luther, with Introductions and Notes (Volume II). Martin Luther

62

In Vito, lib. V, tit. xi, c. I,Cum medicinalis.

63

According to Luther's interpretation of 1 Cor. 5:5. Cf. also Acts 5:5.

64

The passage quoted from the canon law.

65

For instances see the Gravamina of the German Nation (1521), Wrede, Deutsche Reichstagsakten, II, 685.

66

Thiele, Luthers Sprichwörtersammlung, No. 276.

67

I. e., a cleric.

68

This statement also was condemned in the papal bull.

69

The "officials" were the administrators of this discipline, see above, p. 41.

70

A very important limitation for Luther's position.

71

See Open Letter to the Nobility, below, p. 98.

72

Again an important limitation.

73

See above, p. 41.

74

The ashes of Hus were cast into the Rhine (1415), and the body of Wycliff was exhumed and cremated and the ashes cast into the water (1427).

75

See above, p. 42.

76

In 1518 both George and Frederick of Saxony took the position that spiritual jurisdiction should be limited to spiritual matters. Gess, Akten und Briefe zur Kirchen politik Georgs 1, 44.

77

Luther puts a peculiar construction upon this passage.

78

The ancient service was divided into the service of the Word (missa catechumenorum) and the celebration of the sacrament (missa fidelium); before the second, those under the ban as well as the catechumens were required to withdraw.

79

The "great ban" excluded from all services.

80

According to Roman Catholic usage there is a distinction between hearing mass and receiving the sacrament.

81

Compare Treatise Concerning the Blessed Sacrament, above, p. 25.

82

In this edition, I, 337 ff.

83

Enders, II, 414; Smith, L.'s Correspondence, I, No. 266.

84

Enders, II, 424.

85

See below, p. 62.

86

See letter of June 7th to John Hess, Enders, II, 411; Smith, I, No. 265.

87

Published at Rome 1519; printed with Luther's preface and notes, Weimar Ed., VI, 328ff.; Erl. Ed., op. var. arg., II, 79 ff.

88

Weimar Ed., VI, 329.

89

See Enders, II, 415, 443; Smith, Nos. 269, 279, and documents in St. Louis Ed., XV, 1630 ff.

90

See Köstlin-Kawerau, Martin Luther, I, 308 ff., and Weimar Ed., VI, 381 ff.

91

See Luther's letters to Lang and Staupitz, who wished to have the publication withheld (Enders, II, 461, 463).

92

Clemen, I. 362.

93

Below, pp. 65-99.

94

See Weimar Ed., VI, 397.

95

See title B, ibid., 398.

96

Printed as an appendix in Clemen, I, 421-425.

97

So it was called by Johann Lang (Enders, II, 461).

98

Unserm furnchmen nach. See Introduction, p. 57.

99

An ironical comparison of the monks' cowl and tonsure with the headgear of the jester.

100

i. e., Which one turns out to be the real fool.

101

The proverb ran, Monachus semper praesens, "a monk is always there." See Wander, Deutsches Sprichwörterlexicon, under Mönch, No. 130.

102

Evidently a reference to the Gravamina of the German Nation; see Gebhardt, Die Grav. der Deutschen Nation, Breslau, 1895.

103

Councils of the Church, especially those of Constance (1414-18), and of Basel (1431-39).

104

Charles V. was elected Emperor in 1519, when but twenty years of age. Hutten expresses his "hopes of good" from Charles in Vadiscus (Böcking, IV, 156).

105

Frederick Barbarossa (1152-1100).

106

Frederick II (1212-1250), grandson of Barbarossa and last of the great Hohenstaufen Emperors. He died under excommunication.

107

Pope Julius II (1503-1513). Notorious among the popes for his unscrupulous pursuit of political power, he was continually involved in war with one and another of the European powers over the possession of territories in Italy.

108

Luther's recollection of the figures was faulty.

109

The term "Romanist" is applied by Luther to the champions of the extreme form of papal supremacy. C. Vol. I, p. 343 f.

110

i. e., The three rods for the punishment of an evil pope.

111

Spuknisse, literally "ghosts." The gist of the sentence is, "the Romanists have frightened the world with ghost-stories."

112

Olegötze—"an image anointed with holy oil to make it sacred"; in modern German, "a blockhead."

113

Lay-baptism in view of imminent death is a practice as old as the Christian Church. The right of the laity to administer baptism in such cases was expressly recognized by the Council of Elvira, in the year 306, and the decree of that Council became a part of the law of the Church. The right of the laity to give absolution in such cases rests on the principle that in the absence of the appointed official of the Church any Christian can do for any other Christian the things that are absolutely necessary or salvation, for "necessity knows no law." Cf. Vol. I, p. 30, note 2.

114

The canon law, called by Luther throughout this treatise and elsewhere, the "spiritual law," is a general name for the decrees of councils ("canons" in the strict sense) and decisions of the popes ("decretals," "constitutions," etc.), promulgated by authority of the popes, and collected in the so-called Corpus juris canonici. It comprised the whole body of Church law, and embodied in legal forms the mediæval theory of papal absolutism, which accounts for the bitterness with which Luther speaks of it, especially in this treatise. The Corpus includes the following collections of canons and decretals: The Decretum of Gratian (1142), the Liber Extra (1234), the Liber Sextus (1298), the Constitutiones Clementinae (1318 or 1317), and the two books of Extravagantes ,—the Extravagantes of John XXII, and the Extravagantes communes. The last pope whose decrees are included is Sixtus IV (died 1484). See Catholic Encyclop.,IV, pp. 391 ff.

115

Augustine, the master-theologian of the Ancient Church, bishop of Hippo in Africa from 395-430.

116

Ambrose, bishop of Milan from 374-397, had not yet been baptised at the time of his election to the episcopate, which was forced upon him by the unanimous voice of the people of the city.