Fatal Discord

by Michael Massing

  “Switzerland and the Rhine country”: Ibid., vol. 1, no. 127, February 18, 1519, 163–164.

  he had scoured the whole city: Ibid., vol. 1, no. 153, May 23, 1519, 191.

  Huldrych Zwingli: Bainton, Here I Stand, 93.

  concealed in bales of cotton: Schwiebert, Luther, 427.

  couriers arrived: Fife, Revolt of Martin Luther, 463.

  “Our town can hardly hold them”: Luther’s Works, vol. 48, no. 39, to George Spalatin, May 22, 1519, 122–124.

  “In this way”: Ibid., vol. 48, no. 30, December 9, 1519, 95–96.

  “The best studies”: Luther’s Correspondence, vol. 1, no. 103a, to Guy Bild, December 10, 1518, 137–138.

  on Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians: Brecht, Martin Luther, 286–289. The lectures are in Luther’s Works, vol. 27, 153–410. “Now that the whole Christian world,” 163.

  “that theologian too great”: Luther’s Correspondence, vol. 1, no. 123, to Peter Lupinus and Andreas Karlstadt [January 1519], 159.

  “Free will collapses”: Luther’s Works, vol. 27, 328.

  Wolfgang Capito had written to him: Luther’s Correspondence, vol. 1, no. 78, September 4, 1518, 110.

  jab at those who profit: Collected Works of Erasmus, vol. 6, 79.

  decided to write to him directly: Luther’s Works, vol. 48, no. 37, March 28, 1519, 116–119.

  With the arrival of the Froben collection: De Vocht, History of the Foundation, part 1, 424–425; Schwiebert, Luther, 427–430. Schwiebert notes that it was probably the second edition of the Froben collection that was used in both Louvain and Cologne.

  Letters of Obscure Men: Epistolae Obscurorum Virorum, Francis Griffin Stokes, xliv–lxviii. See also Price, Johannes Reuchlin, 176; Joseph Lortz, The Reformation in Germany, vol. 1, 75–77; Smith, Erasmus, 134.

  Erasmus strongly disapproved: Collected Works of Erasmus, vol. 5, no. 622, to Johannes Caesarius, August 16, 1517, 66.

  support for Reuchlin: Price, Johannes Reuchlin, 196.

  The first volley against Erasmus: Collected Works of Erasmus, vol. 6, no. 946 [April 1519], 306–308, and vol. 71, introduction to “Defense of the Declamation of Marriage,” 86–87; Augustijn, Erasmus, 116; Halkin, Erasmus, 123–124; de Vocht, History of the Foundation, part 1, 313–314.

  “a barren way of life”: Erika Rummel, ed., Erasmus on Women, 58.

  all the anger and resentment: Collected Works of Erasmus, vol. 6, no. 948, to Petrus Mosellanus, April 22, 1519, 310–318.

  progress being made by the College of Three Tongues: De Vocht, History of the Foundation, part 1, 360–363.

  Jacobus Latomus: Ibid., 324ff; Augustijn, Erasmus, 116; Collected Works of Erasmus, vol. 6, 283–285, and vol. 71, xxix–xxxiii.

  Edward Lee: Collected Works of Erasmus, vol. 72, 8–9, 15; Rummel, Erasmus and His Catholic Critics, vol. 1, 96–98.

  “the peaceful home of literary studies”: Collected Works of Erasmus, vol. 6, no. 948, to Petrus Mosellanus, April 22, 1519, 311.

  “Do not, I beg you”: Ibid., vol. 6, no. 938, April 8, 1519, 294–295.

  The threat worked: Ibid., vol. 6, 191–193, note.

  dominated by large folios: Pettegree, Brand Luther, 144; Louise Holborn, “Printing and the Growth of a Protestant Movement in Germany,” 126.

  “almost superhuman art”: Collected Works of Erasmus, vol. 6, no. 919, February 23, 1519, 253–256.

  here Luther would lead the way: Holborn, “Printing and the Growth of a Protestant Movement in Germany,” 126–127; Pettegree, Brand Luther, 105, 115–116; Fife, Revolt of Martin Luther, 445–446.

  Meditation on Christ’s Passion: Luther’s Works, vol. 42, 5–14; on the number of editions, see Universal Short Title Catalogue (ustc.ac.uk).

  “I have a swift hand”: Quoted in Boehmer, Road to Reformation, 299.

  the sound and cadence: Friedenthal, Luther, 213.

  “Here is the beast”: Ibid., 213.

  eight or sixteen pages long: Pettegree, Brand Luther, 106, 147.

  one of Europe’s top book producers: Ibid., xii–xiii; Holborn, “Printing and the Growth of a Protestant Movement in Germany,” 133.

  Overall, in the first decade: Pettegree, Book in the Renaissance, 102.

  instrumental in spreading dissident ideas: John L. Flood, “The Book in Reformation Germany,” in Jean-François Gilmont, ed., The Reformation and the Book, 96.

  “an unquenchable flame”: Quoted in Holborn, “Printing and the Growth of a Protestant Movement in Germany,” 137.

  decided to write to the elector again: Collected Works of Erasmus, vol. 6, no. 939, April 14, 1519, 295–299.

  “The letter of Erasmus pleases me”: Luther’s Works, vol. 48, to George Spalatin, May 22, 1519, 122.

  the arrival in Louvain: Collected Works of Erasmus, vol. 6, 332. The letter from Leo X is in vol. 6, no. 864, September 10, 1518, 106–108; the editor’s note offers the details about the volume.

  “No words of mine”: Ibid., vol. 6, no. 980, May 30, 1519, 391–393.

  CHAPTER 20: THE GREAT DEBATE

  The Leipzig disputation: For general information, see Brecht, Martin Luther, 299–348; Friedenthal, Luther, 196–211; Marius, Martin Luther, 168–189; Schwiebert, Luther, 384–437; Fife, Revolt of Martin Luther, 327–394; Bainton, Here I Stand, 86–92; Boehmer, Road to Reformation, 271–297. See also Luther’s Works, vol. 31, “The Leipzig Debate,” 309–325, which includes Luther’s own account.

  Leipzig’s theologians: See Luther’s Correspondence, vol. 1, no. 105, December 16, 1518, 139–140, and no. 109, December 30, 1518, 143–144.

  Luther was the real prize: Schwiebert, Luther, 384–385; Fife, Revolt of Martin Luther, 331–334; Boehmer, Road to Reformation, 283–284.

  arid and didactic style: Friedenthal, Luther, 161–162.

  arguing that the claims: Luther’s Works, vol. 31, 318.

  “glory-hungry beast”: Ibid., vol. 48, no. 34, to George Spalatin, February 7, 1519, 107.

  in the weeks leading up to the event: Ibid., vol. 48, no. 36, to George Spalatin, March 13, 1519, 114; Todd, Luther, 157; Mullett, Martin Luther, 96; Schwiebert, Luther, 389–391.

  massive tract on papal power: Brecht, Martin Luther, 307–309; W. H. T. Dau, The Leipzig Debate of 1519: Leaves from the Story of Luther’s Life, 106.

  might be the “Antichrist himself”: Luther’s Works, vol. 48, no. 36, 114.

  like an intramural championship match: Schwiebert, Luther, 391; Friedenthal, Luther, 202; Boehmer, Road to Reformation, 277; Dau, Leipzig Debate of 1519, 116.

  produced reports: See, for instance, Luther’s Correspondence, vol. 1, no. 204, Peter Mosellanus to Julius Pflug, December 7, 1519, 257–262; Hillerbrand, Reformation, 67–76.

  When the procession reached Grimma: Boehmer, Road to Reformation, 277–278.

  delivered an address: Fife, Revolt of Martin Luther, 353.

  Eck, tall and solidly built: Luther’s Correspondence, vol. 1, 261–262.

  Karlstadt was short: Ibid., 261.

  station thirty-four armed guards: Schwiebert, Luther, 399.

  “with nine or ten arguments”: Luther’s Correspondence, vol. 1, no. 169, Nikolaus von Amsdorf to Spalatin, August 1, 1519, 211.

  he vociferously argued: Ibid., vol. 1, 260.

  “almost count his bones”: Ibid., 261.

  carried a bouquet of pink flowers: Fife, Revolt of Martin Luther, 359; Boehmer, Road to Reformation, 285.

  began right in on: Brecht, Martin Luther, 319–322.

  “I impugn these decretals”: Quoted in Bainton, Here I Stand, 88.

  argued that the true head: See Melanchthon’s report, Luther’s Correspondence, vol. 1, no. 163, July 21, 1519, 200–202.

  on the morning of the second day: Hillerbrand, Reformation, 67–70.

  Luther (apparently) took the opportunity: According to Bainton, Here I Stand (89), Luther during lunch went to the university library and read the acts of the Council of Constance.

  “certain that many of the articles”: Hillerbrand,
Reformation, 67.

  Duke George bellowed: Schwiebert, Luther, 408; Brecht, Martin Luther, 320; Dau, Leipzig Debate of 1519, 165.

  Jan Hus was named: For general information on Hus, see David S. Schaff, John Huss: His Life, Teaching and Death, After Five Hundred Years; Schaff’s Introduction to Hus’s The Church (De Ecclesia), vii–xlii; Matthew Spinka, John Hus: A Biography; “Jan Hus” and “Hussites,” in The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Reformation; “Jan Hus,” in The Encyclopedia of Christianity; Diarmaid MacCulloch, Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years, 571–574; Walker, History of the Christian Church, 381–384.

  some 1,500 German students: Schaff, John Huss, 81–83; Spinka, John Hus, 97–99.

  De Ecclesia: See Spinka, John Hus, 184–186, and Schaff, Introduction to The Church, xii–xxxi.

  thrown into a dungeon: On the treatment of Hus during the early part of his stay in Constance, see Schaff, John Huss, 179ff.

  Hus over the next month: Ibid., 229ff.

  Hus was led to a meadow: Ibid., 255–259.

  protests erupted: Walker, History of the Christian Church, 384.

  the Eucharistic chalice: Francis Lutzow, The Hussite Wars, 5.

  an inflamed mob: Ibid., 9; MacCulloch, Christianity, 572.

  “Four Articles of Prague”: Walker, History of the Christian Church, 384–385.

  declared a crusade: Lutzow, Hussite Wars, 37ff.

  Marching through Bohemia and Moravia: Walker, History of the Christian Church, 384–385; MacCulloch, Christianity, 572; Friedenthal, Luther, 164; “Hussites,” in The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Reformation.

  up to the very walls of Leipzig: Lutzow, Hussite Wars, 239.

  pressing his advantage: Hillerbrand, Reformation, 68–71; Brecht, Martin Luther, 320–321; Dau, Leipzig Debate in 1519, 166–167.

  swelling up like an adder: Luther’s Works, vol. 31, 322.

  “I will tell you”: Quoted in Fife, Revolt of Martin Luther, 363.

  would afterward praise: Luther’s Correspondence, vol. 1, 261.

  moved on to the subject of indulgences: Luther’s Works, vol. 31, 322.

  “the impatient monk”: Quoted in Schwiebert, Luther, 412.

  For eleven days he remained: Ibid., 419.

  “I have experienced hatred before”: Luther’s Works, vol. 31, 325.

  made it in fact seem the case: Ibid., vol. 31, 311.

  smooth his rough edges: Schwiebert, Luther, 423; Roper, Martin Luther, 127–128.

  Word also spread: Luther’s Correspondence, vol. 1, no. 178, October 3, 1519, 220.

  turned out sixteen works: Luther’s Works, vol. 44, 117.

  Tesseradecas Consolatoria: Luther’s Works, vol. 42, 119–166.

  Wittenberg would surpass: Roper, Martin Luther, 130.

  In one chilling episode: Smith, Life and Letters of Martin Luther, 68.

  a sorrowful letter he sent: Luther’s Correspondence, vol. 1, no. 178, October 3, 1519, 219–221.

  on the long journey to Rome: Pastor, History of the Popes, vol. 7, 386; Brecht, Martin Luther, 348. Some accounts conjecture that Eck was summoned by Rome.

  CHAPTER 21: THE VIPER STRIKES

  “What justice”: The preface is in Collected Works of Erasmus, vol. 7, no. 1013, September 10, 1519, 71–73.

  such “apostolic energy”: Ibid., vol. 7, no. 1000, July 31, 1519, 25–31.

  suggested a principle: Ibid., vol. 7, no. 1039, November 1, 1519, 119–128.

  Erasmus was charged: Ibid., vol. 7, 195–201; Rummel, Erasmus and His Catholic Critics, vol. 1, 137ff; Augustijn, Erasmus, 92.

  “have got it into their heads”: Collected Works of Erasmus, vol. 7, no. 993, July 1, 1519, 3.

  the faculty began an investigation: Augustijn, Erasmus, 121.

  an accord was reached: Collected Works of Erasmus, vol. 7, no. 1022, 96.

  Hoogstraten arrived: Ibid., vol. 71, xxxvii.

  “purveyor of cabalistic perfidy”: Ibid., vol. 7, no. 1006, to Jacob of Hoogstraten, August 11, 1519, 47.

  “How I wish you had spent that effort”: Ibid., 48, 53.

  brought it with him to Louvain: Ibid., vol. 7, 128; de Vocht, History of the Foundation, part 1, 424–428.

  the Cologne faculty: Brecht, Martin Luther, 338–339.

  pact with Erasmus broke down: Collected Works of Erasmus, vol. 7, no. 1033, to Albrecht of Brandenburg, October 19, 1519, 108–116.

  Erasmus decided to appeal: Ibid.

  a devotee of good letters: Friedenthal, Luther, 147.

  Ulrich von Hutten: On Hutten, see Spitz, Religious Renaissance of the German Humanists, 110–129; Bainton, Here I Stand, 100–104; Friedenthal, Luther, 230–239; “Hutten, Ulrich von,” in Contemporaries of Erasmus.

  suspected Hutten of treachery: Collected Works of Erasmus, vol. 7, 108; Smith, Erasmus, 225–227.

  the Louvain theology faculty met: H. J. de Jonge, L’ancienne faculté de théologie de Louvain au premier siècle de son existence, 1432–1540: Ses Débuts, son organisation, son enseignement, sa lutte contre É rasme et Luther, 213; Schwiebert, Luther, 427–430.

  “Gangs of conspirators”: Collected Works of Erasmus, vol. 7, no. 1053, to Thomas Lupset, December 13, 1519, 159.

  “The battle grows more barbarous”: Ibid., vol. 7, no. 1007, to Pope Leo X, August 13, 1519, 55–59.

  prepared to use every available means: The relations between Erasmus and Lee are described in a long letter from Lee to Erasmus, Collected Works of Erasmus, vol. 7, no. 1061, February 1, 1520, 171–195, and in Erasmus’s “An Apologia in Response to the Two Invectives of Edward Lee,” vol. 72, 3–65. See also Rummel, Erasmus and His Catholic Critics, vol. 1, 95–120; Huizinga, Erasmus, 135.

  “The English viper”: Collected Works of Erasmus, vol. 7, no. 1074, to Wolfgang Faber Capito [end of February 1520], 215–219.

  listed Erasmus’s alleged offenses: Ibid., vol. 72, 70–71.

  for giving a lascivious cast: Rummel, Erasmus and His Catholic Critics, vol. 1, 101.

  “is an invention of the theologians”: Collected Works of Erasmus, vol. 72, 269–270.

  Erasmus’s greatest offense: Ibid., 403–419; Rummel, Erasmus and His Catholic Critics, vol. 1, 104–105 (“Such great negligence,” 105); Bentley, Humanists and Holy Writ, 152–153; Coogan, Erasmus, Lee, and the Correction of the Vulgate, 53, 101–13; “we will fall once again,” Collected Works of Erasmus, vol. 72, 412; “Let the church,” vol. 72, 417.

  “My friends”: Collected Works of Erasmus, vol. 7, no. 1088, 254–255.

  “I pray he may enjoy”: Ibid., vol. 7, no. 1095, April 30 [1520], 270.

  “out of his native darkness”: Ibid., vol. 7, no. 1084, March 19, 1520, 235.

  “Go hang yourself!”: Quoted in Rummel, Erasmus and His Catholic Critics, vol. 1, 112.

  Two schoolmasters: Ibid., 113.

  posted in more than ten places: Collected Works of Erasmus, vol. 7, 222, 403.

  “If a clandestine attack”: Ibid., vol. 7, 186, 185, 181, 183, 184.

  “Good God!”: Quoted in Rummel, Erasmus and His Catholic Critics, vol. 1, 102.

  “I did the only thing possible”: Collected Works of Erasmus, vol. 72, 404, 408. See also de Jonge, “Erasmus and the Comma Johanneum,” 381–389.

  “I beseech you”: Collected Works of Erasmus, vol. 72, 413.

  Lee’s notes: De Jonge, in “Erasmus and the Comma Johanneum” (385), calls Lee “a truly quarrelsome individual” and a “myopically conservative theologian” who “troubled and pestered Erasmus for several years with his criticisms, which were unusually mediocre, of the Novum Instrumentum.”

  Henry Standish: Erasmus describes this episode in a letter to Hermannus Buschius, Collected Works of Erasmus, vol. 8, July 31, 1520, 7–17. See also Rummel, Erasmus and His Catholic Critics, vol. 1, 122–127.

  “a little Greek somebody”: Quoted in Boyle, Erasmus on Language and Method in Theology, 6.

  a hastily written defense: Erasmus actually wrote two apologias, one published in February 1520 and an expanded version
published in August. They are in Collected Works of Erasmus, vol. 73, 1–40; the relevant passages are on page 18. The preface to the first defense is in vol. 7, 211–212. See also Boyle, Erasmus on Language and Method in Theology, 8.

  “I am greatly surprised”: Luther’s Correspondence, vol. 1, no. 202, December 4, 1519, 256–257.

  Condemnation of Luther by Cologne and Louvain: Brecht, Martin Luther, 339; Fife, Revolt of Martin Luther, 473–474.

  “The university here”: Collected Works of Erasmus, vol. 7, no. 1088, April 9, 1520, 255.

  were the first steps: Coogan, in Erasmus, Lee, and the Correction of the Vulgate (19), observes that “Lee ought to be recognized as the vanguard of the Catholic opposition to Erasmus’ Annotationes as well as the one who forecast the theological revolution then beginning.”

  CHAPTER 22: THUNDERCLAPS

  Alsatians and Walloons: Boehmer, Road to Reformation, 268–269.

  “I left Italy”: Luther’s Correspondence, vol. 1, no. 197, to John Lang, November 19, 1519, 251.

  “all ages will remember”: Ibid., vol. 1, no. 259, May 15, 1520, 323.

  “If God help me”: Ibid., vol. 1, no. 221 [February 1520], 280–281.

  undergone a deep emotional crisis: Erwin Panofsky, The Life and Art of Albrecht Dürer (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1943), 198–199.

  “Everything is very expensive”: Luther’s Works, vol. 48, no. 57, May 31, 1520, 165.

  Matthaeus Adrianus: See Luther’s letter to Spalatin, ibid., vol. 48, no. 45, November 7, 1519, 132–133.

  “this little Greek”: Ibid., vol. 48, no. 58, to George Spalatin, June 25, 1520, 165–167; Luther’s Correspondence, vol. 1, no. 207, to John Lang, December 18, 1519, 264.

  a Wittenberg widow: Luther’s Works, vol. 48, no. 49, to George Spalatin, December 31, 1519, 142.

  city council of Kemberg: Ibid.

  “wicked lust of the flesh”: Ibid., vol. 44, “A Sermon on the State of Marriage,” 10.

  taking place in Luther’s mind: Todd, Luther, 167.

  a treatise on the Eucharist: Luther’s Works, vol. 35, “The Blessed Sacrament of the Holy and True Body of Christ, and the Brotherhoods,” 47–73; the recommendation on giving the laity the cup as well as the bread is on page 50.

  To Duke George: Brecht, Martin Luther, 361–365.