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

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.

117

Cyprian, bishop of Carthage, 247-258, is said to have consented to accept the office only when the congregation surrounded his house and besought him to yield to their entreaties.

118

Was ausz der Tauff krochen ist.

119

The character indelebilis, or "indelible mark," received authoritative statement in the bull Exultate Deo (1439). Eugenius IV, summing up the Decrees of the Council of Florence, says: "Among these sacraments there are three—baptism, confirmation, and orders—which indelibly impress upon the soul a character, i. e., a certain spiritual mark which distinguishes them from the rest" (Mirbt, Quellen, 2d ed., No. 150). The Council of Trent in its XXIII. Session, July 15, 1563 (Mirbt, No. 312), defined the correct Roman teaching as follows: "Since in the sacrament of orders, as in baptism and confirmation, a character is impressed which cannot be destroyed or taken away, the Holy Synod justly condemns the opinion of those who assert that the priests of the New Testament have only temporary power, and that those once rightly ordained can again be made laymen, if they do not exercise the ministry of the Word of God."

120

i. e., They are all Christians, among whom there can be no essential difference.

121

The sharp distinction which the Roman Church drew between clergy and laity found practical application in the contention that the clergy should be exempt from the jurisdiction of the civil courts, This is the so-called privilegium fori, "benefit of clergy." It was further

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