a long letter that Erasmus had sent: Collected Works of Erasmus, vol. 9, February 1, 1523, 364–401.
“Would you have us believe”: Klawiter, Polemics of Erasmus, 60; “as a cesspool,” 66; “a certain cowardice,” 68–69; Erasmus in his anxiety, 69; “This sacrilegious utterance,” 104; Did Christ not predict, 102; Erasmus faced two choices, 100; If he refused to commit, 112; “we must fight this out,” 126.
Erasmus heard of it: Ibid., 14–21.
Spongia Adversus Aspergines Hutteni: Collected Works of Erasmus, vol. 78, 30–145; “false accusations,” 145; “the muck he threw,” 38; that he had in fact been informed, 39–40; He rejected Hutten’s claim, 127–28; “Had Hutten received,” 128; He charged the German reformer, 98; “that the Spirit of Christ,” 112.
a letter he sent to Henry VIII: Ibid., vol. 10, no. 1385, September 4, 1523, 85.
“a perfect fury”: Ibid., vol. 10, no. 1386, to Theodore Hezius [?], September 16, 1523, 85–88.
a letter to Conradus Pellicanus: Luther’s Correspondence, vol. 2, no. 600, October 1, 1523, 204–206.
“Luther passionately abuses”: Collected Works of Erasmus, vol. 10, no. 1397, November 21, 1523, 109–111.
thirty-sixth article: Ibid., vol. 76, 301–310.
CHAPTER 34: A SHOWER OF STONES
“on account of the grandeur”: Luther’s Correspondence, vol. 2, no. 613, February 23, 1524, 221–222.
Jerome Baumgärtner: Ibid., vol. 2, no. 642, Luther to Jerome Baumgärtner, October 12, 1524, 257–258.
began introducing changes: Brecht, Shaping and Defining, 121–126; Marius, Martin Luther, 382–383; Todd, Luther, 251–252; Bainton, Here I Stand, 272.
the introduction of hymns: Christopher Boyd Brown, Singing the Gospel: Lutheran Hymns and the Success of the Reformation(Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2005), 1–25.
wrote to Spalatin of his intention: Luther’s Correspondence, vol. 2, no. 608 [before January 14, 1524], 211–212.
the first Reformation hymnal: Brecht, Shaping and Defining, 130–131.
congregational singing: Bainton, Here I Stand, 266–271.
leading two centuries later: MacGregor, Germany, 111.
had resurfaced with a radical program: Sider, Andreas Bodenstein von Karlstadt, 174–181; Furcha, Essential Carlstadt, “The Meaning of the Term Gelassen and Where in Holy Scripture It Is Found,” 133–168; “Bodenstein von Karlstadt, Andreas,” in The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Reformation.
put aside his academic dress: Sider, Andreas Bodenstein von Karlstadt, 177; Rupp, Patterns of Reformation, 112–113, 118–121; Friedenthal, Luther, 328.
His authority to fill the post: Sider, Andreas Bodenstein von Karlstadt, 182–184.
the vicarage was in serious decline: Ibid., 184–185; Rupp, Patterns of Reformation, 113–114.
to “become angry, howl, and curse”: Ronald J. Sider, ed., Karlstadt’s Battle with Luther: Documents in a Liberal-Radical Debate, 65. The passage comes from an essay, “Whether One Should Proceed Slowly and Avoid Offending the Weak in Matters That Concern God’s Will” (50–71), which describes Karlstadt’s position on this matter.
conceived of a parish: Sider, Andreas Bodenstein von Karlstadt, 188–189.
Reasons Why Andreas Karlstadt Remained Silent: Furcha, Essential Carlstadt, 169–184.
“I have read Karlstadt’s monstrosities”: Luther’s Correspondence, vol. 2, no. 614, March 14, 1524, 222–223.
Luther complained: Sider, Andreas Bodenstein von Karlstadt, 190–191.
Müntzer had gone to Bohemia: Scott, Thomas Müntzer, 28ff.
“The Prague Manifesto”: Michael G. Baylor, ed., The Radical Reformation, 1–10.
the first worship service: Bornkamm, Luther in Mid-Career, 152–153.
“honey-sweet Christ”: Scott, Thomas Müntzer, 61–62.
an agitated crowd: Ibid., 65; Bornkamm, Luther in Mid-Career, 154–155.
“The murderous spirit of Allstedt”: Luther’s Correspondence, vol. 2, no. 652, to the Christians of Strassburg, [December 17, 1524], 278.
Eoban Hess: See Luther’s reply to Hess, ibid., vol. 2, no. 580, March 29, 1523, 175–177. For the drop-off in enrollment at Erfurt and Wittenberg, see Luther’s Works, vol. 45, 343.
To the Councilmen of All Cities: Luther’s Works, vol. 45, 347–378; “schools are everywhere,” 348; “despicable trick,” 350; A city’s greatest strength, 356; Both boys and girls, 370; The revival of ancient tongues, 360–361; the reputation of being beasts, 377; “O my beloved Germans,” 352.
new schools would be established: Schwiebert, Luther, 676; Pettegree, Brand Luther, 262–266, 323.
“I have now been silent”: Collected Works of Erasmus, vol. 10, no. 1443 [April 15], 1524, 243–247.
the two men left: Ibid., vol. 10, note 2, 251–252; Luther’s Works, vol. 49, note 3, 77.
“You have dragged”: Collected Works of Erasmus, vol. 10, no. 1405 [December 1523], 135–137; no. 1406 [December 1523], 137–146.
“new gospellers”: Ibid., vol. 10, 320.
“I no longer judge”: Ibid., vol. 10, no. 1400, to Francis I, December 1, 1523, 113–126.
Tusculanae quaestiones: Erasmus’s preface, ibid., vol. 10, no. 1390 [October] 1523, 95–101. For a description of the influence of this work on Erasmus’s thinking, see Marjorie O’Rourke Boyle, Rhetoric and Reform: Erasmus’s Civil Dispute with Luther, 8–20.
The Freedom of the Will: Ibid., vol. 76, 5–89. (The editors of this volume use an alternative translation of the title, “A Discussion of Free Will.”) For an analysis, see the introduction to this volume by Charles Trinkaus, xvi–cvi; Bainton, Erasmus of Christendom, 187–196; A. N. Marlow and B. Drewery, in Luther and Erasmus: Free Will and Salvation, E. Gordon Rupp and Philip S. Watson, eds., introduction, 1–32; Boyle, Rhetoric and Reform, 5–142.
“far from a crime”: Collected Works of Erasmus, vol. 76, 6; “without abuse,” 7; a “slight bias,” 8; “absolutely clear,” 10; “God created man,” 21; story of Cain and Abel, 33–34; “I have placed,” 34; At 7:20, for instance, 41; God acted in this way, 46–49; Even the verses in the Pauline Epistles, 41–42; “just as many proofs,” 73–74; man should claim no credit, 75; A God who foreordained, 76; had vastly exaggerated, 84; the potter and his clay, 75, 80–82; to allow the ungodly, 87; Luther’s godly and Christian assertions, 88; “with evangelical mildness,” 88.
The God whom Erasmus conjures up: Phillips, in Erasmus and the Northern Renaissance (138–139), observes that Erasmus’s view of free will was in many respects the traditional one of the Church.
“I send you the first draft”: Collected Works of Erasmus, vol. 10, no. 1419 [February 1524], 179–180.
“If your Majesty”: Ibid., vol. 10, no. 1430 [March] 1524, 200–201.
Erasmus would dedicate this work: Preface, ibid., vol. 10, no. 1414, January 31, 1514, 163–166.
had little time to spare for him: Ibid., vol. 10, 386.
drafted a reply to Luther: Ibid., vol. 10, no. 1445, May 8, 1524, 253–356.
he wrote to Pirckheimer: Ibid., vol. 10, no. 1466, July 21, 1524, 302–305.
He had initially planned to dedicate the book: Ibid., vol. 10, 353.
“The die is cast”: Ibid., vol. 10, no. 1493, September 6, 1524, 373–374.
CHAPTER 35: THE GOSPEL OF DISCONTENT
Gian Matteo Giberti wrote: Collected Works of Erasmus, vol. 10, no. 1509, October 19, 1524, 407–408.
Duke George of Saxony wrote: Ibid., vol. 10, no. 1503 [October] 1524, 399–400.
Juan Luis Vives reported: Ibid., vol. 10, November 13, 1524, no. 1513, 417–419.
“My book on the freedom of the will”: Ibid., vol. 10, no. 1506, to Gian Matteo Giberti, October 13, 1524, 404–405.
a letter from Melanchthon: Ibid., vol. 10, no. 1500, September 30, 1524, 390–392.
he felt absolute loathing: These initial impressions of Erasmus’s tract are taken from the opening pages of Luther’s eventual reply, The Bondage of the Will, in Luther’s Wor
ks, vol. 33, 15–19.
“It is annoying”: Luthers Werke, Briefwechsel, vol. 3, no. 789, 368.
informed his friend Nicholas Hausmann: Luther’s Correspondence, vol. 2, no. 645, 259.
largest popular uprising: MacCulloch, Reformation, 154.
actually invited Müntzer to preach: Scott, Thomas Müntzer, 69–76; Eric W. Gritsch, Thomas Muntzer: A Tragedy of Errors, 65–71; George Huntston Williams, The Radical Reformation, 54–56; Brecht, Shaping and Defining, 153–154.
took as his portion: “Sermon to the Princes,” in Baylor, Radical Reformation, 11–32; to take up the sword, 30; “Brother Fattened-swine” and “Brother Soft-life,” 23; “strangled without any mercy,” 30.
members of his congregation marched: Scott, Thomas Müntzer, 83ff.
Letter to the Princes: Luther’s Works, vol. 40, 49–59; “lords of the world,” 51. See also Brecht, Shaping and Defining, 151–152.
the reply he helped draft: “Letter from the Community of Orlamünde to the People of Allstedt,” in Baylor, Radical Reformation, 33–35.
finally summoned Müntzer: Scott, Thomas Müntzer, 89–92.
sent Luther a message: Luthers Werke: Briefwechsel, vol. 3, no. 754, June 24, 1524, 309–310.
he set off into the aroused countryside: Brecht, Shaping and Defining, 159–162; Schwiebert, Luther, 549.
met at the Black Bear Inn: “Confrontation at the Black Bear,” in Sider, Karlstadt’s Battle with Luther, 36–48. See also Roper, Martin Luther, 230–247.
Luther received a letter: Brecht, Shaping and Defining, 160–161; Luther’s Works, vol. 40, Letter to the Christians at Strassburg in Opposition to the Fanatic Spirit, 69, and Against the Heavenly Prophets in the Matter of Images and Sacraments, 100–101.
“unheard and unconvicted”: See Mark U. Edwards Jr., Luther and the False Brethren, 47.
Müntzer had resurfaced in Mühlhausen: Scott, Thomas Muntzer, 108–114; Gritsch, Thomas Muntzer, 83–85; G. H. Williams, Radical Reformation, 75–76.
A Highly Provoked Defense: The document is in Baylor, Radical Reformation, 74–94; “Sleep softly, dear flesh!,” 93. This quote has been edited for the sake of clarity, with help from the version in Scott, Thomas Müntzer, 108.
the Upper Rhine valley: See Cameron, European Reformation, 202–204; Michael G. Baylor, The German Reformation and the Peasants’ War: A Brief History with Documents, 7–8; Tom Scott and Bob Scribner, trans. and eds., The German Peasants’ War: A History in Documents, 6–14; G. R. Elton, Reformation Europe, 1517–1559, 9–10.
usurped many of the traditional rights: Marius, Martin Luther, 416–417; Peter Blickle, The Revolution of 1525: The German Peasants’ War from a New Perspective, xii–xiv, 31; Baylor, German Reformation, 3–8.
Taxes and fees: Friedenthal, Luther, 406; Blickle, Revolution of 1525, 46.
In a word, serfdom: “Serfdom,” in Europe 1450 to 1789: An Encyclopedia of the Early Modern World.
the itinerant preachers: E. Belfort Bax, The Peasants War in Germany, 1525–1526, 31–32; Dixon, Reformation in Germany, 59–62.
cited Luther’s own pronouncements: Ozment, The Age of Reform, 277.
Luther’s personal example: Blickle, Revolution of 1525, xxiii.
for monasteries and abbeys: Friedenthal, Martin Luther, 407; Blickle, Revolution of 1525, 57.
The notorious abbey at Kempten: Scott and Scribner, German Peasants’ War, 73–78.
the pamphlets and broadsheets: R. W. Scribner, “Images of the Peasant, 1514–1525,” in Janos Bak, ed., The German Peasant War of 1525, 29–48.
“Peasants and pigs”: See Marius, Martin Luther, 417.
“The Wittenberg Nightingale”: Strauss, Nuremberg in the Sixteenth Century, 166–168.
events in neighboring Switzerland: Scott and Scribner, German Peasants’ War, 96–100.
In his Sixty-Seven Articles: Baylor, German Reformation, 61–65.
closely followed in Waldshut: Christof Windhorst, “Balthasar Hubmaier: Professor, Preacher, Politician,” in Hans-Jürgen Goertz, ed., Profiles of Radical Reformers: Biographical Sketches from Thomas Müntzer to Paracelsus, 144–157; Tom Scott, “Reformation and Peasants’ War in Waldshut and Environs: A Structural Analysis,” Archiv für Reformationsgeschichte, 69: 82–102, 1978, and 70: 140–168, 1979; Schwiebert, Luther, 562.
One of the first major peasant outbreaks: Scott and Scribner, German Peasants’ War, 20. As Baylor notes (German Reformation, 15–16), the outbreak at Lupfen was one of a series of defiant and rebellious acts, both rural and urban, that marked the onset of the storm.
Hans Müller: Scott and Scribner, German Peasants’ War, 24, 233.
Müller led a contingent: Baylor, German Reformation, 16; Bax, Peasants War in Germany, 37–38.
thirty thousand peasants were under arms: The Cambridge Modern History, vol. 2, The Reformation, 179.
letter to Heinrich Stromer: Collected Works of Erasmus, vol. 10, no. 1522, December 10, 1524, 437–441.
two Basel printers: Ibid., vol. 10, 445. See also Luther’s Works, vol. 40, 76.
The reigning interpretation: See Amy Nelson Burnett, introduction, That These Words of Christ, “This Is My Body,” etc., Still Stand Firm Against the Fanatics, in The Annotated Luther, vol. 3, Church and Sacraments, ed. Paul W. Robinson, 163–170.
he argued that the Eucharist: “Dialogue or Discussion Booklet on the Infamous and Idolatrous Abuse of the Most Blessed Sacrament of Jesus Christ,” in Furcha, The Essential Carlstadt, 269–316.
“He who partakes”: “Concerning the Anti-Christian Misuse of the Lord’s Bread and Cup,” in Sider, Karlstadt’s Battle with Luther, 83.
The city was alive: Chrisman, Strasbourg and the Reform, 81–83; “Strasbourg,” in The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Reformation.
Wolfgang Capito: Chrisman, Strasbourg and the Reform, 88–90, 108–112; James M. Kittelson, Wolfgang Capito: From Humanist to Reformer, 100–108.
Martin Bucer: Chrisman, Strasbourg and the Reform, 83–88.
as usual caused an uproar: Brecht, Shaping and Defining 162–163.
In a November 23, 1524, letter: Luthers Werke, Briefwechsel, vol. 3, no. 797, 381–387.
CHAPTER 36: UPRISING
referred to them as his wives: Luther’s Correspondence, vol. 2, no. 672, to Spalatin, April 16, 1525, 305. On the von Schönfeld sisters, see 180.
Katharina was heartbroken: Ibid., vol. 2, no. 642, Luther to Jerome Baumgärtner, October 12, 1524, 257–258.
unable to send a wedding gift: Brecht, Shaping and Defining, 201.
“If it should happen”: Luther’s Correspondence, vol. 2, no. 649, December 2, 1524, 264–265.
“Not that I lack”: Ibid., vol. 2, no. 648, November 30, 1524, 263–264.
Luther was following the persecution: Ibid., vol. 2, no. 645, Luther to Nicholas Hausmann, November 17, 1524, 258–260.
informed him of the malicious things: Ibid., vol. 2, no. 651, Luther to Nicholas Gerbel, December 17, 1524, 272–274.
To the Christians at Strassburg: Luther’s Works, vol. 40, 65–71; “loose, lame,” 68; “glad that he,” 69; Christ “finds not only,” 66; “fanaticism,” “new prophets,” 66–67. (Strassburg is the German version of the city’s name.)
Against the Heavenly Prophets: Ibid., vol. 40, 79–223; “Karlstadt has deserted us,” 79; “that he has a perverted spirit,” 82; a “murderous weapon,” 106; Luther mocked Karlstadt, 117; It was not necessary, 131–132; “in a Karlstadtian manner,” 89; For page after page, 154–186; “The ass’s head,” 162; Karlstadt latched on to, 186–187.
“displeases almost everyone”: Luther’s Correspondence, vol. 2, no. 669, to John Schwebel, March 30, 1525, 302–303.
Gerbel rued the fact: Ibid., vol. 2, 345, introductory note.
“I owe a book”: Ibid., vol. 2, no. 666, March 26, 1528, 298–299.
the agitation in the German southwest: Blickle, Revolution of 1525, 97–99.
the Baltringen Haufen: Scott and Scribner, German Peasants’ War, 25–27
, 122–126; Bax, Peasants War in Germany, 55–56.
Sebastian Lotzer: Barbara Bettina Gerber, “Sebastian Lotzer: An Educated Layman in the Struggle for Divine Justice,” in Goertz, Profiles of Radical Reformers; “Whoever has two coats,” 75. On Memmingen, see Blickle, Revolution of 1525, 105ff.
The Twelve Articles: The document is in Scott and Scribner, German Peasants’ War, 252–257. See also Friedenthal, Luther, 414–415; Brecht, Shaping and Defining, 174.
the Twelve Articles were reprinted: Pettegree, Brand Luther, 238–239; Blickle, Revolution of 1525, 18.
When the Twelve Articles arrived: Bax, Peasants War in Germany, 77; Bak, German Peasant War of 1525, 10–13.
the abbey of Ottobeuren: Govind P. Sreenivasan, “The Social Origins of the Peasants’ War in Upper Swabia,” Past and Present, 171: 30–65, May 2001.
the lords were like “old women”: Quoted in Scott and Scribner, German Peasants’ War, 151–152.
George von Waldburg: Ibid., 57–58.
The first major encounter: Ibid.
Hans Müller led a campaign: Ibid., 135–136.
Müller’s sights were set on Freiburg: Ibid., 187–189.
“Everything here”: Quoted in Johannes Janssen, History of the German People at the Close of the Middle Ages, vol. 4, 244–245.
spilling westward across the Rhine: Bax, Peasants War in Germany, 222–227; Francis Rapp, “The Social and Economic Prehistory of the Peasant War in Lower Alsace,” in Bob Scribner and Gerhard Benecke, eds,. The German Peasant War of 1525—New Viewpoints, 52–62; Scott and Scribner, German Peasant War, 44–49; Baylor, German Reformation, 44–45; Chrisman, Strasbourg and the Reform, 145–151.
into Franconia: Rudolf Endres, “The Peasant War in Franconia,” in Scribner and Benecke, German Peasant War of 1525, 63–83; Bax, Peasants War in Germany, 154–186; Scott and Scribner, German Peasants’ War, 28–36.
In Nuremberg: Strauss, Nuremberg in the Sixteenth Century, 174–177.
Rothenburg, became: G. H. Williams, Radical Reformation, 68–73; Scott and Scribner, German Peasants’ War, 28–29; Janssen, History of the German People, vol. 4, 252–257; Roy L. Vice, “Ehrenfried Kumpf, Karlstadt’s Patron and Peasants’ War Rebel,” Archiv für Reformationsgeschichte, 86: 153–174, 1995; Bax, Peasants War in Germany, 155–158.
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