Fatal Discord

by Michael Massing

  CHAPTER 41: THE CRACK-UP

  was now a place of bustle: Stjerna, Women and the Reformation, 51–70; Brecht, Shaping and Defining, 201–211, 429–433; Friedenthal, Luther, 441.

  “If it gets too loud”: Luthers Werke, Tischreden, vol. 1, no. 148, 70.

  “an odd assortment”: Quoted in Friedenthal, Luther, 443.

  this Table Talk: Luther’s Works, vol. 54; “simpler and more attached,” 309; “a disgraceful nuisance,” 371; “If I had a hundred sons,” 236; “Oh, if I could only pray,” 38; “made me wide awake,” 445; “I know no doctor,” 72; “Erasmus is an eel,” 19; “I hate Erasmus,” 84; “Substance and words,” 245. Marius (Martin Luther, 442) observes of Luther that Erasmus was “the man whom he probably hated as much as any enemy he encountered in his lifetime.”

  Karlstadt had tried to make a living: See Luther’s Correspondence, vol. 2, no. 805, Andreas Karlstadt to Elector John of Saxony, August 12, 1528, 453–454; “Bodenstein von Karlstadt, Andreas,” in The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Reformation.

  “Doctor, why don’t you”: Quoted in Bainton, Here I Stand, 235.

  “eloquence in women”: Luther’s Works, vol. 54, “Table Talk,” 317. “Men have broad shoulders,” 8.

  sometimes called her Kette: Bainton, Here I Stand, 227.

  She had to rise at four: Friedenthal, Luther, 440; Martin Brecht, Martin Luther: The Preservation of the Church, 240–243.

  “The lady of the pig market”: See, for instance, Luther’s Works, vol. 50, no. 290, July 2, 1540, 208.

  “I wouldn’t give up: Ibid., vol. 54, “Table Talk,” 7.

  usually addressed her husband as “Mr. Doctor”: Roper, Martin Luther, 271.

  master of the Dreckapotheke: Brecht, Shaping and Defining, 429–430; Friedenthal, Luther, 447–448.

  It “is the pleasantest”: Luther’s Works, vol. 54, 218; “Imagine,” 161; “the divine institution,” 223.

  was providing an alternative: Stjerna, Women and the Reformation, 69.

  giving rise to a new institution: MacCulloch, Reformation, 631; Roper, Martin Luther, 286. Luther, Roper observes, “is often credited with having created the modern, companionate marriage after centuries in which monastic writings had presented married life as the spiritually lesser option, though “what he understood by marriage is often very surprising and very alien.”

  “The peasants learn nothing”: Luther’s Correspondence, vol. 2, no. 816, to Spalatin [January 15] 1529, 464.

  to produce a catechism: Kirsi I. Stjerna, introduction, The Large Catechism of Dr. Martin Luther, 1529, in The Annotated Luther, vol. 2, Word and Faith, 279–288; Timothy J. Wengert, introduction, The Small Catechism, 1529, in The Annotated Luther, vol. 4, Pastoral Writings, ed. Mary Jane Haemig, 201–211; Bainton, Here I Stand, 263–264; Brecht, Shaping and Defining, 275–280; “Catechism,” in The Encyclopedia of the Lutheran Church; “Catechisms,” in New Catholic Encyclopedia.

  “Let everyone be subject”: Small Catechism, in Annotated Luther, vol. 4, 239–241.

  it was every father’s duty: Large Catechism, in Annotated Luther, vol. 2, 294–295.

  Luther himself would recite parts: Large Catechism, in Annotated Luther, vol. 2, 290.

  create a model for German households: Luther, Bainton writes in Here I Stand (233), “did more than any other person to determine the tone of German domestic relations for the next four centuries.”

  the 1529 Diet of Speyer: Ibid., 248; Holborn, History of Modern Germany, vol. 1, 208–209; Hillerbrand, Reformation, 376.

  sent Zwingli a letter: Luther’s Correspondence, vol. 2, no. 826, April 22, 1529, 473–474.

  “shameless insistence”: Ibid., vol. 2, no. 841, to John Brismann, July 31, 1529, 488–489.

  The Marburg Colloquy: For reports on this event, see Luther’s Works, vol. 38, “The Marburg Colloquy and the Marburg Articles,” 5–89. See also Edwards, Luther and the False Brethren, 104–111; Bornkamm, Luther in Mid-Career, 635–661; Bainton, Here I Stand, 248–251; Friedenthal, Luther, 503–506; Brecht, Shaping and Defining, 325–334; Schwiebert, Luther, 695–714. For firsthand reports by Luther and his colleagues, see Luther’s Correspondence, vol. 2, no. 850, Luther to Nicholas Gerbel, October 4, 1529, 495–496; no. 851, Luther to Katharina Luther, October 4, 1529, 496–497; no. 852, Justus Jonas to William Reifenstein [October 4, 1529], 497–499; no. 853, Melanchthon to Elector John [October 4, 1529], 500; no. 855, Luther to John Agricola, October 12, 1529, 500–501; no. 858, Luther to Wenzel (Wenceslas) Link, October 28, 1529, 503–504.

  “tangled, matted” dialect: Quoted in Friedenthal, Luther, 505. See also Luther’s Works, vol. 54, “Table Talk,” 376.

  proved more intractable: Friedenthal, Luther, 505; Brecht, Shaping and Defining, 329–333; Luther’s Works, vol. 38, 15ff.

  Luther scribbled something in chalk: Luther’s Works, vol. 38, 67. See also Edwards, Luther and the False Brethren, 108; Friedenthal, Luther, 505.

  “They were humble”: Luther’s Correspondence, vol. 2, no. 855, October 12, 1529, 501.

  would become fixed in place: Potter, in Zwingli (341–342), observes that “the story of the relations between Luther and Zwingli is one of the saddest in the history of religion.” The repercussions of their differences at Marburg “are felt in the twentieth century, for such is the power of history.”

  his growing distemper: Brecht, Shaping and Defining, 288–290, 433–439.

  “grievous consequences”: Luther’s Correspondence, vol. 2, no. 866, Elector John to Luther, January 18, 1530, 512–513.

  “one single Christian truth”: Ibid., vol. 2, no 871, Elector John to Luther, Jonas, Bugenhagen, and Melanchthon, March 14, 1530, 522–524. See also Luther’s Works, vol. 49, no. 205, Luther to Nicholas Hausmann, April 18, 1530, 280–287, including the introductory note, 280–283, which describes the preparations for the diet; Brecht, Shaping and Defining, 369–372.

  stayed in the Coburg castle: On Luther’s time there, see Brecht, Shaping and Defining, 372–379; Bornkamm, Luther in Mid-Career, 667–669; Smith, Life and Letters of Martin Luther, 247–262.

  in “the wilderness”: See, for instance, Luther’s Works, vol. 49, 304.

  “This place is extremely pleasant”: Ibid., vol. 49, no. 206, to Melanchthon [April 24] 1530, 287–291.

  “magnanimous kings”: Luther’s Works, vol. 49, no. 207, to Spalatin [April 24] 1530, 292–295.

  overcome by anxiety: On Melanchthon’s time in Augsburg, see Manschreck, Melanchthon, 177–209.

  hundreds of mercenaries: Luther’s Works, vol. 49, 317.

  Eck had drafted: Manschreck, Melanchthon, 178–180; M. Reu, The Augsburg Confession: A Collection of Sources with an Historical Introduction, 56–64.

  “pleases me very much”: Luther’s Works, vol. 49, no. 208, to Elector John, May 15, 1530, 295–299.

  the letters dried up: Ibid., vol. 49, no. 212, to Melanchthon, June 5, 1530, 316–319. See also Brecht, Shaping and Defining, 374–376.

  “a place for pilgrimage”: Luther’s Works, vol. 49, no. 211, June 5, 1530, 314.

  he wrote a touching letter: Ibid., vol. 49, no. 214 [around June 19, 1530], 321–324.

  word arrived that his father had died: Ibid., vol. 49, no. 212, to Melanchthon, June 5, 1530, 318–319. See also Brecht, Shaping and Defining, 378.

  Veit Dietrich later observed: Bornkamm, Luther in Mid-Career, 679.

  complaining in one to Melanchthon: Luther’s Works, vol. 49, no. 215, June 29, 1530, 324–333.

  Charles’s tardiness: Holborn, History of Modern Germany, vol. 1, 211; Elton, Reformation Europe, 96–98.

  the Turks: Elton, Reformation Europe, 98–101.

  one of the most sumptuous pageants: Friedenthal, Luther, 486.

  met with some of the leading delegates: Ibid., 487; Luther’s Works, vol. 49, 339.

  sent a series of letters: See, for instance, Collected Works of Erasmus, vol. 16, nos. 2341 and 2343; vol. 17, no. 2366. See also Froude, Life and Letters of Erasmus, 379ff; Smith, Erasmus, 360–3
63; Augustijn, Erasmus, 179–180; Bainton, Erasmus of Christendom, 262–264.

  How France had been ravaged!: Collected Works of Erasmus, vol. 17, no. 2366, to Lorenzo Campeggi, August 18, 1530, 27.

  his twenty-one articles of faith: Philip Schaff, ed., The Creeds of Christendom, vol. 3, The Evangelical Protestant Creeds (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1931, 1993), 3–73.

  theologians met to revise it: Manschreck, Melanchthon, 191–192.

  The Confessio Augustana: Reu, Augsburg Confession, 109–113; Manschreck, Melanchthon, 193–194; “Augsburg Confession,” in The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Reformation.

  “Those great cares”: Smith, Life and Letters of Martin Luther, to Melanchthon, June 27, 1530, 257–258; Luther’s Works, vol. 49, no. 215, to Melanchthon, June 29, 1530, 324–332.

  submitted a fierce confession of his own: Roper, Martin Luther, 334–335; Bainton, Here I Stand, 253; Manschreck, Melanchthon, 198–199.

  appointed a group of theologians: Reu, Augsburg Confession, 120–127; Manschreck, Melanchthon, 199.

  a committee was formed: Luther’s Works, vol. 49, no. 229, introductory note, 403–406; Manschreck, Melanchthon, 201ff; Brecht, Shaping and Defining, 402–405.

  “If we yield a single one”: Smith, Life and Letters of Martin Luther, 261–262.

  he set to work preparing: Manschreck, Melanchthon, 206.

  declared a recess: Holborn, History of Modern Germany, vol. 1, 214; Reu, Augsburg Confession, 133; Brecht, Shaping and Defining, 405–407.

  the central creed of the Lutheran church: “Augsburg Confession,” in The Encyclopedia of the Lutheran Church. The Confession is such a “clear and courageous testimony of evangelical faith,” this entry states, “that after more than four centuries it is still the principal ‘symbol’ of the Lutheran Church, holding a position second only to the Scriptures themselves.”

  It would also influence: “Augsburg Confession,” in New Catholic Encyclopedia.

  Luther finally left Coburg: Luther’s Works, vol. 49, 422; Brecht, Shaping and Defining, 407.

  the rump of the diet: Elton, Reformation Europe, 102.

  Philip of Hesse invited: Friedenthal, Luther, 492–493; Brecht, Shaping and Defining, 414–415; Elton, Reformation Europe, 104.

  CHAPTER 42: MADNESS

  “I like this well-mannered city”: Collected Works of Erasmus, vol. 15, no. 2151, April 25, 1529, 211–212.

  “Letter Against False Evangelicals”: Ibid., vol. 16, xviii; vol. 17, xv.

  sent along with the codex a note: Quoted in Smith, Erasmus, 411–414. See also “Rabelais, François,” in Contemporaries of Erasmus.

  “There is peace nowhere”: Collected Works of Erasmus, vol. 16, no. 2249, to Giambattista Egnazio [January] 1530, 120; no. 2263, to Cuthbert Tunstall, January 31, 1530, 165.

  learned the fate of Louis de Berquin: Ibid., vol. 15, no. 2188, to Karel Uutenhove, July 1, 1529, 320–331. See also “Berquin, Louis de,” in Contemporaries of Erasmus.

  “completely free”: Collected Works of Erasmus, vol. 15, no. 2188, 323; “It sets a strange precedent,” 330; To “condemn,” 331.

  “I feel sorry for the Anabaptists”: Ibid., vol. 16, no. 2341, to [Lorenzo Campeggi], July 7, 1530, 367–368.

  The Anabaptists represented: On the Anabaptists, see Bainton, Reformation of the Sixteenth Century, 95–109; “Anabaptists,” in The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Reformation; Elton, Reformation Europe, 60–67; G. H. Williams, Radical Reformation, 118–148; Ozment, Age of Reform, 328–332.

  consider Erasmus their spiritual father: See, for instance, G. H. Williams, Radical Reformation, 8–14, 34–35.

  Their true forebear was Karlstadt: See “Karlstadt,” in Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online, at http://gameo.org/index.php?title=Karlstadt,_Andreas_Rudolff-Bodenstein_von_(1486–1541). Karlstadt, this entry notes, “became the first Reformer to develop a Baptist theology. He wielded a seminal influence, especially among nonresistant Anabaptists.”

  first appeared in and around Zurich: See Potter, Zwingli, 167–188; Holborn, History of Modern Germany, vol. 1, 178–181.

  Felix Mantz: Potter, Zwingli, 187; G. H. Williams, Radical Reformation, 142–146.

  the Anabaptists were determined to carry on: Elton, Reformation Europe, 61.

  after the 1529 Diet of Speyer: Holborn, History of Modern Germany, vol. 1, 179.

  six relapsed Anabaptists: Brecht, Shaping and Defining, 338–339.

  Melanchthon prepared an enthusiastic endorsement: Bainton, Here I Stand, 294–296; “Although it seems cruel,” 295. See also Brecht, Preservation, 34–39; Walker, History of the Christian Church, 455; “Martin Luther,” in Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online, at http://gameo.org/index.php?title=Luther,_Martin_(1483–1546).

  an estimated eight hundred Anabaptists: MacCulloch, Reformation, 163.

  the infamous case of Münster: Ibid., 199–206.

  “Some they have hanged”: At www.mennosimons.net/horsch06.html.

  The Mennonites: Holborn, History of Modern Germany, vol. 1, 180–181.

  he became increasingly autocratic: Friedenthal, Luther, 500–501, 505; “There is fear,” 506. See also Bainton, Reformation of the Sixteenth Century, 86–90.

  Zwingli wanted to evangelize all of Switzerland: Friedenthal, Luther, 506–507; Bainton, Reformation of the Sixteenth Century, 90–94.

  declared war on Zurich: Potter, Zwingli, 390–415; Ozment, Age of Reform, 338; MacCulloch, Reformation, 171–172.

  he, too, was dead: “Oecolampadius, Johannes,” in Contemporaries of Erasmus.

  sent a servant to England: Collected Works of Erasmus, vol. 16, 64, note 16; no. 2253, to Juan de Vergara [January 13, 1530], 125.

  his Dialogue Concerning Heresies: See Ackroyd, Life of Thomas More, 279–283. See also Marius, Thomas More, 338–350; “is lawful, necessary, and well done,” 347.

  issued a decree in the king’s name: Bobrick, Wide as the Waters, 128.

  A follow-up decree: Ackroyd, Life of Thomas More, 300; Marius, Thomas More, 387.

  Thomas Hitton: Ackroyd, Life of Thomas More, 299; Marius, Thomas More, 395–396; Daniell, William Tyndale, 182.

  Stokesley would become known: Ackroyd, Life of Thomas More, 300; Daniell, William Tyndale, 183.

  how he went about intercepting letters: Ackroyd, Life of Thomas More, 300; Marius, Thomas More, 395.

  Answer unto Sir Thomas More’s Dialogue: Daniell, William Tyndale, 269–274.

  Tyndale continued to translate: Edwards, William Tyndale, 111–114; Bobrick, Wide as the Waters, 117; Daniell, William Tyndale, 283–315.

  no less pathbreaking: Bobrick, Wide as the Waters, 118–121; Daniell, William Tyndale, 288–291. Tyndale’s Pentateuch is available at http://archive.org/details/williamtyndalesf00tynd.

  included marginal glosses: Edwards, William Tyndale, 116.

  a book smuggler named George Constantine: Ackroyd, Life of Thomas More, 304–305; Marius, Thomas More, 402–404.

  “like a dog returning to his vomit”: Quoted in Marius, Thomas More, 403.

  at least four and perhaps six people: Elton, “Sir Thomas More and the Opposition to Henry VIII,” in Sylvester and Marc’hadour, Essential Articles for the Study of Thomas More, 81ff; Leland Miles, “Persecution and the Dialogue of Comfort: A Fresh Look at the Charges Against Thomas More,” Journal of British Studies, 5(1): 19–30, November 1965; Ackroyd, Life of Thomas More, 306.

  The Obedience of a Christian Man: Daniell, William Tyndale, 209, 223ff. “This is the book for me”: Ackroyd, Life of Thomas More, 284.

  Henry began an aggressive campaign: Scarisbrick, Henry VIII, 236–237, 245, 287ff; Maynard Smith, Henry VIII and the Reformation, 47ff.

  Henry had abandoned: Neville Williams, Henry VIII and His Court, 117–118.

  Gaining Luther’s approval: Scarisbrick, Henry VIII, 400–401; Brecht, Shaping and Defining, 422; Luther’s Works, vol. 50, no. 245, to Robert Barnes [September 3, 1531], 27–40.

  More (claiming ill health) resigned:
Marius, Thomas More, 415.

  Simon Grynaeus: “Grynaeus, Simon,” in Contemporaries of Erasmus.

  More explained his reasons: Thomas More: Selected Letters, ed. Elizabeth Frances Rogers (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1961), no. 44, June 14, 1532, 172–177.

  The Confutation of Tynda le’s Answer: Ackroyd, Life of Thomas More, 307–311; Marius, Thomas More, 424–428; Bobrick, Wide as the Waters, 113; Edwards, William Tyndale, 125–129; Teems, Tyndale, 192–195. Teems notes that More and Tyndale between them introduced more than five hundred words into the English language.

  Cromwell was an Erasmian: Scarisbrick, Henry VIII, 303. As Bainton observes in Erasmus of Christendom (279), Cromwell “initiated an extensive program of translation” of Erasmian works “in order to bolster the Henrician reform.” See also “Cromwell, Thomas,” in Contemporaries of Erasmus.

  England would gradually adopt: Scarisbrick, Henry VIII, 398–399; King, English Reformation Literature, 48.

  enlarging More’s spy network: Bobrick, Wide as the Waters, 141–142.

  did not even attend her christening: Scarisbrick, Henry VIII, 323–324.

  Cromwell in 1534 helped push Parliament: Ibid., 392ff; Ackroyd, Life of Thomas More, 356–357.

  was arrested and sent by river to the Tower: Ackroyd, Life of Thomas More, 359ff.

  a series of interrogations: Ibid., 384ff.

  More received a final trial: Ibid., 399ff.; Marius, Thomas More, 504–514.

  asked the king to authorize: Bobrick, Wide as the Waters, 142–149; “Cromwell, Thomas,” in The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Reformation.

  would not be around to see it: Bobrick, Wide as the Waters, 131–135.

  “In the death of More”: Froude, Life and Letters of Erasmus, 419; Smith, Erasmus, 418–419.

  Damião de Goes: Opus epistolarum Des Erasmi Roterodami, ed. P.S. Allen, vol. 11, no. 3085, January 26, 1536, 270.

  “Would that he had never mixed”: Ibid., vol. 11, no. 3048, to Bartholomew Latomus, August 24, 1535, 216; Smith, Erasmus, 417.

  a commentary on Psalm 83: Collected Works of Erasmus, vol. 65, “On Mending the Peace of the Church,” 134–216; “Heresy, heresy!” 199; “do nothing by violent or disorderly means,” 213; “If then we temper,” 216. The psalm itself is translated at 132–133. See also Halkin, Erasmus, 249–251.