stood up against the Pope, why should I yield to his creature?" At the same time he addressed a
sharp letter to the archbishop (Dec. 1), and reminded him that by this time he ought to know that
indulgences were mere knavery and trickery; that Luther was still alive; that bishops, before
punishing priests for marrying, better first expel their own mistresses. He threatened him with the
issue of the book against the Idol of Halle. The archbishop submitted, and made a humble apology
in a letter of Dec. 21, which shows what a power Luther had acquired over him.^418
§ 62. Luther’s Translation of the Bible.
I. Dr. Martin Luther’s Bibelübersetzung nach der letzten Original-Ausgabe, kritisch bearbeitet von
H. E. Bindseil und H. A. Niemeyer. Halle, 1845–55, in 7 vols. 8°. The N. T. in vols. 6 and 7.
A critical reprint of the last edition of Luther (1545). Niemeyer died after the publication of the
first volume. Comp. the Probebibel (the revised Luther-Version), Halle, 1883. Luther’s Sendbrief
vom Dolmetschen und Fürbitte der Heiligen (with a letter to Wenceslaus Link, Sept. 12, 1530),
in Walch, XXI. 310 sqq., and the Erl. Frkf. ed., vol. LXV. 102–123. (Not in De Wette’s
collection, because of its polemical character.) A defense of his version against the attacks of
the Romanists. Mathesius, in his thirteenth sermon on the Life of Luther.
II. On the merits and history of Luther’s version. The best works are by Palm (1772). Panzer
(Vollständ. Gesch. der deutschen Bibelübers. Luthers, Nürnb. 1783, 2d ed. 1791), Weidemann
(1834), H. Schott (1835), Bindseil (1847), Hopf (1847), Mönckeberg (1855 and 1861), Karl
Frommann (1862), Dorner (1868), W. Grimm (1874 and l884), Düsterdieck (1882), Kleinert
(1883), TH. Schott (1883), and the introduction to the Probebibel (1883). See Lit. in § 17, p.
103.
III. On the pre-Lutheran German Bible, and Luther’s relation to it. Ed. Reuss: Die deutsche
Historienbibel vor der Erfindung des Bücherdrucks. Jena, 1855. Jos. Kehrein (Rom. Cath.):
Zur Geschichte der deutschen Bibelübersetzung vor Luther. Stuttgart, 1851. O. F. Fritzsche in
Herzog, 2d ed., Bd. III. (1876), pp. 543 sqq. Dr. W. Krafft: Die deutsche Bibel vor Luther, sein
Verhältniss zu derselben und seine Verdienste um die deutsche Bibelübersetzung. Bonn, 1883
(25 pages. 4°.) Also the recent discussions (1885–1887) of Keller, Haupt, Jostes, Rachel,
Kawerau, Kolde, K. Müller, on the alleged Waldensian origin of the pre-Lutheran German
version.
The richest fruit of Luther’s leisure in the Wartburg, and the most important and useful work
of his whole life, is the translation of the New Testament, by which he brought the teaching and
example of Christ and the Apostles to the mind and heart of the Germans in life-like reproduction.
It was a republication of the gospel. He made the Bible the people’s book in church, school, and
(^418) Both letters in Walch, XIX. 656 sqq.; Luther’s letter in De Wette, II. 112-115. Comp. Köstlin, I. 485 sq. The usual opinion that
Albrecht revived the traffic in indulgences at Halle seems at least doubtful, and is denied by Albrecht Wolters in his Easter Program, Hat
Cardinal Albrecht von Mainz im J. 1521 den Tetzel’schen Ablasshandel erneuert? Bonn, 1877 (pp. 24). He concludes: "Somit war der
’Abgott,’ welchen Luther bekämpfte, nicht die Erneuerung des Tetzel’schen Ablasshandels, sondern die Wiederaufrichtung der in Sachsen
theils erloschenen, theils erlöschenden alten Ablasslehre, welche der Cardinal durch Ausstellung seiner mit Ablass begnadigten Reliquien
zur Hebung des neuen Stifts und in der Stiftskirche zu Halle im Jahr 1521 versucht hat."