untitled

The Scandal of Religion

Luther and Public Speech in the Reformation

Anto ́nia Szabari

Although Luther is generally viewed as the creator of a homogeneous,
modern German vernacular, after even a cursory sampling of passages
in his immense oeuvre, one is struck by how artificial, hybrid, and
strange his language is. Luther mixes Latin and German, biblical refer-
ences and vernacular idioms, and blessings and curses. This mixing of
registers was not entirely unprecedented in the sixteenth century—for
example, the French author Rabelais did the same—but its effect on
public speech was. Trained in the liberal arts and in the canonical litera-
ture of the Church, and being a particularly astute reader and translator
of the Bible, Luther was familiar with widely different languages and
rhetorical conventions, which he both skillfully exploited and drove to
their limit. But his oddest idiom, the one I undertake to analyze in this
essay, may be the hybrid of pious and (from the Church’s point of view)
blasphemous language. It is aptly illustrated by the following statement,
from a pamphlet entitledAgainst the Murderer of Dresden:

For I am unable to pray without at the same time cursing [fluchen].

If I am prompted to say ‘‘Hallowed be Thy name,’’ I must add

‘‘Cursed, damned, and outraged [verflucht, verdampt, geschendet

mu ̈sse werden] be the name of papists and of all those who slander

[lestern] your name.’’ If I am prompted to say, ‘‘Thy Kingdom

come,’’ I must perforce add, ‘‘Cursed, damned, and destroyed must

be [verflucht, verdampt, versto ̈ret mu ̈sse werden] the papacy together

with all earthly kingdoms that are against your kingdom.’’ If I am

prompted to say, ‘‘Let there be Thy will,’’ I must also add, ‘‘Cursed,

damned, outraged, and destroyed be [Verflucht verdampt, geschen-

det und zu nichte mu ̈ssen werden] all the ideas and attacks of the

papists and of all those who strive against your will and decision.’’

PAGE 122

122

.................16224$ $CH4 10-13-06 12:34:30 PS