In addition to the hymnals now mentioned, others were published during Luther's lifetime. For in 1538, Mag. Caspar Löner, who was the first Lutheran preacher at Hof in the Voigtland, had such a hymnal printed at Wittenberg with Luther's permission. Enoch Wiedmann, who was rector at Hof, gives information about this hymnal in the preface to the hymnal printed there in 1614. One can also read what there
by in the "Fortgesetzten Sammlung von alten und neuen theologischen Sachen" 1723, p. 192. In 1542, Luther's hymnal in octavo [increased with the "Ordnung der deutschen Meß"] appeared in Leipzig and was 15 sheets thick. Olearius had special information about this hymnal printed in the "Sammlung von alten und neuen theologischen Sachen", 1722, p. II.
[In the same year, 1542, the funeral songs were published in Wittenberg under the title: "Christliche Gesänge lateinisch und deutsch zum Begräbniß. Dr. Mari. Luther. For this Luther made a new preface, in which he also lists a large number of funeral inscriptions and sayings in prose and rhyme. We also believed that this preface should be added to the others already published by Walch, as it is also included in the relevant place in this revised edition.
D. Red.]
Another edition of the Geistliche Lieder, which Luther was responsible for and improved, was published in 1543 or 1544 [This edition has the peculiarity that the year 1543 is given on the title, while the year 1544 is written at the end. But A. J. Rambach describes in his writing "Ueber Luther's Verdienst um den Kirchengesang" another printing of this edition, which has only the year 1543. The hymnal is full of errors and also has the preface of the 1533 edition preprinted twice due to the printer's negligence. It contains five new songs by Luther].
In 1545, an accurate hymnal was printed again in octavo in Leipzig and provided with all kinds of ornaments and pictures, which Luther recommends in the preface: "Therefore, printers do very well to print good songs diligently and make them pleasant for the people with all kinds of ornaments, so that they are stimulated to such joy of faith and sing with pleasure. How then this print of Valentin Pabst is very amusingly prepared. May God grant that the Roman pope, who has caused nothing but weeping, mourning and sorrow in all the world through his damning and unjust words, may be forgiven.
The same one, in the previous message, which is found in the "Continued Collection of Old and Theological Matters", p. 1722. Olearius deals with this in the previously mentioned message, which is found in the "Fortgesetzten Sammlung von alten und neuen theologischen Sachen", 1722, p. 15. In the preface to the "Jubilirenden Lieder-Freude", the same person listed the hymnals that came to light during Luther's lifetime. The cited Leipzig edition of 1545 is also commemorated in von der Hardt's ,,Autographa Lutheri", tom. I, p. 480. See also Georg Serpilius in the "Lieder-Gedanken" and Joh. Fabricius in "Centifolium Luther", p. 293 and 753.
§ XLVll.
The song work that the blessed Luther undertook consisted of three pieces, in that he translated some from Latin into German, prepared others himself and improved some. He did this not without a special government of God. For this had to become a main means by which God blessed the progress of the Reformation work and promoted the spread of the Protestant doctrine. Instead of the Latin hymns that had been used in the service before, he had Luther introduce the German ones, and thus people began to sing in a familiar language, and everyone could understand what he was singing. The songs themselves, which the blessed man sang, are instructive and have a special power to awaken, strengthen, comfort and uplift. They have already proven this on many thousands of souls and are still proving it. The matter is so clear that, even if the admirers of the Roman See have not been able to conceal their hatred of these songs, they have nevertheless followed in Luther's footsteps; indeed, they have had no hesitation in including some of his songs in their hymnals, and have thus borne important witness to the truth. This is shown by Dr. Joh. Friedr. Mayer in the writing "De ecclesia papaea Lutheranae reformat. patrona et client.p. 98, where one can also speak of the reputation of Luther's hymns and of the benefit that was brought about by them in the Christian church, Joh. Con
rad Dannhauer in the "Catechismus-Milch", Thl. VIII, p. 543 sf., Joh. Andr. Schmidt in "Dissertat. de modo propagandi religionem per carmina", which came out at Helmstädt in 1710, p. 10, Joh. Christ. Olearius, in the "Evangelische Lieder-Schatz," Thl. I, p. 1, and Joh. Alb. Fabricius in "Centifol. Luth.", p. 291 sq., and may still add Georg Heinrich Götze in ,,Dissertat. de odio pontificiorum in hymnos Lu- theranae ecclesiae". I have no need to deal with the hymns themselves, which we have to thank Luther for, and to tell in particular when and on what occasion he made each of them, what happened to them, or to investigate whether he was the true author of this and that. For as my intention is not to write a history of Luther's songs, this could not be done well in a preface in which one must speak of many other things at the same time. It is enough that I refer those who demand such a thing to the already existing writings of many learned men. Apart from what one finds in Olearius' "Evangelischer LiederSchatz," Georg Serpilius' "Lieder-Gedanken" and some other writings, especially Johann Caspar Wetzel in the "Historische Lebens-Beschreibung der berühmtesten Lieder-Dichter," Thl. II, p. 106 ff.
Here, in our revised edition, we give Luther's songs completely according to the print produced from the sources by Wackernagel in his great work "Das deutsche Kirchenlied, 1862-1877", Vol. Ill, 1 ff. About Wackernagel's critical work we let him speak himself, by recalling the following passage from the preface to his first work "Das deutsche Kirchenlied" 1841: "The songs of M. Luther appear here in their original form, for almost three centuries for the first time. I could have printed them in order almost all from those hymnals in which they first appeared; however, it was more appropriate to use the last print that M. Luther himself was responsible for, namely that Valentin Babst'sche Gesangbuch of 1545. That the second edition of the same from the year 1547, of which Luther perhaps also saw a part ready,
The first edition, in which the printing errors of the first edition have been corrected, does not deviate from the first edition except in a few orthographic details. A. J. Rambach, in his treatise on M. Luther's merit for the church hymnal, in the appendix of which he includes the hymns of M. Luther, unfortunately could not make use of a single original edition of the same, except for the faulty Joseph Klug'schen of 1543, which Luther, as I have shown, probably rejected himself; the later V. Babst'schen editions of 1557 and 1567, which he still uses, are very inaccurate, as well as the J. Walther'sche Gesangbüchlein of 1544.... The finding of the J. Klug'sche Gesangbuch of 1535 has made it possible for me to determine the chronology of some of M. Luther's songs more exactly; these are the songs 'Gelobet seist du, JEsu Christ' and 'Vom Himmel hoch, da komm ich her', which, because they already occur in that Gesangbuch, are written in 1535 at the latest." The Erl. Ausg. has printed Luther's Lieder Bd. 56, 293-370 after the first edition of Wackernagel's Kirchenlied and has added two songs that are not found in Wackernagel's work, which we also add. For each individual song, the time of its composition by Luther has been added. D. Red.]