About the middle of May 1521.
D. G. Kawerau wrote a very extensive introduction to this writing - in the Weimar edition it takes up twenty-four pages - from which we give a short (often copied verbatim) excerpt below.
The English reformer Johann Wiklef already recognized the pope as the Antichrist, but only in his later years. In his treatise De Christo et suo adversario Antichristo, in twelve "conditiones papae Christo contrariae" or "cases (casus), in which the pope is an adversary against Jesus Christ," he elaborates the contrast between Christ and the antichrist, the pope, in full decisiveness and sharp drawing in picture and counter-picture. Antichrist (he says) is rightly called the one who is contrary to Christ in life and teaching. The first sentence of his series of antitheses reads: Christ is the truth, the pope the principle of lies (in words, writings, works). In part, we already find the same images here as in our Passional, e.g.: Christ chooses poverty, the pope desires worldly splendor; Christ wants his disciples to preach the gospel to the nations, the pope and his followers are enthroned either in the church or in the church.
Christ disdains worldly rule, the pope claims the reign over the kingdoms of the world; Christ is obedient to the emperor, the pope weakens the worldly power; Christ is without pomp and ready to serve (entry into Jerusalem and foot washing), the pope holds splendid court and demands that the emperor also render him servile services (papal cavalcade and kissing the pope's feet) 2c. Nevertheless, we lack any evidence that Wiklef's series of antitheses would have directly influenced Cranach's work or would have been known in Wittenberg. 2)
But, inspired by Wiklef's tract, in Hussite circles the juxtaposition of Christ and the Antichrist did not only go into the Hussite
2) "Cf. Buddensieg, Wiclifs lateinische Streitschriften, 1883. 24th piece: 66 Edristo 6t suo aävorsario ^utiedristo p. 636 ff. 679-692. Also in separate edition, Gotha 1880, p. 16-18. 49-58. G. Lechler, Joh. Wiclif. Leipzig 1872 I, p. 58. Buddensieg, Wiclif und seine Zeit, Halle 1885 p. 160 f. Kawerau,- Einleitung zu der Ausgabe des Passional, Berlin (Grote) 1885 pp. VI-VIII." (Weim. Ausg.)
This was not only the beginning of a series of pamphlets against the papacy, which lasted through the entire sixteenth century, but went one step further and added the image to the word. In 1476, the town scribe of Prague, Procop, tells in his chronicle that those "Germans from Dresden", who held a school in the new town of Prague, especially that Peter, who had advised Jakob von Mies] to dispense the chalice [1414], "carried around boards against the pope, which were provided with writing and pictures: how Christ rides on a donkey, and the apostles follow him barefoot, and the pope goes along with the cardinals made of mules and in splendid clothes" 2c. Another writing from the year 1521 tells of Hus himself that he had the very same picture of the entry into Jerusalem painted in the church on one side, on the other the pope with his retinue in great splendor. "Hus said to the Bohemians: Which do you want to follow, the humble Jesus with his disciples, or do you want to follow the proud hopeful Pope with his golden pieces and adornments?" 2c. From these and other old testimonies it is certain that this image and counter-image, called "old Bohemian", with accompanying inscriptions, dates from pre-Reformation times. Flacius tells of an old book from the middle of the fifteenth century (after 1438), "in which are various pictures: how Christ drives the sellers and the buyers out of the temple, washes the feet of the apostles; how the pope sits on his glorious throne, and of other persons. Also attached to each of these pictures are sayings from the Holy Scriptures, the Fathers and the Decree, which are mostly directed against the ignorance, the shameful life, the various errors of the pope and the clergy, and against their adherence to false doctrine. From this book, as a sample, he shares a verse that was written over the picture that depicted the pope "sitting on his throne and granting various so-called graces to those who ask for them. It is noteworthy that the Leipzig professor of theology Nicolaus Weigel (died 1444) in an expert opinion on a writing of the Franciscan Matthias Döring, 2) in which he criticized the author because of the in it occurring
1) The last two lines of the inscription are found in the penultimate number of this volume, "Description of Court Life."
2) Flacius published his writing in 1550 under the title: Confutatio primatus papae, ante ¦centum annos a quodam pio scripta.
Antitheses on Christ and his vicarius as heretics, accurately describes several pairs of images depicting the contrast between Christ and the pope, putting it beyond doubt that he already had Hussite imagery in mind.
Thus we see that not only the basic idea of the Passion, but also a large part of the antitheses of the Passion existed in word and image before Cranach, and it is possible that one or the other of the earlier antitheses was known in Wittenberg at the time of the publication of the Passion. Relations between Bohemia and Wittenberg had existed since 1519, but it must not be overlooked to what extent Luther's own course of development towards Pabstism and his previous literary work had prepared the way for Cranach's Passional. Only gradually, in his struggle with Rome, had he begun to suspect that it was the power of antichristianity against which he had undertaken to fight. On December 11, 1518, he wrote to Wenceslaus Link (De Wette, Vol. I, 193): "I will send you my little works (nugas), so that you may see whether my suspicion is correct, that that right Antichrist, as Paul describes him [2 Thess. 2], reigns in the Roman court; that he is nowadays worse than the Turks, I believe I can prove." A quarter of a year later, as he was preparing for the Leipzig disputation, he wrote to Spalatin on March 13, 1519 (De Wette, vol. I, 239): "I am also dealing for my disputation with the decrees of the popes, and (I tell you this in your ear) I do not know whether the pope is the antichrist himself or his apostle: so miserably is Christ profaned and crucified by him in the decrees (that is the currency)." These are still confidential remarks that he utters against his best friends. But already three months later, about the middle of June 1519, shortly before the Leipzig Disputation, he publicly testified in the "Erläuterung über seine dreizehnte Thesis von der Gewalt des Pabstes" (Explanation of his thirteenth thesis on the power of the pope) that the pope was the Antichrist who sat in the middle of the temple of God, because the indignation over the lying assertion of canon law that all the churches of the world had been founded from Rome (St. Louis edition, vol. XVIII, 756 ff.), but Peter had received from Christ "the authority both over the earthly and the heavenly kingdom", drives him to the exclamation: "nevertheless we dream that it stands well with the church, and do not recognize the Antichrist in the midst of the temple !" After having read the book of Laurentius Valla, edited by Hütten, "On the Gift
Constantius," he writes to Spalatin on February 24, 1520 (De Wette, vol. I, 420): "I am so cornered [by the impudent lies of the Decretals, which have taken the place of the Articles of Faith] that I almost cannot doubt that the Pope is quite actually that Antichrist whom the world expects according to generally accepted opinion: so much does everything he lives, does, speaks, and orders fit." In the writing "To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation," which appeared in August 1520 (St. Louis Edition, Vol. X, 266), he proves (and this is not the least of the contents of this writing) that antichristianity had become manifest in the Pabst. When Luther sent his writing "Von der Freiheit eines Christenmenschen" (St. Louis edition, vol. XIX, 986 and introduction ibid, p. 45 f.) with a letter to Pope Leo (Nov. 1520), he reminded him (De Wette, vol. I, 514) "how unequal Christ and his governors are," and boldly put the question to him: "What might such a pope be but a final Christian and an idol?" Luther responded to the papal bull of excommunication against him in about November 1520 (compare Luther's letter to Spalatin of Nov. 4, 1520, De Wette, vol. I, 521) with the writing "Wider die Bulle des Endchrists," which he published in both Latin and German (Walch, old edition, vol. XV, 1732). On Dec. 10, 1520, Luther publicly burned canon law, and justified this in the writing that went out before the end of the year (Walch, old edition, vol. XV, 1927): "Warum des Pabsts und seiner Jünger Bücher verbrannt sind." (Why the Pope's and his disciples' books are burned). In it he indicates thirty "articles and errors in spiritual law and papal books," "therefore they are to be burned and avoided," to which he mostly contrasts Bible words. A number of these sentences recur in the Passional. Therefore, this writing, along with "To the Christian Nobility," seems to have been the direct model for Cranach's Passional 1).
For the history of the origin of our Passionale we have only scanty testimonies at our disposal, namely two passages from Luther's letters. The first from a letter to Spalatin, dated March 7.
1) The word "Passional" has long been used to refer not only specifically to the history of the Passion, but also to the history of the life of Christ, Mary, and the saints. These books were traditionally equipped with woodcuts; thus the word "Passional" gets the meaning: a picture book on the history of Christ or the saints. (Weim. Edition)
1521 (one day after the imperial citation to Worms had been drawn up), reads (De Wette, vol. I, 571): Has effigies jussit Lucas a me subscribi et ad te mitti. Jam paratur Antithesis figurata Christi et Papae, bonus 2) pro laicis liber. [[Lucas (Cranach) has asked me to sign these images and send them to you; you will get them (to the Churfürst?). Now the juxtaposition of Christ and the Pope in pictures; a good book for the laity]. Until recent times, this entire passage was referred to the Passional, as Aurifaber already understood it in the Eisleben Collection, Vol. I, Bl. 44k, where he writes: "These figures of the kingdom of the Lord Christ and Antichrist are by Lucas Cranach the Elder, and the signature of D. Martin Luther, as the holy man of God himself testifies in the first Latin tome of his epistles" (Aurifaber's collection of letters, tom. I, kok 313 k). He was followed by Seckendorf (Hist. Luth., lib. I, § XCI (3)), who says that the famous painter Lucas Cranach dared to cut images in wood, which depicted the opposite behavior of Christ and the Antichrist: "to these images (he says) Luther added inscriptions, and sent them to Spalatin on March 7". According to this, this view did not only prevail in the literature, but further things were added. The biographer of Cranach, Johann Heller, writes: "From Luther's writings it is known that he saw these illustrations beautifully executed in colors [Has effigies!] by Cranach, and that he took care of their publication, which he then provided with suitable text. He sent such a copy to G. Spalatin on May 7 [read: March] 1521. The first edition appeared in February 1521." One then probably referred the first sentence of that letter to the German, the second to the Latin edition of our writing, and thus dated the appearance of the latter to February, and had then also gained a certain statement about Luther's share in Cranach's work. But with an unbiased reading, the justification to understand Has effigies of the same pictures as Antithesis figurata falls away. If by Antithesis the Latin edition is meant, then it would be surprising that this and not the German edition would be praised as "a good book for the laity". However, it cannot be denied that the designation used here for the Passional corresponds almost literally with the title of the Latin edition.
2) In the editions: Cone ot; in the original ot is missing.
The painting is in accordance with the book. - It should also be mentioned here that in the Zimmer Chronicle it is reported that the Spaniards smashed and destroyed Cranach's paintings in Torgau Castle in 1547 because they contained "the comparison of Christ and the Pope", "as such went out in print years ago". Then we would have the pictures of the Passion, painted by Cranach, which might have been sent to Spalatin. But this news loses its credibility by the fact that the Spaniards did not come to Torgau at that time; the passage remained denied to the imperial troops. King Ferdinand, however, who came to the city with his sons and let himself be led into the castle to see whether, as had been announced, all kinds of defamatory and mocking pictures of the emperor and the pope were hung up in the manorial rooms, found none of them. There can be no doubt that the last sentence of the passage quoted from Luther's letters refers to the Passional, but the first sentence: Has effigies etc. does not. Therefore, Knaake raised the objection in 1871 that this sentence does not refer to the pictures of the Passion, but to individual pictures, which Luther took over from Cranach, for example, for further transportation to the Elector. It will not be possible to determine what kind of pictures they were. In any case, the expression effigies leads to individual pictures, not to a writing decorated with illustrations. Knaake's assumption has recently found more and more general approval. 1) All that we can gather with certainty from the quoted passage in the letter is that Luther knew about the creation and preparation of our writing, that he approved of the plan of the same, and that on March 7, one was busy in Wittenberg with the production of the Passionale; and with great probability it follows that Cranach, the maker of the first mentioned pictures, would also have made those of the Passionale. The pictures of the Passionals do not bear Cranach's mark, because the book was published anonymously, but they do show Cranach's hand, as Cranach's most recent biographer, Lindau, judged.
More is offered by the second passage, which is found in a letter of Luther to Melanchthon, dated May 26, 1521. From the Wartburg, Luther writes (De Wette, Vol. II, 9): Passionale anti- theton mire placet. Joh. Schwertfeger in ea opera video tibi succenturiatum [The Passio-
1) Duties with him: Lenz, Kawerau, Kolde, Enders, Lehfeldt and others.
nal in image and counter-image pleases me quite extraordinarily. I see that Johann Schwertfeger has helped you with this work]. Here we are talking about the German edition, whose title Luther mentions. The extremely high praise that he gives to this work leads to the assumption that he does not consider himself to be the editor, since it is otherwise his manner to express himself very reservedly or even disparagingly about his own work. Furthermore, we see that Luther knows about the collaboration of Melanchthon and Schwertfeger. It cannot be doubted that Melanchthon's work is to be sought in the biblical passages, that of the Wittenberg jurist Schwertfeger in the passages from canon law. We will not be mistaken if we attribute the translation of the biblical passages to Melanchthon, since the translation of the same is obviously not by Luther. Furthermore, it is clear that a finished copy of the German edition did not reach Luther's hands until the end of May. From this it follows that the writing was published only now, namely about the middle of May - not already in February or March. This is confirmed by a letter of the Electoral Council Bernhard von Hirschfeld to the Nuremberg Councilman Anton Tücher of May 29. From this letter we learn that the Elector only came across this document when he returned from the Diet of Worms and passed through Würzburg. The Passional must have been sent to him directly from Wittenberg. Hirschfeld, who was one of the Prince's companions, immediately sent a copy to Tücher as a remarkable novelty, which shows that he assumed that the booklet was not yet known in Nuremberg. 2)
Between the time when Luther wrote to Link [March 7, 1521] that our Scripture would be prepared, and the day when he left for Worms [April 3, 1521], there is still almost a whole month, and it can be expected that during this time Luther will also spend a part of his time, which, however, was taken up beyond all measure 3).
2) Concerning a passage from a letter of Duke Johann Friedrich to Spalatin of May 26, 1521: "Martinus [Luther's] Passion pleases me well, shall also remain concealed until our Lord's Resurrection, but in the right way," the Weimar edition notes that the same is erroneously referred to our writing by Cyprian, "Nützliche Urkunden," Vol. II, p. 259, and still by Köstlin, "Martin Luther," Vol. I (3), p. 432. - The word "Passion" will not refer to the Passional, but to Luther's hidden stay at the Wartburg.
3 s From the indicated period are still preserved to us: Fourteen sermons published in the collection of the
Luther had spent a great deal of time and effort on this extremely important writing. How far it had progressed at the time of his departure, and how much Luther had done on the signatures himself, cannot be determined. In any case, the Passional was completed by Melanchthon and Schwertfeger. But the plan for it certainly came from Luther - not from the timid Melanchthon - and Cranach may have been inspired to produce the images not only by Luther's writings, but also by Luther's direct request; we also have to think of Luther as a consultant for image and word. When the Passional was completed, it met with Luther's full approval. Therefore, we have no hesitation in considering this work to be the work of Luther, in spite of the collaboration of others.
All old editions of the Passionale are, as already mentioned, anonymous and have only the title: "Passional Christi und Antichristi" (all in quarto), without indication of time, place and printer, with the only exception of the Low German edition, where at the end is written: "Wittenberg anno 1526." The Weimar edition lists seven different German editions, of which the first two are printed in Wittenberg by Johann Grunenberg, the two following, which contain four more pictures, are (not by Melchior Sachse in Erfurt, but [Weim. Ausg., Vol. IX, p. 699, note 2]) printed in Strasbourg; two others, reprints of the second Wittenberg edition, by Matthes Maler in Erfurt. The Latin edition is entitled Antithesis figurata vitae Christi et Antichristi. The printer is Johann Grunenberg, as in the previously mentioned Wittenberg editions. The woodblocks are the same as in the second German edition, in the last edition of which, first on sheet Bd, a longer break appears in the upper border line of the woodcut, which then also reappears in the Latin edition. From this results un-
Johann Poliander in the Weimar edition fill 75 pages, Weim. Ausg., vol. IX, pp. 601-676; eight letters, which take up 16 pages in the De Wetteschen collection of letters. Furthermore, three large writings came out during this time: "Das Magnificat" (St. Louis edition, vol.VII, 1372-1445), of which three sheets were printed before the departure for Worms and were dedicated and sent to Duke Johann Friedrich; the "Antwort auf das übergeistliche Buch Emsers" (St. Louis edition, vol. XVIII, 1270-1353) and "Luther's Answer to the Book of Ambrosius Catharinus" (St. Louis edition, vol. XVIII, 1434-1583). Luther wrote and completed this last so extensive writing between March 7 (because only shortly before this day this book of Catharinus had come to him through Link [De Wette, vol. 1, 570)) and April 1, where it went out, printed ready, with his letter to Wenceslaus Link.
doubtful the priority of the first German edition and the first edition of the second German edition over the Latin.
The first German edition of the Passionals "is completely facsimilirt in 'Deutsche Drucke älterer Zeit in Nachbildungen' herausgegeben von D. Wilh. Scherer lll. Berlin, Grote. 1885." (Weim. Ausgabe, Vol. IX, p. 690.) The same is provided with an introduction by G. Kawerau. Another reprint was published in 1874 by Robert Hoffmann in Leipzig with the letter of Pope Pius IX and the reply of Emperor Wilhelm. This Leipzig reprint "with pictures by Lucas Cranach the Elder" appeared "reissued and endorsed by C. F. W. Walther, St. Louis, Mo. 1878," at the printing house of the Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and other states (now Concordia Publishing House).
Numerous are the "imitations" of the Passionals. In 1557 and again in 1558, an Antithesis de praeclaris Christi et indignis Papae facinoribus was published in Geneva under the name of the printer Zacharias Durant, in which 18 antitheses are found in 36 woodcuts, of which 25 are copies or imitations of Cranach's, r68p. of the additions in the Strasbourg edition. Under a different title, Eustathius Vignon at Geneva published a Latin edition in 1578, whose images are printed from the same stock as those in the two previous editions. In the same year he also published a French translation: Antithese des faicts de Jesus Christ et du pape etc.. The same was reprinted in 1584, likewise in 1600 with the caption: Imprimi a Rome Pan du grand jubila, M. DC. The Weimar edition also gives the titles of two German imitations, as well as an Italian and a Spanish translation. Sepp, Verboden Lectuur, p. 126, also lists a Dutch one.
The Passional was imitated in a different way in the church of Wilhelmsburg Castle in Schmalkalden. There, in 1587, Landgrave Wilhelm had the painter Georg Krachard depict twenty antitheses between Christ and the Pope in 40 pictures on the parapets of the galleries and on the west wall. Each pair of pictures is accompanied by a biblical passage or a quotation from the Decretals, and, as in the Strasbourg edition, by a Latin hexameter and a German rhyme. For this, the verses of the aforementioned edition are obviously used. In 1608, the pictures were removed from the chapel and moved to the castle in Rotenburg.
brought. In 1641, Duke Ernst the Pious received them as a gift and gave them a place in the library on Friedenstein near Gotha. In 1701, B. G. Struve had described the pictures and published their Latin and German inscriptions; also E. Sal. Cyprian had them still 1718 before eyes and communicated a part of the inscriptions. Since then the pictures have disappeared. The verses have also been preserved in the acts of the Marburg State Archives.
In the collections have our writing with pictures: Die Eislebensche, Vol. I, Bl. 44. The images are mostly printed from the original woodblocks, only images 7 and 17 are mirror reproductions. Image 11, like the second Wittenberg German and Latin editions, shows the Carrying of the Cross. The epilogue is missing, but Aurifaber has included the contents of the same in his introduction. The Altenburger, vol. I, p. 579, has mirror reproductions that are rather poorly executed according to the Eisleben edition. The Weimar edition brings vol. IX, p. 701 ff. the reprint of the text according to the first German Wittenberg edition, and as a supplement at the end of the volume a complete facsimile of the title
sheet, the images and the epilogue of this edition, also the replacement image of the second Wittenberg edition. Without the pictures, the signatures are found in the Leipzig edition, vol. XXII, appendix, p. 76, by Walch and in the Erlangen edition, vol. 63, p. 241. We reproduce the text according to the Weimar edition, the pictures from the plates of Walther's single edition, which are cut after the pictures of the first Wittenberg edition. Similarly, we have placed the German verses of the Strasbourg edition 1) above the images, and the cited passages of canon law (in parentheses) are shown according to part and page of the Cöln edition of 1717 recognized by the Pontiffs.
1) The first Latin hexameter of the Strasbourg edition is rendered thus in the Weimar edition:
Eegna fugit Christus Presulque [Papa imperat orbi.] with the note: "The bracketed is missing, but is so added in handwriting in the copy formerly belonging to D. Knaake." If one scans, one can easily convince oneself that the word is too much. It also does not belong in the verse, but is only a gloss that the scribe has made praesul; in the verse it is to be deleted.