This seventeenth part of Luther's complete writings contains the conclusion of the documents belonging to the history of the Reformation against the papists from the years 1538 to 1546 in four chapters, and the documents against the reformers in six sections. The sixteenth chapter deals with the grievances of the Protestants through the holy covenant established at Nuremberg and the chamber court processes; the seventeenth with the renewed Schmalkaldic Covenant and the actions of England and France with the Schmalkaldic Covenanters; .The eighteenth, on the religious unification sought through various discussions, meetings and imperial congresses; the nineteenth, on two campaigns, one of which was undertaken by the Protestants against Duke Henry of Brunswick, the other by Emperor Carl V against the Schmalkaldic Covenanters. In the second part of this volume, which contains the documents on the disputes with the Reformed, the first section deals with the dispute over Holy Communion; the second, with the disputation at Bern; the third, with Philip's disputation with the Protestants,
The fourth is about the Wittenberg Concord, the fifth about the Sacrament controversy that broke out again in 1542, and the sixth about some special disputes and sects. Luther's major writings in this volume are: No. 1418, "Wider das Pabstthum zu Rom, vom Teufel gestiftet"; No. 1436, "Wider Hans Wurst"; No. 55,1) "Warnungsschrift an die zu Frankfurt, sich vor Zwinglisch er Lehre zu beüten", and No. 136, "Luthers Brief an zwei Pfarrherren von der Wiedertaufe". In addition, 90 of Luther's letters and concerns are included in this volume; all of them, originally written in Latin, have been newly translated.
At the end of the documents against the papists, which belong to the history of the Reformation, we have inserted Luther's "Last Argument" against the theologians of Paris, Louvain and Cologne under No. 1456,
1) Also for the second part of this volume, we have used the Arabic numerals instead of the Roman ones used by Walch. This prevents any confusion between the pieces of the first and second part, because in this volume the pieces against the papists have high numbers (from 1248 to 1455), while those against the reformists run only from 1 to 138.
pin Fragment, which has only recently (1893) been found by D. Buchwald in the university library at Jena. We have translated this writing into German.
We have omitted the duplicates in the old edition, namely in No. 1252 the wording of the Nuremberg Religious Peace, because already printed in Vol. XVI, No. 1202; there the Emperor's approval of the Religious Peace, because already printed in Vol. XVI, No. 1207; No. 64, because already included in No. 41, and No. 2 of the appendix to this volume, because already in our edition, Vol. X, 1533. Added is Luther's letter to Landgrave Philip of Hesse of June 23, 1529 (No. 20d) according to the original, which differs significantly from the previously known redaction. We have completed the documents, which in the old edition of Walch are either deficient or only excerpted, as, No. 1316. 1317. 1376. 1424. 1444 and 120. In two letters of the Protestants to the presidents of the Colloquium at Worms, No. 1337 and No. 1344. 1344, the former written by the theologians and preachers, the latter by the councilors, envoys and ambassadors, it happened (probably already in Walch's draft) that the second part of the former writing forms the conclusion of the latter and vice versa. As a result, the signatures are also mixed up. According to Spalatin's Annals and the Corp. ref. we have reconstructed what belongs together.
and the titles and signatures have been corrected. Many headings are improved, as in No. 1279. 1304. 1422, 21. 44. 57. 65. 67 and 95. Time determinations are partly supplemented, partly corrected in No. 1285. 1289. 1293. 1295. 1303. 35. 60. 62. 63. 84. 100. 101.102. 111. 116. 117. Appendix, No. 5. 6. 9 and 11.
We have also been able to make many improvements in the writings originally written in German, apart from the many misprints that distort the meaning, of which there is no lack in this volume of the old edition. We leave here a selection of the latter. With Walch we find Col. 476: de fide ex operibus instead of: de fide et operibus; 4761) confession of the covenant - Mundes; 528 nobody - ihnen; 539 Schälle - Schelle; 583 wegen - Wegen; 697 schwinen - schirmen; 845 ergebenster - ergester (ärgster); 966 and 967 Cilicien - Sicilien; 1038 Pflegern - Pflegen; 1050 Schlagen - Schlangen; 1086 Nicäa - Nice, likewise Col. 1091 and 1093; 1088 enmity - friendship; 1120 championing - adulterating; 1157 to escape - to oppose; 1227 office-all; 1231 winding up - weighing up; 1307 faith - unbelief; 1357 going - giving; 1386 Apostolic - Apollonian; 1439 words - murdering; 1497 uncertain - certain; 1531 cruelty - cautiousness; 1541 spell -
1) For brevity, we leave the word "Columne" before the numbers and the colon after them, and put a dash for "instead".
Lamb (Christ); 1569 Gemüth - area; 1573 Speis - Spieß; 1595 Gleichheit - Geleit; 1588 and 1619 Rechtsordnung - Reichsordnung; 1618 gemeinte - gemeine; 1646 Richter - Ritter; 1703 nemlich - neulich; 1742 Beförderung - Befriedung; 2419 Prinzen - Brenz; 2473 der Leib - der HErr; 2552 Taufe - Taube; 2611 Heiligen thun - heiligen Thun. One would like to think that already for the sake of such errors a new edition would have been in place, since in the editions, even for the sake of minor defects, not infrequently a document is printed again in its entirety. In the pieces translated from Latin, Walch has many, sometimes gross, translation errors.
We have again included, as with the two previous volumes, a chronological index of the writings contained in this volume, with a date.
Since in the course of the years the index of rare or obsolete words in Luther's writings, which we appended to the 20th volume, has been considerably increased, so that their number now amounts to more than 1200, and since all volumes except the 21st, which contains the letters, have now been published, we have arranged this index according to the number of pages in our edition, and have not neglected the effort of listing each individual state of affairs in our edition.
ort to look it up. It can be found at the end of this volume.
With this volume, by God's grace, the revision of the old edition of the complete writings of D. Martin Luther, published by Walch, is now complete, except for the 21st volume, which contains Luther's letters, to which the editor will now first turn, before he goes to the production of the registers. For the reproduction of the letters we are entirely dependent on the editions published in Germany, because here the sources are not at our disposal, and for the time being this work cannot be demanded further than it has been published so far in the Erlanger Briefwechsel, namely until April 24, 1531. For the rest we have to wait in patience until either the further continuation of the Erlanger Briefwechsel or the edition of Luther's letters promised by Knaake comes into our hands, which, God grant it, may happen in not too distant a time.
May our dear Christians now also diligently read and study the glorious writings of the great man of God, who has again brought forth the holy Word of God to us, for the strengthening and advancement of their faith, for the comfort of their hearts, and for the attainment of the assurance of their eternal blessedness through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, amen.