preached to the people of Wittenberg by Father Martin Luther, Augustinian. *)
Preached from the end of June 1516 to February 24, 1517. Printed in 1518.
Newly translated from the Latin.
Preface [of] B[ruder] S(ebastian) M[ünster]. **)
Many books, both Latin and German, are printed daily, many of which are almost beneficial and useful to the common man; as one finds people who are so hungry and eager for the word of God that they also spend all the remaining time they may have in beneficial books, to draw comfort and instruction from them. For their love, this book is described by the pious, spiritual and highly learned man, D. Martin Luther, who explains the Ten Commandments in such a spiritual, Christian and evangelical way that one does not find anything like it; although many teachers have written about it. There, the spiritual and the secular, the good and the bad, the afflicted and the challenged, the young and the old, the superior and the deaf, all find the ten commandments.
and subject, in short, everyone, how he should go the way (which is the ten commandments), which leads to eternal life. There we find how each commandment is kept according to the letter and according to the spirit. In addition, how each commandment has several degrees and scales 2c. Why is it necessary to write much about this here? If you read through the book, you will find a true Christian and evangelical teacher. And do not be hindered by the fact that it has not been Germanized with flowery and highbrow words; for it has been transferred more for the sake of the simple than for the sake of the polite, and transferred in such a way that the subtleties that the above-mentioned doctor has let run in it have been left to Latin. God be with you.
*Luther preached on the Ten Commandments to a large audience (St. Louis Edition, Vol. XXII, 1716, No. ISO) of the people in Wittenberg from the end of June ISI6 to February 24 ISI7. At the beginning of the last century, a complete Latin manuscript of these sermons by Luther (Weim. Ausg., vol. I, p. 19. Köstlin, Mart. Luther, 3rd ed., vol. I, p. 123) was still available, which was in the possession of Valentin Ernst Löscher. From this manuscript he printed a number of sermons in his "Reformation-Acta," Vol. I, pp. 277-2H9 and pp. 729-795, of which he notes: "These klemm Sermons have only been Exordia to Luther's sermons on the Ten Commandments, "which he held on feast days and Sundays." In the St. Louis edition these exordia are found Vol. XII, 1266-1271; 1724-1829; Vol.X, 198-209; 976-981; 1212-1219; 1276-1297; Vol. XIX, 736-761. It is these exordia which give us a firm guide to the exact timing. Luther's sermon on St. Matthew's Day (February 24) 1517 was, as already noted in our edition, vol. XIX, 754, the last introductory sermon to Luther's lectures on the Ten Commandments. Nothing is known about the whereabouts of the Latin manuscript. But also of the German translation, which Luther mentions in his letter to Johann Lang of November 4, 1517: "I have therefore sent you the interpretation of the Ten Commandments in both languages, so that you, if you wanted, could preach about it to the people" (Walch, St. Louis Edition, Vol. X VIII, 28), we no longer have any trace. The later German translation is, as can be seen from Münster's preface, not by Luther, but by someone else. Luther then took the sermon form from the sermons, and put his treatment into print in 1518. The first Latin edition was published on July 20, 1518 by Johannes Grünenberg (Virickivaontunulll) in Wittmberg under the title: Vsosm prusesptn IVittsnksrMnsi prusäiontn popuio psr U.MarUmim Imtüsr XuAustininnum. In the same year, two reprints were published by Valentin Schumann in Leipzig, and by the same printer in 1519. In the latter year, Melchior Lotther in Leipzig also printed
**This preface is on the back of the title page of the two German translations published by Adam Petri in Basel in 1520. Münster, who belonged to the Franciscan order (Vlinorum cis okssrvuntiu), was at that time Corrector at Petri. The following is reported about him in the Erlanger Briefwechsel, Vol. II, p. 360: "He was born in 1489 at Jngelheim in the Palatinate, studied at Heidelberg and Tübingen, hence known to Melanchthon, belonged to the Franciscan order, which he left in 1529, and died May 23, 1552 in Basel, where he had worked for a long time at the university as a teacher of the Hebrew language." - Münster as well as Conrad Pellicanus, Guardian of the monastery at Pforzheim, were students of the learned Rabbi Elias Levita at Neustadt an der Aisch in Baireuth in the Hebrew language in 1514. (Niederer, nützliche und angenehme Abhandlungen aus der Kirchen-, Bücher- und 'Gelehrtengeschichte, Altdorf 1768, p. 308.)