Incombustible Luther: the Image of the Reformer in Early Modern Germany Author(S): R
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Incombustible Luther: The Image of the Reformer in Early Modern Germany Author(s): R. W. Scribner Source: Past and Present, No. 110, (Feb., 1986), pp. 38-68 Published by: Oxford University Press on behalf of The Past and Present Society Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/650648 Accessed: 01/07/2008 12:19 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=oup. 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For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. http://www.jstor.org INCOMBUSTIBLELUTHER: THE IMAGEOF THE REFORMERIN EARLY MODERN GERMANY* This article seeks to bring together a number of themes in early modernGerman cultural history: how the Reformationchanged the "image culture"of the later middle ages, how it reshapedor was itself shapedby the popular"religious culture" it soughtto reform, and the natureof the "confessionalism"developed in the wakeof the Reformation,all viewedwithin the long time-spanof the period1520 toc. 1800. THE INCOMBUSTIBLE In 1634 a fire consumedthe study of the pastorand dean of Artern, a small town south of Mansfeld.Behind the study door had hung a copper engravedpicture of Luther, which was later found buried deep in the ashes, but miraculouslyunharmed. The pastorsent the picture to the Consistoryin Mansfeld, where it was hung in the audience hall, with the inscription:"The image of Luther, mira- culouslypreserved in a fire at Artern,in the year 1634". This was the first"incombustible Luther". 1 It was joinedsome fifty years later by a second. In 1689 the house in Eislebenwhere Lutherhad been born was badly damagedby fire. The lower storey,where the birth was said to have taken place, was unharmedbut the upper storey was completely burned out. In the ashes was found a portraitof Luther,wholly untouchedby the flames. This portraitwas painted on wood, and depicted Lutherwith the crucifiedChrist to his left, and to his righthis heraldicsymbol, the rose with a heartand a cross * This essayoriginated as a commemorativelecture to markthe Lutherquincenten- aryof 1983. It was firstdelivered to a seminarof the WarburgInstitute, University of London,and subsequentlyto audiencesat the Universitiesof Bristol;Durham; Kent; King'sCollege, London; Newcastle; Sydney; Melbourne; and Perth. I amgrateful for thenumerous helpful comments and suggestions received on thoseoccasions, although the faultsof the essay remainthe responsibilityof the author. 1 "EffigiesLutheri in incendioArterensi anno 1634 mirabiliterservata", cited in ChristianJuncker, Das guEleneund silberneEhren-GedAchtniss des TheurenGottes- LehrersD. MartiniLutheri (Frankfurt and Leipzig, 1706),pp. 260, 271. INCOMBUSTIBLELUTHER 39 set within it. (See Plate 1.) This picture was still hanging in the EislebenLuther-house in 1827.2It is difficultto verifythe historical accuracyof these two incidents. The earliest record of the first "incombustibleLuther" dates only from 1706, that of the second from 1717.3 But historicalaccuracy is in many ways of secondary importancecompared to the very rich symbolicassociations attached to these two images. The idea of an 'iincombustibleLuther" did not originatein the seventeenthcentury. It is first found in 1521, in a pamphletwhich describesLuther's trial at Wormsin termsof Christ'sPassion. At the end of the descriptionLuther is not crucified, but his books are burnedinstead. With them is placed, however,a pictureof Luther on whichis written:"This is MartinLuther, a teacherof the Gospel". To its leftand right are placed pictures of Huttenand Carlstadt, so that the scene becomesan executionin effigy.Miraculously, according to the account, Luther'spicture refuses to burn, until it is placedin a box made of pitch, which then melts into the flames.4 The smell of burningwas very much in the air at that time. In 1519 JohannTetzel was said to have lit a pyre on the marketin Juterbog,as a clear threatto Lutherthat he risked burningby the Inquisition.Luther and Tetzel burnedeach other'stheses, and the bishop of Brandenburgsaid afterthe Leipzig debatethat he would not restuntil Lutherwas consignedto the flames.In 1520Eck wanted to have Luther'sbooks burnedin Ingolstadt,while the papallegate Aleandertried to havethem burned in the majortowns ofthe Empire, althoughhe was successfulonly in Louvain, Cologne and Mainz. However,Luther's books were burned elsewhere, by the Franciscans 2 JustusSchoepffer, Luthenms non combustus sive enarratio de D. M. Lutheroeiusque imaginesingulan providentia dei T.O.M. duplicivice ab igne miraculosaconservata (Wittenberg,1717), p. 36. I am gratefulto EmoryUniversity Library for supplying a copy of this work. For the nineteenth-centuryreference, see ChristianG. Berger, KurzeBeschreibung der Merkwurdigheiten diesich in Eisleben und in Luthers Haus daselbst besondersauf dieReformation und auf D. MartinLuther beziehen (Merseburg, 1827). It was still consideredworthy of mention a century later: G. Kuitzke,Aus Luthers Heimat:Vom Erhalten und Emeu (Jena, 1914), p. 14. 3 I have been unableto find any recordearlier than Juncker,Gulzlene und silberne Ehren-Gedachtniss,whose report was taken over by Schoepffer,Lutherus non combustus, who addedthe secondcase and the tag "incombustibleLuther" (in the German2nd edn.: unverbrannterLuther). Schoepffer was pastorof St. Anna'schurch in Eisleben, so that he naturallygave prominenceto the 1689incident; indeed it may have come to his attentionthrough local traditionafter reading Juncker. 4 DoctorMar. LuthenPassio durch Marcellum beschneben [Augsburg, 1521], repr. in Satiernund Pasquillen aus derReformationszeit, ed. O. Schade,3 vols. (Hanover, 1856), ii, pp. 108-13. W_ j)XSOJWR0 b=7!NE!_ 9FR#>- J. -=?'s'r}wh.:J':..^V W<Dtu' ' '+ ' W-' JA-9 t0 1+83 XWSSCfiu/: t5Zx? S t J* t5VC70R 4t,,, ,, Pe/iJ J7eS ert,Wtstf *s 2)EX .R&H . c SaSs7 *'t'strvVe-vA r d s^20 . cx ) J ) X:.+ I V. Xe.<as>o tevw,fr.Xv a.x., 1. The ;'IncombustibleLuther" of 1689, followingJustus Schoepffer, UnterbrannterLuther (Wittenberg, 1765), facing p. 104. By courtesyof EdinSrgh UniversityLibrary. INCOMBUSTIBLELUTHER 41 in Cottbus, in Halberstadt,in Merseburgand in Meissen ("whole wagon-loads").Luther had been burnedin effigyin Rome in 1519, andthere was a generalfear among his supportersthat his appearance in Wormsmight lead him to the same fate as John Hus.5 This may be alludedto in inscriptionson some Lutherportraits of 1520-1,that Luthermay be mortal,but his messagewould not die.6 There was also a medallionstruck in these years, showingLuther's portraiton the obverseand on the reversea phoenixrising from the ashes.7In 1521 Luther'sportrait (it seems to have been a painting, fromthe report)was burnedat Worms,8and this mayhave suggested the idea of an "incombustibleLuther" used in the 1521 pamphlet. By 1522literary fiction had becomehistorical "fact": it was said that when Luther'sbooks were burnedin Thorn in Prussiaduring that year, a portraitof Lutherplaced with them refusedto burn.9 By 1531 many of these disparatenotions about incombustibility had solidifed into the more powerful form of a prophecy. Two separatestatements by Hus and Jeromeof Praguewere conflated, eitherby Lutherhimself or by someonein his circlewith Bohemian connections.From his prison cell Hus had said that he might be a weak goose (in Czech Hus means goose), but more powerfuland clear-sightedbirds, eaglesand falcons,would come afterhim. Quite independentlyof this, Jeromeof Praguestated that he wouldwish to see what would be made of his own condemnationin a hundred years. Luthermerged both statementsinto a single propheticsaying from Hus: that they may roast a goose in 1415, but in a hundred years a swan would sing to whom they would be forced to listen. Luther seems to have applied the image of the swan to himself to 5 On Tetzel in Juterbog,and Lutherand Tetzel, see FnednchMyconius' Geschichte der Refonnation,ed. O. Clemen (Leipzig, 1914), pp. 21-2. On JohannScultetus, bishop of Brandenburg,see M. Luther, Werke.Kntische Gesamtausgabe, 60 vols. (Weimar,1883-1983 and continuing),Bnefwechsel, i, p. 514 (3 Oct. 1519).On Eck in Ingolstadt,ibid., ii, p. 36 (8 Feb. 1520).On Aleander,ibid., p. 221 (4 Dec. 1520). On Cottbusand Halberstadt, ibid., p. 236 (15 Dec. 1520).On Merseburgand Meissen, ibid., p. 270 (27 Feb. 1521).On the burningin Rome,which probably suggested the scene in the Passio, ibid., i, p. 409 n. 6. 6 R. W. Scribner,For theSake of SimpleFolk: Popular Propaganda for theGet7nan Reformation(Cambridge, 1981), pp. 15-19. 7 H. Schnell,Martin Luther und die Reformation auf Munzen und Medaillon (Munich, 1983), p. 115. 8 DetltscheReichstagskten: 3rungere Reihe (HistorischeKommission