4 Luther’s lives Translator’s note The deeds and writings of Martin Luther from the year of the Lord 1517 to the year 1546 related chronologically to all posterity by Johannes Cochlaeus for the first time translated into English by Elizabeth Van- diver and annotated by Ralph Keen Elizabeth Vandiver and Ralph Keen - 9781526120649 Downloaded from manchesterhive.com at 09/30/2021 10:34:26PM via free access 55 Elizabeth Vandiver and Ralph Keen - 9781526120649 Downloaded from manchesterhive.com at 09/30/2021 10:34:26PM via free access 56 Luther’s lives The Year of the Lord 1517 Cochlaeus on Luther, 1517 Martin Luther, who was born in the year of the Lord 1483 in Eisleben in Saxony, under the Counts of Mansfeld, had plebeian parents from the Luder family.1 His father was named Johannes, his mother Margarita. He received the name ‘Martinus’ in baptism through ancient and ancestral custom, because he was born at night on the tenth day of November, the eve of the festival of Holy Martin.2 But although for many years, according to ancient custom, he was called by the surname ‘Luder’ – which he himself also used in his letters, even to the pre-eminent theologian Dr Johannes Eck – nevertheless he later preferred to be called ‘Luther’ rather than ‘Luder,’ perhaps because among the Germans ‘Luder’ seems a less than respectable word. After his infancy, when he had passed his boyhood at home (since by his parents’ careful attention he was imbued with the rudiments of his letters in the school of his hometown), he was sent from there to Magdeburg, where he remained for one year. From there he progressed to Eisenach, a town of Thuringia, where he found a more congenial teacher and remained for years. Afterwards he went to Erfurt, a famous, large town of Thuringia, where there was a celebrated Academy. In his twentieth year he attained the rank of Master in the study of Philosophy, and certainly he was among the first-ranked students, since he surpassed many of his peers in talent and zeal. From there he moved on to the study of law. But when he was in the country, either because he was terrified and prostrated by a bolt of lightning, as is commonly said, or because he was overwhelmed with grief at the death of a companion, through contempt of this world he suddenly – to the astonishment of many – entered the Monastery of the brothers of St Augustine, who are commonly called the Hermits. After a year’s probation, his profession of that order was made legitimate, and there in his studies and spiritual exercises he fought strenuously for God for four years. However, he appeared to the brothers to have a certain amount of peculiarity, either from some secret commerce with a Demon, or (according to certain other indications) from the disease of epilepsy. They thought this especially, because several times in the Choir, when during the Mass the passage from the Evangelist about the ejection of the deaf and mute Demon was read, he suddenly fell down, crying ‘It is not I, it is not I.’ 3 And thus it is the opinion of many, that he enjoyed an occult familiarity with some demon, since he himself sometimes wrote such things about himself as were able to engender a suspicion in the reader of this kind of commerce and nefarious association. For he says in a certain sermon addressed to the people, that he knows the Devil well, and is in turn well known by him, and that he has eaten more than one grain of salt with him. And furthermore he published his own book in German, About the ‘Corner’ Mass (as he calls it),4 where he remembers a disputation against the Mass that the Devil held with him at night. There are other pieces of evidence about this matter as well, and not trivial ones, since he was even seen by certain people to keep company bodily with the Devil. Elizabeth Vandiver and Ralph Keen - 9781526120649 Downloaded from manchesterhive.com at 09/30/2021 10:34:26PM via free access Cochlaeus on Luther, 1517 57 In the year of the Lord 1508 he was moved from Erfurt to Wittenberg into another monastery of the same institute, where he publicly lectured on the Dialectic and Physics of Aristotle; for an Academy or public University of studies had recently been established there, by the Elector of Saxony Duke Frederick.5 Moreover, when after three years a disagreement arose among the brothers of his order – since seven monasteries in Germany differed in certain matters from the Vicar General – he was chosen by those monasteries as the agent for their dispute, and he went to Rome, since he was keen in intellect, and bold and vehement in debate. When that case between the disputing parties had been settled and concluded by some sort of transactions, and he had returned to Wittenberg, he was made a Doctor in Theology with the usual celebration, either by the order and administration of Frederick, Duke of Saxony, the Elector Prince, or through the funding of a certain matron who had fraudulently embezzled church moneys, since she cut off a certain sum of money, which was intended for the subsidy of another brother’s promotion to the Doctorate at Nuremberg. For this reason it came about that when that brother discovered the fraud and the fact that the money had been taken away from him, he fled away secretly because of his sorrow and indignation, and no one knows to this day where he went. But since Luther, who was adorned with the title of Doctor and prefect of the Ordinary Reading 6 in Theology, was an extremely keen debater and desirous of vainglory, he wished to be pre-eminent not among the learned of Wittenberg alone. He also went to Heidelberg, where he sought renown for his intellect and learning in debating, whenever he proposed new themes.7 There it happened, in the year of the Lord 1517, that Pope Leo X published new indulgences throughout the world, on the occasion of the new building of the Cathedral of St Peter in Rome, which his preceder Pope Julius II had begun with the most sumptuous magnificence. But Julius was prevented by death and was not able to complete this work of such great magnificence. Indeed Constantine, the most powerful Emperor (whom we call ‘the Great’ but the ancients called ‘the Greatest’ 8) had filled up that church (like many others) with religious artifacts and very sumptuous and marvelous work: especially noteworthy was the way it was supported by a varied series of enormous columns (such as are not made in our day). But this church had decayed (as is natural) through the passage of time. When it began obviously to gape open in many of its sections and to threaten ruin, Pope Julius II, a high-minded man, did not so much strive to repair the parts that had collapsed through age or to remake its patched buildings (would that he had so preferred!), but rather began to rebuild it anew, in the greatest and most astonishing size. That size can be seen today in the foundations laid by him, and in the lofty arches and vaults and columns, as large as the highest towers, lifted on high and extending into the sky. No doubt he acted on this consideration, that just as the Roman Church is pre-eminent among and outshines all other churches in the world in power and dignity, through the word of Christ and the principate of Peter, so also the Church of Peter should outstrip all others in the size of Elizabeth Vandiver and Ralph Keen - 9781526120649 Downloaded from manchesterhive.com at 09/30/2021 10:34:26PM via free access 58 Luther’s lives its structure and the magnificence of its work, and should be the most con- spicuous among them. But Pope Leo X, a generous man, and more given to paying out (I will not say to squandering) funds than to collecting and seeking them, since he was unequal to the expense of such an edifice, and could not continue a work of such cost from his own resources, gave out indulgences – a thing that often been done before him – in order that he might acquire the helping hands of many in pious relief. Moreover, there was at that time among the ecclesiastical Prelates of Ger- many a most eminent man, both for the height of his dignity and the splendor of his birth, the Most Reverend Father and Most Illustrious Prince Albert, the Archbishop of Mainz and Magdeburg, Priest and Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church, Primate of Germany, and Elector Prince of the Holy Roman Empire, Margrave of Brandenburg, etc.9 Therefore, Pope Leo X laid a special commission on him for the business of publishing the indulgences in Germany. And following the advice and opinion of many, he would have taken as assistants in this business the Brothers of the Order of St Augustine of the Hermits – who had earlier performed the most strenuous work in this matter for the Apostolic See, not only by declaring it to the people but also by writing and distributing books (such as, for example, the ‘Mine of Heaven’ and its supple- ment) – had not Johannes Tetzel, a Brother of the Order of the Preachers, seemed more suitable to certain people, especially because the memory of his sermons about indulgences was then recent. In these sermons he had acquired ample money for the Brothers of Holy Mary of the Military Order of the Teutonic Lords in Livonia, who were being hard pressed by the Muscovites and other nearby enemies.