‘FULL OF GRACE,’ LUTHER’S MARIOLOGY. ‘And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, FULL OF GRACE, the LORD IS WITH THEE...’ (Luke 1.28.) 1. This rendering is one in full agreement with the Greek text, and thus was understood & translated for all the Greek and Latin fathers. Third century Aramaic Peshitta has it so. Wycliffe, Tyndale and Cranmer have it as ‘Full of grace.’ Also Beza’s Reformed Geneva Bible, loved by the Puritans, says ‘might be rendered, ‘ full of favour & gr ace.’ This is not known or received either by contemporary Protestants, including far long ex-Catholic Lutherans. 2. Luther indeed was quite devoted to the Holy Virgin Mary, & retained most of the traditional Marian doctrines which were held then and now by the Western Catholic Church. This is often not well-documented in Protestant biographies of Luther and histories of the 16th century, yet it is undeniably true . It seems to be a natural human tendency for latter-day followers to project back onto the founder of a movement their own prevailing viewpoints. Since Lutheranism today does not possess a very strong Mariology, it is usually assumed that Luther himself had similar opinions. We shall see, upon consulting the primary sources (i.e., Luther's own writing,) that the historical facts are very different. We shall consider, in turn, Luther's position on the various aspects of Marian doctrine. 3. But even worse, so called ‘conservative’ Lutherans still cleave to a sectarian Protestant attitude despising and harming the Holy Theotokos, Mary, the Mother of God. In this also they disagree with the Catholic Martin Luther. What did Luther think on Mariology? The very question may well put at odds to more than one ‘orthodox Lutheran.’ Why Lutheran lay people have been deceived by their teachers? The Missourian author of ‘What Luther Says’ is missing the following Luther doctrines on the Holy & Ever Virgin Mary. 4. ‘Christ, our Saviour, was the real and natural fruit of Mary's virginal womb… This was without the cooperation of a man, and She remained a virgin after that.’ ( Luther's Works , St. Louis: Concordia Pub. House (vols. 1-30); Philadelphia: Fortress Press (vols. 31-55,) 1955, v. 22—23 -- Sermons on John , chaps. 1-4 (1539.) 6. ‘Christ… was the only Son of Mary, and the Virgin Mary bore no children besides Him…. I am of a mind to agree with those who declare that 'brothers' really mean 'cousins' here, for Holy Writ and the Judeans always call cousins brothers.’ (LW , v.22. 214-15 -- Sermons on John , chaps. 1-4 (1539.) 7. ‘A new lie about me is being circulated. I am supposed to have preached and written that Mary, the Mother of God, was not a virgin either before or after the birth of Christ..! (LW, ibid., v. 45.199 -- That Jesus Christ was Born a Judean (1523.) ‘Scripture does not say or indicate that She later lost her virginity… When Matthew [1.25] says that Joseph did not know Mary carnally until She had brought forth her son, it does not follow that he knew her subsequently; on the contrary, it means that he never did know her … This prattle…. is without justification… he has neither noticed nor paid any attention to either Scripture or the common idiom. (LW, v. 45.206, 212-3 --- That Jesus Christ was Born a Judean (1523.) 7. Probably the most astonishing Marian belief of Luther is his acceptance of Mary's Immaculate Conception, which wasn't even definitively proclaimed as dogma by the Roman Communion until 1854. Even some well known Lutheran scholars, such as Arthur Carl Piepkorn (1907-73) of Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, maintain his unswerving acceptance of the doctrine. What remarkable, Luther accepted the Immaculate Conception even before a pope thought on it! 8. ‘It is a sweet and pious belief that the infusion of Mary's soul was effected without original sin ; so that in the very infusion of Her soul She was also purified from original sin and adorned with God's gifts, receiving a pure soul infused by God; thus from the first moment She began to live She was free from all sin .’ (Sermon ‘On the Day of the Conception of Mary the Mother of God’ (Dec. 8, 1527.) From Grisar, Hartmann, Luther , tr. E.M. Lamond, ed. Luigi Cappadelta, 6 volumes, London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., 1917, vol. 4, 238; taken from the German Werke , Erlangen, 1826-1868, edited by J.G. Plochmann and J.A. Irmischer, 2nd ed. edited by L. Enders, Frankfurt, 1862 ff., 67 volumes; citation from 152, p. 58. -- See also e.g., House Sermon for Christmas , 1533.) 9. ‘Mary is the Mother of Jesus and the Mother of all of us... If He is ours, we ought to be in His situation; there where He is, we ought also to be and all that He has ought to be ours, and His Mother is also our Mother.’ (Sermon, Christmas, 1529.) 10. ‘She is full of grace, proclaimed to be entirely without sin—something exceedingly great. For God’s grace fills Her with everything good and makes Her devoid of all evil .’ [Luther’s Works , 43.40] Historian Hartman Grisar states, ‘As late as 1527 [Luther] even acknowledged the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception of Mary, in conformity with theological traditions of the Augustinian Order.’ [Martin Luther His Life & Work (Baltimore: Newman Press, 1959.) 11. ‘Our prayer should include the Mother of God… What the Hail Mary says is that all glory should be given to God, using these words: Hail Mary, full of grace! The Lord is with thee; blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus Christ. Amen! You see that these words are not concerned with prayer but purely with giving praise and honour… We can use the Hail Mary as a meditation in which we recite what grace God has given Her. Second , we should add a wish that everyone may know and respect Her…. He who has no faith is advised to refrain from saying the Hail Mary…’ ( Little Prayer Book (1522). In LW, Vol. 43, 39-41.) --- Luther still appends, 12. ‘But as the Virgin Mary was herself born of a father & a mother in the natural way, many have been disposed to assert that She was also born in original sin, though all with one mouth affirm that She was sanctified in the maternal womb, and conceived without concupiscence. But some have been disposed to take a middle way, and have said that man's conception is twofold: that the one is from the parents, but that the other takes place when the little body is prepared, and the soul infused by God, its Creator. In the conception of the Virgin Mary, whose body was formed in the progress of time, and after the manner of other children, until the infusion of the soul there was no need of such a conception, for it could be preserved from original sin until the soul was to be infused. And the other conception, that is to say, the infusion of the soul, we piously believe it was accomplished without original sin. So that, in that very infusing of the soul, the body was simultaneously purified from original sin, and endowed with divine gifts to receive that holy soul which was infused into it from God. And thus in the first moment it began to live, it was exempt from all sin.’ 13. ‘Thus the Virgin Mary holds as it were a middle position between Christ and other men. For if indeed Christ, when He was conceived, was both living, and at that very moment was full of grace, whilst other men are without grace, both in their first and in their second conception; so the Virgin Mary was, according to the first conception, without grace, yet according to the second conception, She was full of grace . --- As the rest of mankind are, both in soul and in body, conceived in sin, whilst Christ is conceived without sin, as well in body as in soul, so the Virgin Mary was conceived, according to the body, indeed without grace, but according to the soul, full of grace. This is signified by those words which the angel Gabriel said to her, 'Blessed art thou amongst women' [Luke, 1.28.] For it could not be said to Her, 'Blessed art thou,' if at any time She had been obnoxious to the curse. Again, it was just & meet that that person should be preserved from original sin from whom Christ received the flesh by which He overcame all sins. And that, indeed, is properly called BLESSED which is endowed with divine grace, that is, which is free from sin.’ (From Martini Lutheri Postillae . In die Conceptionis Mariae Matris Dei , pp. 360-361. Argentorati: apud Georgium Ulricum Adlanum, Anno xxx.) 14. In 1544 Luther says: ‘God has formed the soul and body of the Virgin Mary full of the Holy Spirit, so that She is without all sins, for She has conceived and borne the Lord Jesus.’ (WA 52, 39.) Elsewhere, ‘All seed except Mary was vitiated.’ (WA 39, II, 107.) 15. ‘Though She was without sin , yet that grace was far too great for her to deserve it in any way. How should a creature deserve to become the Mother of God? …calling Her ‘Queen of Heavens,’ …is a true- enough name…’ (‘Magnificat’ (1521.) In LW, vol. 21, 327. 16. ‘Luther, in the Smalcald Articles of 1537, wrote in Latin the words ‘from Mary, pure, holy, and Ever- Virgin [ ex Maria pura, sancta, Semper Virgine.