Martin Luther writings, new discovery

Translated from NOS TV in the Netherlands:

Monday 19 Aug 2013, 18:23

In a library in Wolfenbüttel [in Germany] hitherto unknown notes by the church reformer Martin Luther (1483-1546) have been found. The comments by Luther are in the margin of a chronicle and a Latin poem, with other works bound together in one volume.

The comments are from the time when Luther studied in Erfurt (1501-1505). Thus they are among the oldest known texts by him. These are notes on the texts, such as about difficult Latin words and about Saint Elizabeth of Thuringia.

Reformation

The discoverer of the notes, the Heidelberg theologian Ulrich Bubenheimer, says there is no doubt that the notes are by Luther because his handwriting is known from numerous later texts.

Luther became a monk after his studies in Erfurt. In 1517 he wrote 95 theses against the abuses in the church, such as the trade in indulgences – papers which, according to the church, could shorten the faithful’s sentences in purgatory after their deaths. With his theses Luther was at the beginning of the Reformation, after which Christendom was torn in two.

See also here. And here.

Cranach: Artist and Innovator, Compton Verney Art Gallery and Park, Warwickshire. Enduring images of temptation and its consequences from the Reformation master: here.

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