PREFACE FROM the author's Introduction, in which he describes the scope of his projected History of the Reformation in Germany, it will be seen that this volume is but a first instalment of a larger work. Happily the volume is, however, anything but an unfinished fragment. It was not only left by the writer ready for the press, but it brings its story down to the close of the first great period of the German Reformation. When the Diet of Worms broke up, German Protestantism had been finally and fully inaugurated, and its central figure, Martin Luther, had reached the summit of his heroism and his revolt. My editorial duties have been hardly more than to see through the press a singularly and characteristically perfect manuscript; and they have been lightened by the faithful care with which Mrs. Beard and her son, Mr. Lewis Beard, B.A., have compared manuscript and proof. I have considered it needful, in order to guard against accidental error, to exercise a general supervision of the narrative, to compare quotations with the original passages, and to verify references. No alterations have been introduced into the text or the notes, except where an obvious lapsus calami had crept in, which, however, thanks to the author's extreme accuracy, has happened but very occasionally. Here and there in the notes a reference to books or articles published since the manuscript was finished has been added. For the title of the volume, the headings of the chapters and the pages, and the list of the principal authorities and editions used by the author, I am responsible; and for the Index, Mr. Lewis Beard. From the list of authorities and from the notes it will be seen that Dr. Charles Beard kept pace to the very last with the latest research in a field which has been thoroughly upturned by the critical industry of such specialists as Seidemann, Köstlin, Kolde, Knaake, Kawerau, and their fellowlabourers. And it may not be out of place to remark that Dr. Julius Köstlin's Life of Luther, with others that have followed it, placed all preceding lives of the Reformer in the class of antiquated literature, in point of historical accuracy and thoroughness. Of the mingled feelings with which I have worked, all readers of the book will, I believe, share those of thankfulness for what is here finished, and of regret for what has been lost in the volumes which remain unwritten. It is much to have the great story of the successful launching of the German Reformation told by one who was so singularly qualified to tell it well. Would that his pen had been permitted to trace the further development of the movement, and to follow the lives of its prominent representatives until their work was done! To his Hibbert Lectures the author prefixed a motto, taken from Lessing, and I cannot resist the temptation to append here a passage from Goethe, which, like that from Lessing, seems to me to breathe the spirit that inspired all Dr. Charles Beard's studies in this great period of history: "Wir wissen gar nicht was wir Luthern und der Reformation im allgemeinen alles zu danken haben. Wir sind frei geworden von den Fesseln geistiger Borniertheit, wir sind infolge unserer fortwachsenden Kultur fähig geworden, zur Quelle zurückzukehren und das Christenthum in seiner Reinheit zu fassen. Wir haben wieder den Mut, mit festen Füssen auf Gottes Erde zu stehen und uns in unserer gottbegabten Menschennatur zu fühlen. . . Wir werden alle nach und nach aus einem Christenthum des Wortes und Glaubens immer mehr zu einem Christenthum der Gesinnung und That kommen."-Gespräche mit Eckermann. CLIFTON, BRISTOL, July 1889. J. FREDERICK SMITH. PRINCIPAL AUTHORITIES WITH THE ABBREVIATIONS USED IN THIS VOLUME LUTHER'S COLLECTED WORKS Erl. D. S. Erl. Opp. Weimar ed. Walch. 1. The Frankfurt and Erlangen edition. (a) German: vols. i.-xxvi. 2d ed. 1862-1885. (b) Latin: a. Exegetica, vols. i.-xxviii. 1829-1886. y. Opp. Varii Argumenti, vols. i.-vii. 18651873. 2. The Weimar Critical Edition, in chronological order, now in course of publication, vols. i.-iv. vi. 18831888. 3. The edition of J. G. Walch in 24 vols. 4to, Halle, 1737-1753. LUTHER'S LETTERS— De Wette. Seidemann. 1. Dr. Martin Luther's Briefe gesammelt von W. M. L. De Wette, vols. i.-v. 1825-1828. vol. vi. edited by Seidemann, 1856. 2. Seidemann, Lutherbriefe, 1859. Burkhardt. 3. Dr. M. Luther's Briefwechsel, von C. A. H. Burk Enders. hardt, 1866. 4. Dr. Martin Luther's Briefwechsel, von E. L. Enders, vols. i.-ii. 1884-1887 (containing letters from and to Luther, with some others, of the years 1507-1520). LUTHER'S TABLE TALK T. T. Coll. 1. German: edited by Förstemann and Bindseil, vols. i.-iv. 1844-1848. 2. Latin D. Martini Lutheri Colloquia edita ab H. E. Bindseil, vols. i.-iii. 1863-1866. |