The Life and Letters of Martin Luther (Classic Reprint)

The last word on a live subject is never said. As an immense volume of work on Luther continues to pour from the press, I propose, in the immediately following pages, to give some account of the most important and pertinent literature produced since this biography first went to press. The most striking recent contribution to the subject, both on account of its size and of the altercation it has aroused, is the biography, in three volumes and 2500 lexicon-octavo pages, by Professor Hartmann Grisar, S.J. As his interest centers in the character of the Reformer and the moral effect of his work, the Catholic scholar, assuming the role of prosecuting attorney, labors, with much learning and a real intention of doing justice, to prove that both were bad. Whereas the specialist may learn much from Grisar, his whole point of view, as well as that taken by most of his Protestant critics, is foreign to the impartial investigator. More than a dozen volumes, many of them bringing fresh light, have been added to the Weimar edition of Luther sworks. Perhaps the most interesting are those devoted to the table-talk. Much new material, not inferior in value to that already known, has been discovered, and bears out the opinion of Froude that the table-talk is one of the most brilliant books in the world ... as full of matter as Shakespeare splays. In order to make these newly published conversations of Luther accessible to the English-speaking public, a translation of them is now being executed and may be expected shortly to appear. Three more volumes of the letters in the Enders-K awerau edition have come out. An English version of the correspondence, containing also letters by Luther scontemporaries on him and his movement, is now in course of publication.1 1L uther s Correspondence and Other Contemporary Letters, translated and edited by Preserved Smith, vol. i, 1507-1521,(Typographical errors above are due to OCR software and don't occur in the book.)