LUTHER AS AN AUTHOR--1483-1546.
IN the long list of the noteworthy men of the sixteenth century, the
men who helped to shape the history not only of their own generation,
but of long series of generations to come, a leading place, possibly
the leading place, must be assigned to Martin Luther.
The story of the bold-hearted Augustinian monk, who, strong in his
convictions of the justice of his cause, and strong in his faith that
the Lord would protect his own, ventured to assail the abuses and,
finally, even to question the authority of the Church of Rome, the only
Church then known to Europe, and who dared, standing almost alone, to
withstand the mandates of pope and of emperor--this story, forming one
of the great dramas of history, has been often told. For the purposes
of the present narrative, however, I am not concerned with Luther as
a Reformer, as a fighter, or as a Christian hero, but simply with his
work and his relations as an author.
It was inevitable, in selecting two authors as examples of the literary
activities and of the publishing methods of the first part of the
sixteenth century, that one of these two should be Luther, whose
writings achieved a larger popularity and exercised a more far-reaching
influence than could be claimed for any books of the century. It is
to be borne in mind, however, that Luther’s work as an author was not
something apart from his interests as a Reformer. He wrote because
he felt the spirit of the Lord to be upon him, and because he had
the conviction that he was God’s instrument for bringing a message to
the world, and for delivering the true Church from the burdens and
corruptions that had been brought upon it through the wiles of Satan.
The Reformation was an intellectual revolution, and the immediate work
of the Reformers was carried on by argument, presented in part by
preaching, but very largely by means of printed material, books and
pamphlets. It is difficult to conceive of the accomplishment of the
Reformation without the aid of the printing-press, and it is probably,
in fact, not too much to say that, without the printing-press, the work
done by the Reformers could not have been brought about at all. The
Church authorities had, as we have seen, given to the first printers a
cordial welcome, and many of the earlier typographers had been indebted
to ecclesiastics for all important co-operation and support. After,
however, the printers of Wittenberg had begun to send out by thousands
the pamphlets of Luther and Melanchthon, and when, a little later,
the presses of Geneva and Zurich were being devoted to supplying to a
public still nearer to Rome the writings of Calvin and Zwingli; when,
in fact, Europe seemed to be full of “winged words,” words the sting of
which was nearly always directed against Rome, the ecclesiastics began
to realise the extent of their blunder. Repression in various forms was
attempted: rigorous censorship, prohibition, confiscation and burning
of copies, the _Index Expurgatorius_, the ban of excommunication on
writers and printers of forbidden books--all these and other forms
of restriction were put into force, with the very general result
of advertising the objectionable literature, of emphasising its
importance, and of adding to its circulation and its influence. The
Church finally took the printing-press into its own service, and it
succeeded, in the course of a generation or two, in training up a
school of literary defenders and apologists who, in the period of the
Catholic revival, were able, in a measure at least, to hold their own
in controversy with the Protestant opponents of Rome. It was certainly
the case, however, that, taking the sixteenth century as a whole, the
printing press proved one of the most effective of the influences for
undermining the authority of the Papacy and for restricting the rule of
the Roman Church.
Luther had been prompt to recognise the value for his work of the new
art. He was equally keen in his appreciation of the fact that if the
fight against Rome was to secure a popular support, it was necessary to
reach with the teachings of the Reformers not only the limited circles
of the educated, but the masses of the people. It was for this purpose
that Luther, first among the leaders of the Reformation, put forth his
sermons, tracts, and controversial pamphlets at once in the language
of the people, and he completed his great appeal to the understanding
and the moral sense of his fellow countrymen with the stupendous and
magnificent achievement of the German Bible. For thousands of Germans,
the first practical knowledge of the existence of the possibilities of
the printing-press came to them with the sight of the sheets of the
Wittenberg pamphlets or of the volumes of the Wittenberg Testament.
It would doubtless have seemed to Luther a small thing in his life’s
work that, while carrying on his great fight against Rome, he was also
laying the foundation of the book-trade of Germany and of Europe,
but this was a matter of no little moment, if only for the lasting
influence of the Reformation itself. The historians of the time are
certainly in substantial accord in the conclusion that the enormous
impetus given to the education and active-mindedness of the people
through the distribution and the eager acceptance of the writings of
the Reformers, the habits then formed of buying and of reading printed
matter, the incentive secured for the work of the printers and the
booksellers, and the practice that came into vogue of circulating
books and pamphlets by means of pedlars and colporteurs in districts
far beyond the reach of the book-shops, had both an immediate and an
abiding effect upon the reading habits of the German people and did
much to bring about the development of the publishing and bookselling
business in Germany.
Luther’s life covered the sixty-three years between 1483 and 1546. At
the time of his birth, the printing-press had been in operation for a
third of a century. When, in 1517, he printed, in Wittenberg, his first
book (a collection of sermons on the Ten Commandments and the Lord’s
Prayer), the production of printed books was still an unfamiliar art.
The principal German centres of the new publishing trade were Basel,
Frankfort, Augsburg, and Nuremberg. In the North of Germany, much
less had been done, although, for some years, there had been presses
in Cologne, and a beginning had been made in Leipzig. It was the
Reformation and the superior intellectual activity of the Protestants
that transferred the literary and publishing preponderance from South
to North Germany, a preponderance that through the succeeding centuries
has continued and has increased.
The list of Luther’s works is not a long one, and is made up in great
part of pamphlets. His chief writings may be briefly summarised as
follows:
1516. “Sermons on the Ten Commandments and the Lord’s Prayer.”
1517. “Commentary on the Seven Penitential Psalms.”
The title-page of this volume reads: _F. Martinus Luder Augustiner
zŭ Wittenberg_. (The Seven Penitential Psalms was one of the two
devotional publications of Colard Mansion, the first printer of
Bruges, whose edition was issued in 1471.)
1517. “A Sermon on Indulgences and Grace.”
The immediate incentive to this sermon was the sale of Indulgences
by Tetzel.
1518. “Conclusions.” The title given to the famous ninety-five
theses.
1518. “Lectures on the Epistle to the Galatians.”
1520. “Address to the Christian Nobility of Germany.”
The title-page bears no date and no imprint. Below the name of the
author appears simply “Zu Wittenberg.”
1520. A treatise entitled “Why the Books of the Pope and his
Disciples were burnt by Dr. Martin Luther.”
This was published shortly after the burning by Martin Luther, in
Wittenberg, of the papal decretals, the name given by Köstlin to
the papal law-books, and a collection of the writings of Eck and
other papal advocates.
1521 (The year of the Diet of Worms). A series of controversial
pamphlets in reply to Emser.
1521. An “Exposition of the Gospel” and a Commentary on the
“Magnificat.”
1521. Tracts on “The Abuse of Masses,” and “On Monastic Vows.”
1522 (September). The complete German version of “The New
Testament.”
The first edition comprised 5000 copies.
1522 (December). A second edition of 5000 copies.
1527. Various treatises in reply to the teachings of Zwingli and
Œcolampadius.
The four years following 1522 appear to have been chiefly devoted,
as far as literary production was concerned, to the revision of
“The New Testament” and to work on the version of the books of “The
Old Testament.”
1528. Various treatises or tracts on “Confession,” the “Lord’s
Supper,” “Anabaptism,” the war against the Turks, a commentary on
the first twenty-five Psalms, and a version of thirteen of the
“Fables of Æsop.”
1530 (The year of the Diet of Augsburg). A series of tracts on
“The Keys of the Church,” “The Forgiveness of Sins,” and “The
Sacrament,” “The Duty of Keeping Children at School,” and a
commentary on the 118th Psalm.
1531. The German version of the Psalms.
1531. Gloss on the supposed “Edict” of the Emperor, and a “Warning
to his Beloved Germans.”
1532. “Exposition of Genesis.”
1537. A treatise on German Names.
This was issued at Wittenberg, anonymously, but, according to
Köstlin, was unquestionably the work of Luther.
1539. A treatise on Councils and Churches.
1539. A tract against the practice of usury.
1541. A treatise on Biblical Chronology.
1541. The completed German version of the Bible.
Revised issues of this were printed in 1543 and in 1545.
1543. “The Summer Postills,” with a series of sermons on the
Epistles.
1545. A pamphlet entitled “The Popedom at Rome Instituted by the
Devil.”
1545. Cranach’s Caricatures against Popedom, with brief verses on
texts by Luther.
1545. A revised edition of his collected Latin writings.
All the above were printed at Wittenberg.
The greater number of the pamphlets were issued at once in two
editions, one Latin and one German.
One of the more important of the earlier pamphlets or _Flugschriften_
of Luther was the _Address to the Nobles of Germany_, which was printed
in August, 1520, and of which five thousand copies were sold in five
days. Of the pamphlet containing his controversial address against
Eck, printed in 1518, fourteen hundred copies were sold in two days at
the Frankfort Fair. The popular interest excited by the writings of
Luther and his associates brought about a great change in the trade of
the book-shops. Editions of the Fathers and of the lives of the Saints
were pushed to one side from the counters or the book-shelves, or were
stored away in the warehouses, and even the classics were neglected.
All the demand was for the writings of the Reformers. The replies of
the defenders of the Church found for some years a comparatively slow
sale, as the sympathies of the larger book-publishing centres and of
the public reached by them were largely with the Protestants. Some few
of the leading publishers, including the two most important in Germany,
Froben of Basel and Koberger of Nuremberg, remained, however, in the
orthodox fold, and Froben, possibly at the instance of Erasmus, gave up
printing the writings of Luther.
Luther’s first publisher was Johann Weissenburger from Nuremberg, who
had, in 1513, established himself in Landshut in Bavaria. In Landshut
he printed, in 1517, a tract by Luther entitled _Tractatus de his qui
ad Ecclesias Confugiunt_. Later in the same year, the treatise on the
Seven Penitential Psalms was printed by Joh. Grunenberg in Wittenberg,
also in Latin. This was, however, immediately followed by a version in
German, of which in five years no less than nine editions appeared.
The ninety-five theses, copies of which, on the 31st of October, 1517,
Luther had nailed on the doors of the Wittenberg castle church, were
printed in that town, in the same year, in Latin, under the title
_Disputatio pio Declaratione Virtutis Indulgentiarum_. This first
edition was followed by three others printed in Wittenberg, and one in
Nuremberg. A year later appeared, also in Wittenberg, the first edition
in German, which, in the course of the next two years, was followed by
twenty-two other editions. These were printed in Wittenberg, Leipzig,
Nuremberg, Augsburg, Basel, and Breslau. It does not seem practicable
to ascertain, either from the publishing records or from the references
in the various biographies, how far these editions were authorised or
how far they represented simply the enterprise of piratical printers.
What is made quite clear in the various utterances of Luther himself,
is the fact that his only desire was to secure for the theses the
widest possible circulation. He made no criticism of the action of
any of the printers who put into the market editions of this or of
his other writings, excepting when such editions, not having had the
benefit of the author’s supervision, were printed in incorrect or
incomplete form.
The _Sermo de Digna Preparatione Cordis_ was published in 1518, and
the German version followed a few months later. Of the original were
printed during the next two years eight editions in Wittenberg,
Leipzig, and Augsburg, while of the translation, during the same
period, were issued no less than thirteen editions. Of the tract
entitled _Die Deutsche Theologie_, printed at once in Latin and
in German in 1518, appeared during the succeeding four years from
seventy-five to eighty separate editions. The bibliographers are in
doubt as to the precise number.[119]
Of the sermon or tract upon the _Sale of Indulgences_, Kapp records
ten authorised editions in the two years succeeding 1518, and three
editions issued respectively in Leipzig, Nuremberg, and Augsburg, which
are specifically described as unauthorised. The next of the series of
tracts of this year, _Decem Precepta Wittenbergensi Predicata Popula_,
was printed in the Latin form in five editions, and in the German
version in seven. Among the latter are included three unauthorised
issues, again dating from Leipzig, Augsburg, and Basel. There was also
a Bohemian edition issued in Prague in 1520. It is not surprising that
printers like Petri, working at so distant a point as Basel, should
have felt free, with “missionary” material of this kind for which
there was an immediate popular demand, to put forth editions without
reference to the author. It is somewhat surprising, however, that
unauthorised editions should also have been issued in Leipzig, but a
few miles from Wittenberg, as with the leading publishers of Leipzig
Luther and his Wittenberg associates had maintained satisfactory
relations. Other tracts of this period, the most of which were
printed in the same publishing centres, and the editions of which,
both Latin and German, were promptly absorbed by the public, were the
_Resolutiones Disputationum de Indulgentiarum Virtute_, the German
version of the hundred and tenth _Psalm_, and the _Sermo de Virtute
Excommunicationis_.
The complete Lutheran version of _The New Testament_, published in
1522, constituted not only, as the historians of the time make clear,
a central fact of first importance in the work of the Reformation, but
the most noteworthy of the literary productions of its author. The work
is of necessity classed as a translation, but it was a translation into
which had been absorbed, in very large measure, the individuality and
original thought of the writer. The production of this German Bible was
an essential part of the work of the Protestant Reformers. The teaching
that Christian believers must base their relations with their Creator
upon the inspired Word required that this Word should be placed within
reach of all Christians and should be in a form to be understood by the
unlettered as well as by the scholarly.
In addition to the great work done by Luther for the world at large,
he rendered to Germany the essential service of initiating (or, as
some German historians say, of creating) high German literature. The
half century’s work of the printing-press had thus far been devoted
almost exclusively to the production of books for scholars, printed in
Latin, the universal language of scholarship, or, in a few instances,
in Greek. The Brothers of Common Life in Holland, and a small number
of other printers in North Germany, had printed for the use of the
people books of a popular character in low German, _platt-deutsch_. It
was Luther who recognised the better possibilities of development and
for literary expression existing in the division of the language known
as high German, the form that (with the changes of three centuries)
has since been known as German. In selecting this tongue for his own
writings, and, what was of more abiding importance, for his version
of the Bible, Luther made of it the foundation of modern German
literature. He did not, in fact, find a vehicle ready-made and fully
fitted for his purpose, but through his own wealth of imagination
and study and incisive speech, he contributed not a little to secure
for this new language of literature strength and flexibility for
forcible and varied expression. The printed books in German before the
appearance of the first tracts of Luther, formed but an inconsiderable
group, and were restricted practically to chap-books and almanacs, and
to popular medicine or herb-lore, a few folk-songs and tales, and some
editions of lives of the Saints, printed principally by the Brothers of
Common Life.
The labour and natural philological capacity required for such a task
as producing a German version of the Bible at a time when no such
thing as a German dictionary existed, and when there was, in fact, no
accepted standard for literary expression in the German tongue, must
have been very considerable. It was peculiarly fortunate that this
capacity was, in Luther, united with the strenuousness of purpose and
persistent industry which rendered the work possible at all. The final
work of his translation was completed in the Castle of the Wartburg,
during his sojourn there as a voluntary prisoner in charge of his
valiant defender, Ulrich von Hutten, after his return from the Diet of
Worms.
The piratical reprinters took prompt advantage of the popular interest
in the work. The “enterprising” Petri of Basel was the earliest in
the field, getting his first reprint into the market before the close
of the year (1522) in which the original had appeared. During the
succeeding three years, Petri printed in all seven editions, four in
octavo and three in folio. His neighbour and rival, Wolf, printed
during the same time five editions, and Schönsperger of Augsburg
followed with three. I do not find record of the number of copies
comprised in these several editions, but they must have aggregated a
good many thousands. In estimating the cost of their production, it
is to be borne in mind that the process of taking casts or _clichés_
of the type was an invention of a much later period, and it was,
therefore, necessary with each fresh impression to reset the type.
In 1520, a Bull of Leo X. excommunicated Luther, condemned his works
individually and collectively, ordered existing copies to be burnt, and
prohibited, under severe penalties, the printing, sale, distribution,
or even possession of any of his writings. The immediate effect of
this Bull was to cause a largely increased sale throughout nearly all
parts of Germany for everything that Luther had written, and to bring
about also a very considerable demand for them from other countries.
Köstlin estimates that by 1520, more than one hundred editions had
been printed of the German versions of Luther’s sermons and tracts.
This estimate includes, of course, all the unauthorised issues,
as well as the editions printed at Luther’s Wittenberg Press. The
distribution of these pamphlets was effected only in part through the
regular book-trade. Thousands of copies were sold in the market-places
by dealers of all kinds, many of whom had never before handled books;
and large supplies were distributed among readers out of reach of
the book-shops and the market-places, by travelling pedlars and by
colporteurs. Many of the latter were travelling students, who were
working not for gain, but in the cause of the Reform. These popular
tracts of the excommunicated heretic appear to have met the needs of
all classes, educated and uneducated, and secured a wider circulation
than had heretofore been achieved by any religious works, or, for that
matter, by any writings whatever.
During the earlier years of his work, while this work was directed
rather against the abuses that had grown up in the Church than against
the authority of the Church itself, and before the Reformers had
attempted any constructive theology, Luther was able to preserve
relations with the leaders of the Humanistic movement, and received
encouraging letters from men like Erasmus and Reuchlin, who stood at
the head of the liberal scholarship of the time. It was only later,
when the Church had cast out Luther and the Lutherans had definitely
repudiated the authority of the Church, and when the doctrines
of the Lutheran creed had been finally formulated, that Erasmus,
who had heartily sympathised with the fight against the abuses of
ecclesiasticism, but who believed that the Church Universal should be
preserved, and who did not believe in the doctrine of justification by
faith, cast in his lot with the opponents of Luther, a decision that
was marked by the publication of his famous essay on _Free Will_. The
Reformers took pains, however, to utilise for their cause, as far as
practicable, the influence and the learning of the Humanists.
In 1520, Ulrich von Hutten published a translation of the treatise of
Laurentius Valla, one of the earliest of the Italian Humanists, which
had been first issued in Naples in 1450, and in which was exposed
the forgery of the _Donation_ of Constantine. The _Donation_ was the
document or edict in which Constantine was supposed to have granted to
the Roman See the possession and control of the entire western world,
making the Church the heir of the Roman Empire. The scholarly argument
of Valla had never been refuted, and its republication at this time
dealt a heavy blow to the traditional pretensions of the Papacy; but
this purpose did not prevent von Hutten from dedicating his translation
to Leo X.
Shortly after the publication of the revised edition of _The New
Testament_, the indefatigable Luther entered upon the still more
laborious task of translating the books of _The Old Testament_, the
work upon which continued for a number of years. He secured the help
of a group of scholarly collaborators, of whom the most important was
Melanchthon. For _The New Testament_ he had had the use of the Greek
edition edited by Erasmus, and recently published by Froben of Basel, a
volume which, as well for the accuracy of its text as for the scholarly
authority, the boldness and the original information of its notes, far
surpassed any texts of the Scriptures as yet issued. Luther expresses
very freely his obligations to the learning and industry of Erasmus,
and never got over his astonishment that a man who had the scholarship
and the courage to puncture so many of the unwarranted assumptions
of the Roman Church, could still believe that Church to be worth
preserving.
The Catholic theologian Cochläus, a violent opponent, says: “Luther’s
_New Testament_ was multiplied by the printers in a most wonderful
degree, so that even shoe-makers and women and every lay person
acquainted with the German type, read it greedily as the fountain of
all truth, and by repeatedly reading it impressed it on their memory.
By this means they acquired in a few months so much knowledge that
they ventured to dispute not only with Catholic laymen, but even with
masters and doctors of theology, about faith and the gospel.”[120]
Luther’s young friend, Mathesius, thus describes one of the meetings
of Luther and his collaborators on the work of the German Bible: “Dr.
Luther came to them with his old Latin Bible, his Hebrew texts, and
the portions of his German translation. Philip (Melanchthon) brought
the Greek text, and Dr. Kreuziger (Cruciger), besides the Hebrew, the
Chaldaic Bible (the translations or paraphrase in use among the ancient
Jews); the other professors had with them their ‘Rabbis’ (_i. e._ the
Rabbinical writings of the Old Testament). Each one had previously
armed himself with a knowledge of the text and had compared the Greek
and Latin with the Jewish version. The president then pronounced a text
and let the opinions go round. Speeches of wondrous truth and beauty
are said to have been made at these sittings.”[121]
The most important of the publishers who issued unauthorised editions
of Luther’s writings was, as stated, Adam Petri, of Basel. During the
ten years between 1520 and 1530, he made a special business of the
issue of these reprints, and according to Kapp, he derived from them
large profits. I find no record of any complaints from Luther directed
specifically against Petri. His principal annoyance about reprints had
been in connection with inaccurate and incomplete texts, but the Petri
Press had a good repute for the excellence of its typography.
In Augsburg, where had appeared some of the earliest issues of the
Bible, Hans Schönsperger printed, in 1523, an (unauthorised) edition
of Luther’s _New Testament_, with woodcuts by Schäuflein. In 1524, a
complete series of Luther’s writings was printed by Sylvan Othmar. It
is not clear whether or not this edition received the sanction of the
author. Siegmund Grimm, of Augsburg, acted as the principal publisher
of the writings of Hutten. Hase tells us, in his history of the great
Koberger publishing house of Nuremberg, that during the ten years
succeeding 1517, the sales of the works of theology (orthodox Catholic)
of which the Kobergers made a special interest were very seriously
lessened through the influence of Luther and of Luther’s writings.
During the years 1520-1523, Magdeburg became a centre for the
production and distribution of Protestant polemical literature, and
a great number of controversial pamphlets were issued there. Through
the influence of Luther, these were for the most part first printed in
high German, but towards the latter portion of the period, many of the
briefer and less scholastic tracts were issued also in low German in
order to reach the lower classes and readers of the Northwest. After
the death of the liberal-minded and tolerant Archbishop Ernst, and
with the accession of the bigoted Albert of Brandenburg (who was also
Archbishop of Mayence), the publishing activities of the city were
seriously hampered. The Roman side of the controversy was then taken up
in Magdeburg by Dr. Mensing, the Court preacher, and by Dr. Cyclops.
Tübingen, however, became for a time the centre for the controversial
publications of the Romanists, and it was there that appeared, between
1519-1522, the works and pamphlets of Luther’s opponents, Eck,
Cochläus, Dietenberger, Neudorffer, and others.
The presses of Tübingen were, however, also utilised for the cause
of the Reformers. In 1529, Primus Truber and Ulrich Morhart issued
(under an assumed imprint) a Slovenic or Slovakian version of Luther’s
Catechism. The same men printed the first Slovenic primer and
dictionary, and were thus instrumental in fixing a printed form for
Slovenic literature. In 1530, they printed an edition in Bohemian of
Luther’s _New Testament_, a work that should have rejoiced the spirit
of John Huss, dead one hundred and nine years earlier. The work of
these enterprising printers was of no little importance in furthering
the spread of Lutheran doctrines among the Slovaks of Moravia, Bohemia,
and Hungary. In 1557, the Freiherr of Ungnad, an earnest Protestant,
placed funds at the disposition of Truber for the printing of editions
of Luther’s writings in the Croatian tongue.
In 1518, Luther brought to Wittenberg from Leipzig Melchior Lotter, who
was an experienced printer and a man of good training and scholarship.
Lotter brought with him a good equipment of presses, type, and moulds,
and also a valuable collection of collated texts. In 1519, Luther is
able to write with satisfaction to Lange, the Augustinian Vicar in
Erfurt: “Lotter has completed the organisation here in Wittenberg of a
well-appointed printing-office, fitted for work in three languages.”
The languages were probably Latin, Greek, and German, but, a little
later, Hebrew fonts must also have been added. Lotter did not give up
his business in Leipzig, but after the completion of the organisation
of the Wittenberg establishment he placed in charge of it his two
sons, and arranged to pass the greater portion of his time in Leipzig.
I do not find any record of the arrangement entered into by Luther
with Lotter. It seems probable that the printer, who was a man of
established business and with resources, entered upon the undertaking
in Wittenberg as a venture of his own, on the strength of the assurance
from Luther that he could depend upon securing the printing commissions
of Luther and his associates and of such further material as might
come from the University. Luther had paid Grunenberg for the printing
of the earlier volumes, and he probably also retained in his own hands
the ownership of the editions manufactured by Lotter. Unfortunately,
the accounts of these editions appear not to have been preserved.
In 1531, Rhaw printed the Augsburg Confession, his edition of which
was accepted as the standard. He printed also many of the writings
of Melanchthon. Hans Lufft, whose work continued from 1523 to 1584,
printed after 1524 many of the publications of Luther. His special
achievement was the production of the German Bible in the several parts
and in the completed volume.
The printing and publishing interests of Wittenberg, which had their
beginning under the direction of Luther, in the University, continued
during a large part of the existence of the University to be associated
with and directed by it.
The first issue of Luther’s Bible in low German was printed in Lübeck,
in 1533, by Ludwig Dietz, of Rostock. In Jena, Conrad König was agent
for the sale of Luther’s works. The price per volume for the Bible was
eighteen groschens for Jena, at the Leipzig Fair nineteen groschens,
and at the Frankfort Fair twenty groschens.[122]
These earlier printers were fortunate in securing in their offices
the services, as revisers and correctors, of learned men who had
a scholarly interest in the work. Melanchthon served as editor,
reviser, and press-corrector in 1514-15 with Thomas Anshelm in
Tübingen. Professor Johann Hiltebrand, of the University of Tübingen,
Melanchthon’s predecessor in Anshelm’s office, named himself with pride
_Castigator Chalcographiæ Anselmitanæ_. He had supervised the printing
of several Latin and Greek grammars, and also of the _Epistolæ Virorum
Clarorum_, published as a rejoinder to the famous _Epistolæ Virorum
Obscurorum_. Pellican (Conrad) supervised for Petri of Basel the
printing of the piracy edition of Luther’s Bible, receiving for his
service board during the months he was occupied. The long association
of Erasmus with Froben has been already referred to. Rhenanus writes to
Erasmus, May 10, 1517: “Lachner promises to secure due acknowledgment
to you for your services. In September you will receive payment for the
work of revising the text of _S. Augustine_. He is now arranging the
matter with Koberger in Frankfort.”[123]
Kapp is authority for the statement that Luther received for his
literary work no honorarium or compensation other than occasional
copies of the printed volumes. This statement has reference doubtless
only to those publications of Luther’s (many of them wholly
unauthorised) which were issued by printer-publishers as ventures
of their own. It is probable, however, as before stated, that the
Wittenberg editions of the miscellaneous writings, and that of the
German Bible, were printed at Luther’s risk and expense, and it is fair
to assume that for the sale of these editions, which were his property,
the receipts (less some selling commission) were paid over to Luther.
The sale of Luther’s writings (both books and pamphlets) certainly
exceeded anything that had as yet been known in the book-markets
of Germany or of the world, and from the Wittenberg editions alone
there must have been some proceeds. The first editions of Luther’s
smaller and larger catechisms were printed in 1529 by George Rhaw, who
had established himself as a printer in Wittenberg in 1521. He was
distinguished as a musician and a mathematician, and, later, became
magistrate of the town.
After the publication of the Edict of Worms, Duke George of Saxony
took ground against the Reformers and forbade the printing and the
distribution of their literature. The authority of the Duke was
sufficient to put a stop to the larger portion of the printing that had
been carried on in Leipzig for the Reform writers, but Wittenberg was
outside of the Duke’s domain, and the Elector Ernest and his successor
Frederick, were both friendly to the Lutheran cause. As a result of the
restrictions in Leipzig, a number of the exiled printers made their way
to Wittenberg, and the presses of Wittenberg became busier than ever.
The printing of the German New Testament, begun in April, 1522, was
completed on the 22d of September of the same year, the first edition
comprising five thousand copies. By the end of July, Luther reports
that three presses were at work upon the book. This first edition was
printed in folio, and with the simple title, _Das Neue Testament,
Deutsch, Vuittenberg_. Neither the translator nor the printer is
specified, and the title-page bears no date. The volume was published
at one and a half guilders, the equivalent of twenty-five marks of
to-day, or $6.25. The edition was exhausted within three months after
publication. The German edition of the Old Testament appeared in
divisions; the Pentateuch was issued in January, 1523, and by the end
of 1524 had been published all but the Books of the Prophets. There
was then a long gap in the publication, the work being finally brought
to completion in 1534, in which year appeared the first edition of the
entire Scriptures in one volume.
In 1524, the artist, Lucas Cranach, an old friend of Luther,
instituted, in company with a goldsmith named Döring, a new
printing-office, to which was afterwards confided a large proportion
of the work of Luther. Cranach appears to have been a man of varied
activities. The portraits from his brush that have been preserved give
evidence of continuous work in his studio during this period, while
in addition to the printing-office above referred to, he carried on a
paper-warehouse and a book-shop. His several portraits of Luther are
the chief authority for the Reformer’s personal appearance. In 1534,
the Cranach-Döring printing establishment was transferred to three
new partners, Goltz, Schramm, and Vogel, who had secured from the
Elector Johann Friedrich a privilege covering the complete Bible. They
purchased the woodcuts that had been prepared from Cranach’s designs
for the Apocalypse, and they appear to have continued to utilise the
co-operation of Melchior Lotter (the younger).
Kapp records that during the lifetime of the Reformer, not less than
100,000 copies of Luther’s New Testament were printed in Wittenberg. It
would be much more difficult, and probably impracticable, to arrive at
any trustworthy estimate of the aggregate of the various unauthorised
editions issued in Germany. The circulation of both the authorised
and unauthorised editions was very much furthered, outside of the
regular channels of the book-trade, by the work of the pedlars and the
travelling preachers.
As has before been indicated, it would not be in order to judge by the
standards of later times the “reprinting” undertakings of the period
of the Reformation. It was not only the case that the larger number at
least of these reprinters felt no consciousness of wrong-doing or of
the infringement of any rights either of the author or of the original
publisher, but that, as far at least as the controversial writings of
the time were concerned, they believed they were rendering a material
service to the cause, and were carrying out the wishes of the Reformers
in securing for these writings the widest possible circulation. The
German Bible, having been placed under the ban of the Church, must be
classed with the controversial writings referred to, and it was, of
course, the most influential publication of the series in extending the
doctrines of the Reformation.
At the time of the death of Luther, there appear to have been no
privileges in force covering his version of the Bible, although claims
to its ownership were asserted by Hans Lufft. In 1500, Rühel and
Sulfisch of Wittenberg secured a privilege for printing the Bible,
but this evidently did not convey any exclusive right, and should
therefore be regarded rather in the light of a permit. Other editions
soon appeared in Leipzig, which was the best market for the sale of the
Bible, and for the control of this market various contests arose. The
restrictions upon the Leipzig publishers in regard to the printing of
the Luther versions were gradually removed, but it was not until 1564,
and chiefly at the instance of the Duke of Weimar, that this version
became common property (_literärisches Gemeingut_) for all Germany, and
was formally declared free of privilege.
Well pleased as Luther and his associates certainly were in being
able, either through their own publishers or through the reprinters,
to reach so many thousand readers, they were not a little troubled at
the inaccuracy and incompleteness of much of the material sold over
their names. In September, 1525, Luther writes to inquire whether his
printers have not been heedless in permitting thieves or burglars
to make away with “copy” or sheets for use in unauthorised printing
elsewhere. “It is bad enough,” he says, “for these rascals to get the
advantage, through theft, of my labour and pains, but with that I would
be patient, if it were not for the shamelessly false and blundering
form in which they issue books described as mine.... In looking at one
of these appropriated volumes, I find here a big gap, there something
entirely transposed, here a sentence falsified, and, again, an entire
paragraph left without corrections. It seems to me an abominable thing
that we should labour while others secure the results of our toil,
leaving for us only annoyance and shame.”
Luther closes his complaint, however, not with any contention for the
complete control of his material, but with the very moderate suggestion
that the reprinters ought, if only as a matter of Christian feeling
(_aus Christlicher Liebe_), first to wait a few months in order to
give to the original edition a fair chance before interfering with
it, and, secondly, to print their own issues with a decent regard for
correctness and completeness.
In September, 1525, Luther writes to the magistrates of Nuremberg,
complaining that a large portion of the proof-sheets of a volume of his
sermons had been stolen from his printing-office in Wittenberg, and had
been made use of in Nuremberg for the production of a piracy volume.
The publication of this volume in advance of the issue of the complete
work had caused his printers serious injury. (_Wodurch seinen Drückern
ein merklichen Schaden zugefügt sei._) He speaks here, it is to be
noted, as if the risk and ownership of this publication rested not
with himself, but with his printers. He goes on to say in his letter
to Nuremberg that he believes the printer Herrgott had been concerned
in this affair. He begs the magistrates to use their influence with
the local printers to induce them to delay bringing out reprints of
his writings until seven or eight weeks after the publication of the
original editions; certainly a very moderate request. He concludes, “If
you can give me no help in this matter, I shall be obliged to make an
open publication to warn the public against these thieves and robbers,
but I should be sorry to have to print in such a connection the name of
the city of Nuremberg.”[124]
The magistracy promised in reply to this appeal, that an edict should
be issued forbidding the reprinting, within a specified time, of
Luther’s writings. It appears, nevertheless, that for some years at
least no further action was taken. In 1532, however, in response to a
renewed appeal from Luther, an edict was issued, not forbidding the
Nuremberg printers to issue reprints, but simply forbidding the use on
publications printed in Nuremberg of the false imprint of Wittenberg.
This prohibition was, however, simply a repetition of a provision of
the imperial Act. The Nuremberg edict also insisted upon greater care
for an accurate text (_besser correctür befleyssen_).
In a letter from Luther to Spengler, the Syndic of Nuremberg, dated
November 7, 1525, he refers to an association that had been formed of
certain leading printers of the Rhine cities to repress or discourage
piracy (_diese Buberei_ is the expression used by Luther), and asks the
Syndic to induce Koberger to give to the association the aid of his
all-important influence and co-operation. It does not appear, however,
that the Kobergers interested themselves in the undertaking. Their
publications were almost exclusively works of a scholarly character,
issued (in Latin) in folio or in quarto, works which did not tempt the
German reprinters, whose appropriations were chiefly devoted to volumes
of a popular character and to pamphlets, _Flugschriften_. Aggravating
as this very general practice of piratical reprinting was to Luther
and to such other authors of the time (a group, however, at best but
inconsiderable) who had secured a popular hearing, and also to their
authorised publishers, it seems evident not only, as before pointed
out, that it furthered very largely the rapid spread of the doctrines
of the Reformation, but also that it helped to build up the business of
publishing and bookselling, and to develop the habit among the masses
of the people of buying and of reading books, and of being influenced
by printed arguments.
During the first years of the sixteenth century, instructors and
students were much hampered by the scarcity of text-books. When, in
1520, Reuchlin began his lectures in Ingolstadt, he reports that there
was in the town no single volume in Greek or Hebrew. He was obliged,
therefore, in his instruction work to write out texts in the two
languages on black-boards for the students to transcribe. Basilius
Amerbach, when he was a student in Tübingen, speaks of hiring on
certain hours in the week a copy of the _Corpus Juris_. Trutwetter,
the teacher of Luther, had taken his own classical instruction from
Publicus Rufus, a Florentine who had brought to Erfurt, shortly after
1500, the revived Italian enthusiasm for classical studies. The
University of Erfurt was one of the oldest in Germany, dating from 1392.
Luther mentions, as if it were an exceptional instance, that in
1506, when he was a student in Erfurt, he had bought a copy of the
_Corpus Juris_ (the book from which the lecturer was then giving
instruction).[125] It was evidently at this time not common for
students to own copies of the text-books in use. Thomas Plater relates
in his autobiography that in the school of S. Elizabeth at Breslau,
as late as 1515, there was usually but one text-book for each class.
The instructor or one of the students would read this for dictation,
and the students having taken their notes would memorise them for
recitation.[126] When Melanchthon began, in 1524, his lectures on
Demosthenes, the only copy of the _Orations_ in town was that owned by
the lecturer.
The chief representative of the intellectuality of the Lutheran
movement was doubtless Philip Melanchthon. Of Melanchthon’s relations
with the literary and publishing activities of the time, the limits of
this chapter will not permit any full consideration. It is sufficient
to say that, apart from his service as a preacher, and as collaborator
on the German Bible, he devoted himself particularly to the work of
preparing text-books for higher grade students, a work which earned
for him the title of _Præceptor Germaniæ_. He edited, and himself
in part wrote a series of text-books for use in the high schools and
universities on the subjects of Latin and Greek Grammar, Rhetoric,
Theology, Ethics, Physics, and Physiology. These books displaced in the
institutions of Protestant Germany the works of Catholic writers, many
of which were survivals of the schoolmen, and were entirely antiquated
and inadequate. The contention maintained by so many good Catholics,
that no literature that had once been sanctioned by the Church as
good and sufficient, could ever lose its value or authority, was of
course especially abused when applied to works of instruction. Under
the initiative chiefly of Melanchthon, Wittenberg became the centre of
instruction for the preachers and teachers of all Lutheran Germany,
while for a considerable period Strasburg filled a similar place for
the Calvinists of the South-west.
While the immediate direction of this educational work fell to
Melanchthon, the inspiration for it, as for so much of the intellectual
activity of the Reformation, is very largely to be credited to Luther,
who had from an early stage in the Reform work insisted upon the
necessity of defending the minds of the younger generation from the
influence of the educational traditions and routine doctrinal teachings
of the Church schools.
The work of the Lutheran educators would, of course, have been
impracticable if it had not been for the rapid development of the
publishing and book-selling trade of the country, a development the
chief incentive of which is also due to Luther. “Now the printers
will have their hands full,” writes Hutten in 1517, to the Count of
Neuenar, when he hears of Luther’s declaration against the operations
of Tetzel. Hutten’s prophecy was fulfilled far beyond his largest
imaginings. The bold attack of Luther was directed not merely at Tetzel
and his fraudulent auction sales of God’s forgiveness of sins, but at
the corruption and demoralisation of the Church, a demoralisation of
which, as Luther recognised, Tetzel and his Indulgences were but an
inconsiderable symptom.
The downfall of imperial Rome, which (irrespective of the internal
causes) was brought about by persistent Teutonic onslaughts, terminated
the period of the world’s history which is, for convenience, called
classic or ancient. In like manner, the overthrow of the world-wide
domination of ecclesiastical Rome was brought about by the attack of
the Teuton Luther, an attack which, backed up by the Teutonic forces
of North Europe, developed into a revolution against Italian rule, and
terminated the epoch of mediævalism. For long periods to come, however,
the questions raised by Luther and his fellow Protestants were to bring
anxieties and conflicts upon popes, emperors, princes, and people.
These questions were also to provide issues and themes for innumerable
writers, and to secure an apparently inexhaustible supply of material
for the printing-presses and the booksellers. It is only with this
last-named result that, for the purposes of the present study, I am
concerned.
According to the statistics of book-production collected with
painstaking thoroughness by Panzer, Weller, and Kuczynski, and
tabulated by Kapp, the total number of separate works (principally
pamphlets, _Flugschriften_) printed in German in the year 1513 was 90;
in 1518, 146; in 1520, 571; and in 1523, 944. The aggregate for the
ten years is 3113. Of the total for the decade, no less than 600 were
printed in Wittenberg, a place which before 1517 had not possessed a
printing-press[127]; this is an indication of the immediate effect
produced by the Lutheran movement upon the work of the printers. The
revolution in publishing methods brought about in connection with the
Reformation was not restricted to the introduction of German as a
language for popular publications. Of almost equal importance was
the change in the form and the price of books, the costly folios and
quartos being replaced by comparatively inexpensive twelvemos and
sixteenmos, and by far the larger proportion of the writings which
exercised the most immediate influence on the thought of the time
being issued in the form of pamphlets. These pamphlets, sold in the
market-places, along the highways, and from house to house, by pedlars
working for gain, and by colporteurs having a missionary purpose, took
the place which in modern times is filled by the magazine or weekly
paper.
Luther recognised at once the importance of the printing-press for
the work he had in hand, but he was himself amazed at the extent of
the public that he was able to reach when, after 1518, his tracts and
sermons came to be printed in German. Up to this time these had been
originally issued, according to the prevailing practice, in Latin, and
only in part translated into German. It is not easy at this period
to understand how the middle and lower classes in Germany had been
able, by the beginning of the sixteenth century, to secure so general
a proficiency in reading as to be able to profit by the pamphlet
literature of the time, but, that a widespread elementary education
existed, is evident from the circulation secured for these pamphlets,
and from their immediate influence upon opinion and belief. I can but
think that the high standard of popular intelligence which rendered
possible the comprehensive and general acceptance of the doctrines of
the Reformers, doctrines largely made known through printed arguments,
may very properly be taken as a limitation upon the rather highly
coloured descriptions given by D’Aubigné and some other Protestant
historians of the extreme ignorance in which the masses of the people
had been left under the ministrations of the Church of Rome.
The Edict of Worms of 1521, which committed the Emperor Charles V.
to the support of the contentions of the Papacy, and threw the great
weight of the Holy Roman Empire against the cause of the Protestant
Reformers, marks also an important stage in the history of publishing
undertakings in Germany. It announced the beginning of an imperial
censorship, a censorship which was confirmed and extended by the Edict
of Nuremberg of 1524. The first part of the edict may be summarised
as condemning Luther and all his works, while the second, under the
head of “regulation of printing” (_Gesetz der Druckerey_), forbids the
printing of all writings that have not secured the explicit approval
and sanction of the ecclesiastical authorities. In the regions under
Lutheran influence, the only effect of the imperial and ecclesiastical
prohibition was, as noted, to increase largely the circulation of the
writings of the Reformers. In the districts into which the Reform
doctrines had only begun to penetrate, the ecclesiastics were able in
great part, at least, to stop the further circulation of the pamphlets,
by taking prompt and harsh measures against the colporteurs. From this
time and until the close of the Thirty Years’ War, Church and State
worked together (though not always in harmony) against the freedom of
the Press, on the broad ground that such freedom necessarily resulted
in heresy and in treason. The first imperial Act in regard to libellous
publications appears to have been framed on the assumption that every
writing by a Protestant, even if entirely unconnected with theology or
with politics, must be libellous.
Charles V. had been willing to leave the responsibility for the
censorship of the Press in the hands of the Church. During his reign,
the printers were busying themselves chiefly with controversial
material, and in the effects of this upon the minds of the people
the State was interested only indirectly. The Emperor Ferdinand was
a more faithful, that is to say, a more bigoted, son of the Church
than Charles, but he refused to admit that the control of the Press
was a Church matter. He took the ground that censorship was a matter
pertaining to the State, that is, to the Crown, and that the Bishops
could take part in it only as delegates of the authority of the State.
This was the contention asserted and finally secured by Francis I. and
his successors in France.
In 1528, under the authority of the Emperor, Balthasar Hubmayer, a
preacher, printer, and travelling bookseller of Nikolsburg, was burned
in Vienna, together with his wife and two apprentices, for spreading
false doctrines. Hubmayer had at first accepted the Lutheran views,
but had, later, associated himself with the Anabaptists. In 1529, the
persecution of the printers and of the Protestants in Austria was for
the time relaxed because of the peril of Vienna from the Turks, an
exigency which absorbed the full attention of the imperial authorities.
In 1564, was published in Rome an _Index librorum prohibitorum_, the
first of a long series.
The censorship was by no means left exclusively in the hands of
the imperial or of the ecclesiastical authorities. With no little
variation of policy both as to the theory or standard of supervision
and as to the methods of carrying out the restrictions imposed, many
of the States established censorship of their own, and the same
course was taken by a number of the cities like Nuremberg, Strasburg,
Frankfort, and others, in which the printing business had begun to
assume importance, and where the Church authorities had not already
taken charge of the function. In Nuremberg, one of the earliest
instances of the exercise of a city censorship occurred in 1527, in
the case of a volume containing woodcuts illustrating the history of
the Tower of Babel, for which cuts a rhyming text had been supplied
by the cobbler-poet, Hans Sachs. The book had been printed without a
licence or permission from the magistracy. The magistrates decided
that the book must be suppressed. They further cautioned Sachs that
the writing of verses was not his proper business, and that he should
keep to his own trade of shoemaking. _Nun seye solches seines Amtes
nicht, gebuhre ihm auch nicht.... Rathes ernster Befehl dass er seines
Schuhmachens warte, sich auch enthalte Büchlein oder Reymen hinfür
ausgehen zu lassen._ The edict was simply an emphatic reiteration of
the old proverb, “Shoemaker, stick to your last,” or _Ne sutor supra
crepidam_. The difficulty appears in this case to have been due not to
the Lutheran tendencies of Sachs’s rhymes, but to the lack of respect
shown to the magistrates in issuing a book without a permit; and to
the further breach of authority on the part of a man licensed only as
a shoemaker, undertaking also to carry on the avocation of a poet.
Sachs’s later history shows, however, that it did not prove practicable
to keep the poetic shoemaker from writing and from printing his
productions.
Luther was, it should be remembered, thoroughly in accord with Pope
and with Emperor in the belief that it was the duty of the believers
to stamp out heresy. He only differed with them as to what constituted
heresy. In 1525, we find him invoking the aid of the censorship
regulations of Saxony and of Brandenburg for the purpose of stamping
out the “pernicious doctrines” of the Anabaptists and of the followers
of Zwingli. The Protestant princes were, for the most part, more than
willing to establish and to maintain a censorship for the presses of
their several localities, as such a system served in more ways than one
to strengthen their authority, while it could be utilised also to head
off undesirable criticism.
As an evidence of the very general distribution secured for Luther’s
writings, may be cited a letter, dated February 14, 1519, written to
the Reformer from Basel by the publisher Froben, in which he speaks
of large supplies of the Basel editions being called for, not only
in Germany, but in France, Spain, Italy, Brabant, and England. The
reference is to the first collection of Luther’s works, of which
impressions were printed in 1518, 1519, and again in 1520.[128] Kapp
is of opinion that from these sales the author asked for and received
no return either in the form of royalty or honorarium. His purposes
were accomplished when his teachings, correctly printed, in editions
authorised and supervised by himself, and sold at the lowest prices
compatible with accurate typography, had secured the widest possible
circulation. While, therefore, Luther serves as an example of a
successful author, the most successful, in fact, that the world had
as yet seen, his experience as an author did not help to advance the
recognition of the rights of an author in his literary productions.
To Luther, his writings were not property, to be controlled for the
benefit of the author, but great truths and sound doctrine essential
for the saving of souls, and to be scattered widely for the benefit of
the reader. Köpflin, writing to Luther from Hagenau in 1519, says, “We
have printed your books one after another, and within six months have
disposed of all the copies.”
Luther himself writes to Cardinal Lang, in the same year, that his
books were being read by the theologians of the Sorbonne. Johann Faber,
Vicar-General in Constance, writes in 1521 to Vadian, “Through the
wrong-doing of irresponsible printers, all kinds of unlettered people
have read or have had read to them the teachings of Luther: even the
old women in the streets stop to chatter about them.”[129] It is to be
remembered that the effective circulation of Luther’s pamphlets (and
of all the popular publications of the time) was very much multiplied
by the practice on the part of those interested in the doctrines,
of reading such pamphlets out loud in the market-places, to all who
might be interested. After the Lutheran writings had been put under
interdict, such public readings had to be discontinued in the towns and
districts which remained under Catholic control; but the pamphlets were
still widely (though surreptitiously) sold by pedlars and colporteurs,
and the readings continued in places which were less liable to
interruption than the inns and market-places.
The jurist Scheurl writes from Nuremberg to Cardinal Campeggi, March
15, 1524, “Every common man is now asking for books or pamphlets, and
more reading is being done in a day than heretofore in a year.”[130] In
Nuremberg, as in other towns, it became the practice to read the books
of Luther out loud in the market-place. Erasmus complains, in 1523,
that since the publication of the New Testament, the whole book-trade
seems to be absorbed with the writings of Luther, and to be interested
in giving attention to nothing else. He says that it is very difficult
to find publishers willing to place their imprint upon works written in
behalf of the papacy. In one form or another, the German Testament and
the other writings of Luther were distributed with surprising rapidity
among all classes of people. As an example of the kind of interest
they excited, it is recorded that the magistrates of Bremen sent a
bookseller to Wittenberg for the purpose of purchasing for their use a
set of Luther’s works. The citizens of Speyer are described as having
the books read to them at supper, and as making transcripts of them. In
hundreds of towns throughout Germany, Luther’s writings were brought
to the notice of the people by means of the very edict which had for
its purpose their final suppression, and after the Diet of Worms, the
demand for them rapidly increased. The preacher Matthäus Zell writes
from Strasburg in 1523, “The Lutheran books are for sale here in the
market-place immediately beneath the edicts of the Emperor and of the
Pope declaring them to be prohibited.”
In the first half of the sixteenth century, means of communication were
very imperfect, and the delays and difficulties of transportation of
goods from one part of the country to another (particularly on routes
away from the rivers) were very considerable. With no trustworthy
postal system, and with very restricted facilities for remitting money,
the hindrances in the way of ordering books, of delivering them, and
of collecting the amounts due for them, must have been very great. In
the absence of journals, it could have been by no means an easy matter
even to make known to possible buyers the fact that certain books had
been published. The booksellers depended for information concerning new
publications upon the semi-annual Fair which had been instituted at
Frankfort, but at this period it was only the more considerable dealers
who could afford to make regular visits to the Fair, while it was also
the case that a considerable proportion of possible buyers were not
within reach of book-dealers of this class. There were, therefore,
in this initial stage of the book-trade, not a few inducements for
the production in various places, for supplying the demand of the
particular locality, of books of a popular character, and this practice
of producing unauthorised reprints, while often causing grievances
of one kind or another, was hardly regarded as a misdemeanour, if
carried on with moderation and with some little regard for the wishes
of the author. The practice had also certain specific advantages for
the community, in ensuring prompter supplies of books of present
interest, and in furthering the developing of local bookselling and of
general education. The material service rendered to the cause of the
Reformation by these earlier “book-pirates” has already been touched
upon.
Under the pressure of the widespread interest in the writings of the
Reformation, publishing business was done in a number of out-of-the-way
little towns which would to-day hardly support a printing-press.
Lutheran tracts were printed, for instance, in such places as Grimma,
Zwickau, and Eilenburg, principally for sale through the pedlars.
These issues were very frequently published without imprint or date,
and the tracing of the history of their publication has, therefore,
been difficult. The patience of the German bibliographers is, however,
inexhaustible, and the lists of the presses of the fifteenth and
sixteenth centuries are probably now fairly complete.
Kapp says that the Petri edition of Luther’s _Testament_, printed in
Basel, could hardly have found its way as far north as Saxony, and
when, therefore, he finds record of the sale of copies in Meissen in
1523, as low as fifteen groschens, when the Wittenberg price was thirty
groschens, it is evident that piracy editions must have been produced
in the North as well as in the South. The activity of Magdeburg as a
centre for the production and distribution of Protestant literature,
has already been referred to. After the death of Luther, the publishing
trade of Wittenberg, which had been the creation of his personality,
slackened, and Magdeburg became the headquarters of the literary
interests of the Reformers. The trade in Bibles and hymn books, and in
the collected works of Luther was especially important, and continued
until the destruction of the city by Tilly in 1631.
The city of Münster was another place where Protestantism had taken
a strong hold, and large supplies of the New Testament and of the
Lutheran writings were distributed from the presses of Münster
throughout Westphalia and the adjoining provinces on the north.
The excesses of the Anabaptists, who, under John of Leyden and his
associates, had possession of the town for a number of months, 1535-36,
were, however, wellnigh destructive of its Protestantism, and proved
fatal to its publishing business. In the general havoc which obtained
both before and after the overthrow of the Anabaptists, books and
printing-presses perished together. When the Catholic Bishop resumed
his sway, the production of the Lutheran literature ceased, and there
were but few Catholic publications to take its place. The story of the
brief and dramatic rule of the Anabaptists in Münster was utilised by
Meyerbeer for his opera, _The Prophet_. In 1562, an edict issued by the
Bishop ordered the destruction of all Protestant books in Westphalia,
and made it a misdemeanour to print, sell, or possess any such books.
The sales continued notwithstanding, the supplies coming mainly from
Magdeburg.
In the Austrian dominions, the Church succeeded, in 1525, in inducing
the Emperor Ferdinand to prohibit the sale or the possession of
Lutheran or Calvinist literature. The book-pedlars succeeded for a
time in evading the prohibition and in distributing large supplies
of the Testament and of the tracts. The persistency of the Jesuits
was, however, in the end successful in crushing out the business.
Book-pedlars were treated as malefactors, the peasantry and the
townsfolk were frightened, and the demand gradually died away. In other
portions of Germany, the circulation of the Protestant literature was,
on the whole, increased through the prohibitions. The usual price for
the Protestant tracts was one groschen, equal to two and a half cents,
or in purchasing power to perhaps twelve cents to-day. Each tract
reached, as a rule, a number of readers or of hearers, for the old
Oriental and Greek practice of reading aloud to an audience was carried
on in hundreds of market-places, shops, and other informal auditoriums.
One of the travelling printers and book-pedlars who came to a tragical
end was Johann Herrgott, who has before been referred to as a reprinter
in Nuremberg of Luther’s writings, and who appears to have circulated
also a number of tracts considered by Luther to be extremely heretical.
He was executed, in 1527, in Leipzig, under the instructions of Duke
George of Saxony. The Duke was an old-time opponent of Luther, and
he appears to have taken the ground that freedom of speech in any
direction was objectionable. There was paid for the burial of this
too-persistent bookseller the sum of six groschens.
The circulation of the Lutheran tracts was taken charge of not only by
the book-pedlars and colporteurs but by a large number of travelling
preachers, _Prädikanten_. These “preachers” were, in part, old-time
priests, but in many cases laymen of very varying degrees of education
or of ignorance. The Wittenberg tracts gave, however, a supply of
ammunition which even the most ignorant preachers could make effective.
In reaching the masses of the people, such tracts could be made more
serviceable than the rejoinders of the Catholic writers, as these last
were, with hardly an exception, written in Latin.
During the troublous times of the war of the peasants, the progress
of the Reformation was checked, and the circulation of the Lutheran
publications, in the districts affected by the uprising, was for the
time brought to a close. As one of the historians expresses it, “The
bloody crushing out of the revolting peasants cut through the vital
nerve of the Lutheran movement towards the creation of a national
Church.... Luther showed, however, the capacity to meet the crisis....
Fortunately for the nation, he now possessed the influence which
enabled him to direct.... Repressing, on the one hand, the tumultuous
contentions of his followers among the peasants, using his influence,
on the other, to temper the fierce indignation of the noble class,
he was in a position to do much to further the final settlement, and
was able, finally, to save from the ruin that had seemed imminent the
beginnings of the Lutheran Church.”[131]
The active leadership of the Reform movement had fallen upon Luther,
who, while quite conscious of the power of argument, of which he made
full use, was by nature a fighter, and whose very arguments, in their
forcible and trenchant and sometimes brutal character, had the effect
of verbal cudgels. One characteristic, in fact, of the literature, or
perhaps it is more accurate to say of the controversial literature, of
the sixteenth century, was the tendency to coarseness of expression,
and the frequent use of libels and lampoons. When great scholars like
Erasmus and Reuchlin permitted themselves to indulge in satirical
invective, of which, judged by the standard of to-day, the coarseness
was often more apparent than the wit, it is not surprising that
fighters like Luther and Hutten should be ready to indulge in verbal
onslaughts which seem more akin to brutal horse-play than to reasonable
argument. Luther’s last publication, issued in 1545, was a series of
theses written in reply to a fresh condemnation pronounced against him
by the theologians of Louvain, in which series he included a final
paper against the Zwinglians. His death occurred in 1546.
Enormous as was the circulation of Luther’s writings at the time,
and important and far-reaching as was their influence, they have not
taken a place in the world’s literature, and but few of them would
to-day find readers except among special students of the period. It
is to be borne in mind, however, that while the writings of Luther
have not lived as books, the teachings and doctrines presented in them
have formed the basis of an enormous mass of doctrinal and religious
literature, and have continued to direct, or at least to influence,
the thought and the faith of a very large division of the Christian
world. Luther as an author may be dead, but three hundred and fifty
years after his death, his thoughts and teachings are still, through
the books of his followers, reaching thousands of readers, and on both
sides of the Atlantic his spirit is still preaching in thousands of
pulpits.
I have presented this summary of the published writings of Luther
simply as an example of the literary undertakings and of the publishing
methods of the time. What has been said about the printing and the
distribution of the works of Luther could be repeated in regard to
the long series of productions of most of the other writers of the
Reformation, such as Melanchthon, Zwingli, Oecolampadius, and also
those of their opponents, Cochläus, Eck, and the others.
It was doubtless an obstacle in the way of the development of the
conception of property in literary productions, that during the
first century of the printing-press, so large a proportion of the
publications which were the work of contemporary writers, belonged to
the class of religious, doctrinal, and controversial literature. The
chief purpose of authors like Luther and Zwingli, was, as we have seen,
to secure the widest possible distribution for their teachings. They
believed that a right understanding of certain doctrines was essential
to salvation, and they believed, further, that the responsibility had
been confided to them of bringing these doctrines to humanity. It was
not easy for authors holding such a conviction to undertake to restrict
or control the sale of their writings for the purpose of securing
profits for themselves. There would, of course, under the existing
conditions, have been many difficulties in the way of carrying out such
control if it had been attempted. The fact remains, however, that such
attempts were but infrequent. With this attitude on the part of the
writers, and of those who were earnestly interested with these writers
in establishing creeds and in influencing public opinion, it is not
surprising that the practice became general of reprinting any material
for which there was demand, or for which it was believed that a demand
could be created.
Such reprints were made in many cases by zealous disciples, who
multiplied and distributed copies for “missionary” work, but outside
of the believers, there were naturally many others, printers and
book-pedlars, who were very ready to take advantage of a time of
religious fervour or of controversial interest, and to make money
by supplying the literature produced by the Reformers or by their
antagonists. The objections that came from the authors were mainly
on the ground of inaccuracy in the printing of these unsupervised
editions. If the cause was to be furthered by the wholesale
appropriation and general distribution of their writings, they were
estopped from any serious opposition to the reprinters. The habit thus
became very generally established on the part of the printers and
the booksellers, of regarding literary productions as _feræ naturæ_,
in connection with which no property right could be claimed. The
reading public, which, as far as the mass of the people was concerned,
came into existence only with the application of the printing-press
to the literature of the Reformation, grew up, therefore, with the
general belief that nothing more was due to the author than to read
his teachings in any form in which they could be obtained, and for
these earlier readers any distinction between an authorised and an
unauthorised edition was, for more reasons than one, an impossibility.
While Luther received moneys from the sale of the Wittenberg editions
of his books and possibly from a few others, it is certainly the case
that he made no money from these sales. Every gulden that was paid for
the books, every pfennig that came in from the fly-leaves or pamphlets,
appears to have been at once expended in further printings and in
instituting further distributing machinery. The same was the case with
the other writers of the Lutheran group and also with Zwingli and the
Swiss reformers generally. The books of Calvin formed to some extent
an exception. They were less available for popular circulation, and,
being addressed more particularly to scholarly readers, were for the
most part printed in Latin. For them, the publishing arrangements
were more in accord with later methods, and the competition of
piracy editions was less serious. It is probable, therefore, that
they produced some returns for the author. Some details concerning
the Calvin publications are given in the chapter on Robert Estienne.
We may conclude that while the Reformation was of important service
in furthering the work of the printers, in giving material for the
booksellers, and in inducing the habit of buying and of reading printed
matter, it probably helped to delay for a number of years the formation
of a correct conception of literary productions as property. The one
writer of the time who was, however, able to do something to establish
such an understanding, and who succeeded also in securing some
substantial returns from the sale of his works, was Erasmus. An account
of the publishing undertakings of Erasmus has been given in another
chapter.
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