Martin Luther's wills
Two wills have come down to us from the reformer Martin Luther (1483–1546) .
Testament 1537
A first theological testament was drawn up on the occasion of Luther's serious illness on February 28, 1537 in Gotha . In anticipation of his death, he presented Johannes Bugenhagen the confession , and received the absolution . At the request of Elector Johann Friedrich , Bugenhagen wrote down the main content from memory on April 9, 1537. This transcript in Latin with German sprinkles is now in the Thuringian main state archive in Weimar . A German translation can be found in the appendix. A copy of this translation can be found in the Gotha Research Library in the estate of the Jena theologian Johann Gerhard (1582–1637).
Luther affirmed in it, "that I did right, that I have defeated the papacy with God's word". He asks Philipp Melanchthon , Justus Jonas and Caspar Cruciger for forgiveness and comforts and thanks his wife Käthe . Addressing the Elector of Saxony and Landgrave Philipp von Hessen , he defended their confiscation of church property because they used it for religious purposes and in the spirit of the Gospel. He encourages them, even if they are sinners in some ways, not to fall back into the blasphemies of the papacy. If he continues to live, he will attack the “Roman monster” (“bestiam illam Romanam”) even more severely. At the end he recommends his soul in the hands of God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, “whom I preached and confessed on earth” (“quem praedicavi et super terram confessus sum”).
Testament 1542
Luther wrote a second, personal will on the occasion of health problems in Wittenberg in 1542 ; it is from his estate . It was testified by Philipp Melanchthon, Caspar Cruciger and Johannes Bugenhagen. In it he confirms to his wife Katharina, with very personal reasons, the personal thing that he had promised her in the marriage contract of 1525.
This document remained in the possession of the Luther family until 1759 and came to the theologian Samuel Benedict Carpzov (1647–1707) after the death of the last male descendant of Luther, Martin Gottlob Luther . After the death of his great-great-nephew, it was auctioned in Helmstedt in 1804 . It was there that the Hungarian collector Miklós Jankovich acquired it . In 1832 he donated it to the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Hungary , in whose museum and archive in Budapest it is now kept.
Web links
- Testament from 1537, written in Latin by Bugenhagen with biographical commentary: D. Martin Luther's works. Critical complete edition . Correspondence 8th volume . Weimar 1938, pp. 54-56
- Luther's Gotha Testament from 1537
- Text of the will from 1542
literature
- Karl Eduard Förstemann : Dr. Martin Luther's wills from 1537 and 1542 . Nordhausen 1846 ( digitized ).
- Tibor Fabiny : Martin Luther's last will. The Reformer's Testament and its History . Corvina Kiadó, Budapest 1983.
Remarks
- ↑ “Iterum confessus est peccata sua Doctori Pomerano et accepit absolutionem.” ( WA )
- ↑ Thuringian Main State Archive Weimar, Ernestine General Archive, Reg. N 182, Sheet 4v – 5r.
- ↑ pages 7r – 9v.
- ↑ Digital presentation and transcription of the Gotha Testament by Martin Luther's FB Gotha, chart. A 86, sheet 260r – v.
- ↑ text .