Luther, obtained a release from the menial tasks which were heaped upon him in the cloister to prevent him from study, and gained permission to follow his intellectual aspirations. Among the higher ranks of the clergy, a narrow, trivial scholasticism cramped the intellect, and so chilled the religious nature as to cause a general contempt for the study of the Scriptures. We are told that a number of German monasteries did not possess a copy of the Bible, and many monks and pastors had never seen one. Prior to the publication of Erasmus' Greek Testament, in 1519, it was impossible to procure a Greek version of the Gospels in all Germany. Luther knew only parts of the Bible -passages from the Gospels and Epistles - up to his twentieth year, when he first discovered a complete copy of the Scriptures in the monastery at Erfurt, and threw himself into its study with all the energy of his mighty nature. Even where the Scriptures were read, their sense was buried under the enormous accumulation of scholastic lore and the allegorical and sophistical methods of interpretation common to that day. Of this, Luther himself gives striking testimony in his first essay in authorship, the Commentary on the Psalms, prepared for publication in 1516. Although at this time he had freed himself from the fetters of the scholastic learning, which held so many minds captive in his day, we here find him still adhering to the reigning methods of Scripture exegesis. The opening words of the Psalter, "Blessed is the man," etc., signify to him, literally, Jesus did not condemn himself, as was the evil habit of the Jews; allegorically, the Church was not agreed with the evil lusts of the unbelievers; and, tropically, the Spirit will not be at one with the flesh. The word "Jerusalem " signifies, allegorically, the good; tropologically, virtue; anagogically, rewards. The word "Babylon" signifies, allegorically, the bad; tropologically, vice; anagogically, punishments. Mount Zion signifies, historically, the land of Canaan; allegorically, the Jewish Church; tropically, the Pharisaic selfrighteousness in the same; anagogically, the coming glory of the flesh. In his remarks on another Psalm, he teaches

that this Psalm treats, according to the letter, of Christ; allegorically, of the Church and the tyrants who pursue it; tropologically, it is directed against the sinful flesh, the world, and the devil; and, from a common-sense point of view, it may be understood to refer to David. The growing insight of the great reformer soon showed him the baselessness and absurdity of this symbolical method. In his TableTalk, he tells us that, while still a monk, he was a master in the art of spiritual interpretation, and allegorized the whole Scripture. "Now, I have learned by experience; and my best and only art is tradere Scripturam simplici

sensu."

To such a low estate had the Bible fallen in Luther's day. Already, however, there were signs of a great intellectual and moral awakening among the German people. "When Learning fled from the cells, she took refuge in the outer world." That great revival of classical studies, of secular science and free thought, called the Humanistic movement, together with the invention of printing and the establishment of the German universities (Prague, 1348, Vienna, 1365, Heidelberg, 1386, Wittenberg, 1502), mediated the return of knowledge and enlightenment from their long exile. In vain did scholastic learning and ecclesiastical authority set themselves in opposition to this movement. A revival of classical and Oriental studies took place, so general and enthusiastic that some feared with Erasmus that it would result in bringing back the ancient paganism. The result of these classical and critical studies soon became apparent in the increased attention paid to the Scriptures. Hitherto, the Vulgate had been the chief, if not sole, authority of the Church; but eminent Orientalists, like John Reuchlin († 1522), pointed out its manifold errors of translation, and even falsifications of the original text. Of still greater influence in destroying the exceptional esteem with which the Vulgate had been regarded were the critical labors of Erasmus of Rotterdam. The wide-spread discontent with the corrupt and scandalous practices of the Roman clergy, and the tyrannical course of the papacy

in setting itself in opposition to the national aspirations of the German people, turned the minds of men with increasing interest toward the historical sources of Christianity.

About the beginning of the fourteenth century there accordingly appeared a German version of the Scriptures, made from the Latin Vulgate by an unknown author, probably an ecclesiastic who feared his Church too much to affix his name to his work. This version appeared down to the year 1518 in fourteen different editions (at Mayence, Augsburg, Nuremberg, etc.), besides three in the Lower Saxon dialect. There were also many editions of the Psalms, Gospels, and other separate books. All these editions follow one and the same text, with more or less corrections and dialectic variations. The translation is made in slavish conformity with the Latin, and with not infrequent gross misreading of the original. Couched in a barbarous Latinized German, this version attained to but a limited circulation, and did not exert any noteworthy influence.

The wide-spread agitation of that age finally assumed a more positive character in the Protestant Reformation, whose first constructive and foundation-laying work was the translation into the vernacular of the Bible, to which the reformers appealed as their authority and on which they rested their faith. In 1521, Martin Luther gave the first part of his German Bible to the world, perhaps the most important religious and literary event since the original writings of the New Testament were brought forth by the Christian consciousness.

The circumstances under which this translation was begun form one of the most interesting episodes in the laborious and dramatic life of Luther. The story of his arrest and friendly detention at the Wartburg is a familiar one. It was in the retirement of this Patmos, as he loved to call it, that Luther planned and began his translation, whose preparation had for some time been on his mind. His courage and self-dependence in undertaking a work of such magnitude with so few facilities and literary resources awaken admiration. There was no library at the Wartburg, and no

scholarly friends at hand to assist him. He had only the original Greek, the Vulgate, and a lexicon or two; and yet in a few months, between November, 1521, and the following March, his version of the New Testament was completed.

In order to make his labors immediately available, he published by instalments the various parts of the New Testament as speedily as they were rendered into the German. In 1522, he returned to Wittenberg, and with the valuable aid of Melanchthon revised the entire work, which was published in folio in September of the same year. The library at Wittenberg contains this original edition. The work appeared without the name of either author or printer, the price being one and a half florins, equal to seven or eight dollars at our present valuation. Even at this comparatively high price, this first edition was soon exhausted, and a second was issued three months later.

The Old Testament next appeared in similar instalments, beginning in 1523 with the Pentateuch, and ending with the Apocrypha. In 1534, the work was completed, and the Bible published as a whole. Thus, in the comparatively short space of twelve years, years crowded with other important labors, this great work was successfully brought to an end. It should be remembered that during all this time Luther filled his position as professor at Wittenberg, preached regularly and sometimes two or three times a day, conducted exciting controversies at home and abroad, wrote the two catechisms which bear his name and other tracts and books, visited churches and schools, and went on long and arduous journeys. At times, he was so overwhelmed with public and private business that, to secure time for his beloved task, he was compelled to shut himself up in his room. In this wise, we are told, he worked for three days on the twenty-second psalm, concealed in his solitary study. His poor wife sought him every where. In vain she knocked at his door. At length, her anxiety became too great to be borne any longer. She had the locksmith come and force the door of his room. There,

deeply absorbed in thought, sat the earnest student of the Word. Near him on the table was a little bread and salt, his only nourishment. In reply to her tender reproaches, he made answer only, "Didst thou think I was engaged in something bad?" and pointed to the twenty-second psalm.

Never has a book met with a more enthusiastic reception. The time was ripe for its appearance. The Latin was falling into disuse. The people were eager to read the Scriptures for themselves. The growing national feeling appreciated the honor done the native idiom. The press of that day, largely controlled by Luther's adherents, issued the work with unusual accuracy and elegance. The distinguished painters Albert Dürer and Lucas Kranach contributed ornamental designs and arabesques to it. The reprints at Augsburg, Strasburg, Basle, etc., were very numerous. Luther warned Luther warned the public against such reprints, not from any interested motive,- for he never took any recompense for his work,- but because of the errors they contained. Up to the year 1543 there were issued seventeen original editions of the New Testament and fifty-two reprints. Luther lived to see ten original editions of his entire German Bible. That of the year 1545 was the last one he corrected. A noble variorum edition, based on this final revision by his hand, was published in seven volumes at Halle in 1845-1855 by Bindseil and Niemayer.

In his arrangement of the canon, Luther usually followed the order of the books and chapters given in the Vulgate, but with important exceptions. He gave some parallel readings and glosses, in which controversial questions were disposed of; but, in later issues, these were left out. He also wrote prefaces for the whole work, as well as for each book separately. Of these, his introduction to the Psalms has an enduring value and beauty. A peculiarity of the original editions is that all words denoting an evil quality are begun with a Roman capital letter, while all words which stand for good qualities are printed with the usual German initial.