Page:Luther's correspondence and other contemporary letters 1507-1521.djvu/46

 aa LUTHER TO JOHN LANG AT ERFURT. Enden, L 54. (Middle of October, 1516.)'

. . . Therefore, take care, as your Tauler' commands, to persevere, keeping yourself apart and yet accessible to all men, as is befitting the son of the same God and the same church. • • •

There is nothing for your schoohnen* to marvel at in my propositions,^ or rather those of Bartholomew Bemhardi,* although my own schoolmen have expressed wonder at them. And the propositions were not composed by me, but by Bern- hardi, moved thereto by the chatter of the detractors of my lectures. He did it so that, by a public discussion held, excep- tionally, under my presidency, the mouths of the chatterers might be stopped or the opinions of others be heard. I offended all very much by denying that the book on true and false penitence was Augustine's.* It is bungling and inept, nothing if not different from Augustine's opinions and learn- ing. I knew, indeed, that Gratian^ and the Master of the Sentences" had taken a good deal from it, which was not medicine, but poison for consciences. But I offended them implacably, especially Dr. Carktadt,* because, knowing this,

^This letter, vitko«t date, k placed by Enden in September, Imt the date bere giveii is aore likely. Cf. Weimar, i 143, and St. Lonis, xxi, no. 44.

nUia ia the first alliwon to Tanlcr, tlie German mystie (ti36i) who influenced him ao fliiich. I believe, however, that echoes of Tauler can be found in the letters of May i, and June as, and perhaps April 8 of this year. According to the p r esent notice it was Lang who introduced him to this writer. Towards the end of 1S16 Luther edited an anonymons tract of this school, to which he gave the name "A Gerosan Tkeolofy." Cf, Smith, p. 27. Kostiin-Kawerau, L 1 1 1.

whose do ctrin e s that of the free will was prominent
 * Gahridistae, followers of Gabriel Biel, the last of the great schoolmen, among

^These theses, defended by Bemhardi on September as, 1516, under Luther's presidency, deny the possibility of a man's fulfilling God's commands by his free will without grace. Wchnar, L 14a. Kdstlin-Kawerau, L 129*30. pastor of Kcnben^

style, and was also correct in exposing another work wrongly attributed to
 * Lather was qotte right in denying its authenticity. He had a keen sense of

��VThe D ccfetuui of Master Gratian, composed in the twelfth century at Bologna from the decreea of cooncils and popes, became the foundation of the Canon Law.

■Pelcr Lombard, on whose Sentences, the chief text book of medieval theology, also a twdfth ce ntur y work, Luther had lectured i509-xi. For references to their qnotations from Lsmbard, Enders, i 5^

^Andrew Bodemtcin of Carlstadt (c 1480-1S41) studied at Erfurt 1499-1503, at C^(>fD« i50)-4v when he went to Wittenberg where he took the doctorate of

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