Page:Thirty-five years of Luther research.djvu/135

Rh his "Deutsche Messæ," in 1523 and again in 1526 his "Taufbuechlein," 1529 the "Traubuechlein," 1529 the two catechisms, 1523 resp. 1524 the evangelical hymnbook, admonished in 1524 to erect evangelical schools, took an active part in the visitation of churches and schools in the Electorate of Saxony in 1528-29, and advised Bugenhagen, when he went to Braunschweig and other cities, to introduce there a new and evangelical order of the entire church affairs.

Gottschick, Gruenberg, Hans, Achelis, Rietschel and others attempted to state what views Luther held concerning an evangelical Divine Service.67

In order that the German Service might also possess a German hymnary, Luther not only called on others to compose German hymns, but also applied himself to this task. And, although about forty years of age, he still became the author of quite a number of the most precious church hymns. This view had obtained pretty generally at least67 until a short while ago, even though Groessler contended more and more steadfastly that at least "Ein' feste Burg" was traceable to April, 1521, to his journey to Worms. It was due to Spitta,67 however, that many who held this view, became otherwise convinced and accepted the one Spitta offered, to wit, that we possess hymns from Luther that already date back to his student years, to the time of his spiritual unrest as a monk, and to the days of his early reformatory activity. The more careful historians of the Reformation, however, have up until now abstained with due cause from giving this theory their support.

Thanks are due to F. Zelle67 for a thoroughgoing work on the first hymn-books that contained Luther's hymns.