Page:Thirty-five years of Luther research.djvu/162

110 been too much ado made about the Lord's supper, etc." Amsdorf also accused Roerer, the editor of Luther's Works, of having falsified Luther's writing, "Dass diese Worte noch feststehen," because some of the parts did not agree with the original of 1524. It was rendering a valuable service when Haussleiter proved that Hardenberg's assertions were not entirely lacking in historical foundations, but that the fact had been much distorted here. The conference at Regensburg, namely, at which Butzer represented the Protestants, occurred at the same time when the second volume of Luther's German works was to be printed. Therefore it was the wish of the Landgrave Philip and the court of Electoral Saxony that in publishing this writing, "Dass diese Worte noch feststehen," the sharp utterances directed against Butzer's tactics in the Eucharistic Controversy should be erased. Luther acted according to their wish, for, in the first place, this omission did not involve any real change in the doctrine, and then, Butzer's position in this matter itself was altered in important points (Wittenberg Concord). Luther's action therefore meant by no means an actual retraction; it only accommodated itself to the new situation and was only just and proper.91

It has already been mentioned that the Catholic Paul Majunke, 1890, once more played the patron to the old falsehood of 1568, that Luther died a suicide, and that this assertion brought forth a whole series of writings against it; the most important literature in connection with this has also been mentioned. We mention N. Paulus, who a Catholic scholar himself, repudiated Majunke's assertion, and B. Grabinski, Wie ist Luther gestorben, 1913. Lately several reports on Luther's death have been discovered that bear upon this controversy. Dr.