Page:Thirty-five years of Luther research.djvu/169

Rh in its smallest details in this work, but the main contents of almost all of his writings are given to the reader. For that reason it is even today the leading work on Luther, especially since it was thoroughly revised by Kawerau in its fifth edition.

In the fall of 1883 there was added to this the work of Th. Kolde.103 According to its preface it undertook "to portray Luther on the basis of the complete development of his people, to consider as much as possible the diverse movements and hindrances in regard to the political, social, and scientific phase alongside of the ecclesiastical and religious, in order that through this not only the success of the Reformer, but also the protests which he called forth may be better understood." His diction is not at all weighty, yet the whole representation, in spite of its great simplicity, partakes of the artistic and reveals everywhere the truly learned, who digs deep, who is not only acquainted with what others achieved before him, but who himself, step for step, enriches and intensifies the investigatory work.

Kolde's production was completed in 1893, and Koestlin's Luther in the new edition, revised by Kawerau, in 1903. That explains why we possess no Luther biography years, as Brieger's otherwise excellent work, "Die Reformation" (cf. above), starts out from a broader viewpoint, and is too briefly written. Perhaps Scheel's "Martin Luther. Vom Katholizismus zur Reformation" 1st vol., 1916), will eventually blossom out into a complete Luther biography. In the meantime Boehmer, in his excellent "Luther im Licht der neuen Forschung" (3d edition, 1914), also translated into English, has provided for this eventuality, so that all the important points in the