Page:Thirty-five years of Luther research.djvu/28

8 was being conducted in the archives.8 With his inherent thoroughness, trustworthiness, and soberness he carefully examined all the printed material accessible to him, and in the spirit of true criticism and ripe judgment, painstakingly considering and even presenting the leading thoughts of all the important writings of Luther, he molded the result of his investigations into a book, that in a measure never accomplished before afforded a thoroughly trustworthy insight into the development of the life and thoughts of the reformer. With this a firm foundation was laid, upon which all further research could build. It even incited others to do special research in this or that direction.

In the second place, just at the beginning of the period which we are about to discuss, the Protestant Church was blessed by God with a number of distinguished young investigators who were able to take up the work anew and carry it on to a successful conclusion. Among those who had busied themselves in the past two decades with thorough studies concerning Luther were Karl Knaake and Ludwig Enders, who were still in the height of their intellectual ability. As a candidate for the ministry already, Knaake had entered upon this field of research with his short but pertinent writing, "Luther's Anteil an der Augsburger Confession," against Rueckert and Heppe (1863). Then he began to edit the works of Staupitz (the first volume and only one, because the book found no subscribers, appeared in 1867). Together with Franz von Soden, he published the important letter album of Christ. Scheurl of Nuernberg (1867 and 1872). In his "Jahrbuecher des deutschen Reichs und der deutschen Kirche im Zeitalter der Reformation" (1872), which expired in its first stages, he made accessi-