Page:Thirty-five years of Luther research.djvu/43

Rh for the first time the three series of catechism-sermons of 1529, which constituted the foundation for what today we call the Larger Catechism. More particulars concerning this in the fourth part of this essay.

We always knew what great care Luther devoted to the translation of the Bible, concerning not only the preparation of the first editions, but also the revisions of the later ones. But since Thiele and Pietsch have published Luther's own manuscripts of his translations, we clearly see his first rendition and all the corrections he made as a result of further reflection. The third volume of the "Deutsche Bibel," being a part of the Weimar Luther edition, even contains the minutes of what we would call the Committee on Bible Revision.

Not a little was accomplished in these thirty-five years in the way of discovering letters from the pen of Luther. The principal ones were already collected and edited by De Wette in five volumes (Berlin, 1825-1828). To these Seidemann in 1856 added the sixth volume, which brought to light a multitude of hitherto overlooked or unknown letters; this, together with his addition of an index and many erudite notes, made the production doubly useful. After Seidemann in 1859 had published another volume of Luther's letters, and especially since the Director of Archives at Weimar, Burckhardt, had brought out his valuable "Luther's Korrespondenz" in 1866, in which he attempted for the first time to collect even the letters addressed to Luther, it seemed, as if it were now only possible to collect stray letters. here and there. Nevertheless, Kolde in 1883, in his already mentioned "Analecta Lutherana" offered a surprisingly great number of unknown Luther letters, and each of the following years added a few more. Kawerau counted ninety numbers