An Overview of the Publications Themselves

Before the flood of polemics and controversial works appeared in the Strasbourg press in late 1520, Strasbourg readers would have found almost exclusively pastoral and devotional works by Luther available from the local press.^[5] In 1519 one sermon on marriage appeared. Two other sermons, one on Christ's passion, perhaps in two editions, and the other on prayer and processions in Holy Week, appeared either in late 1519 or 1520.^[6] In the same year there appeared an edition of Luther's The Seven Penitential Psalms, originally published in Wittenberg in 1517, and the German Theology , a devotional treatise for which Luther had supplied a preface. Only one work, his Explanation of Several Articles Attributed to Him by His Opponents ,^[7] dealt in any detail with the controversy in which Luther was entangled, and that in a very restrained fashion.

In 1520 there appeared eleven sermons (or nine, if two are dated to 1519)^[8] and one sermon collection that included a few other treatises, some with mild polemical content.^[9] This collection, first published in Basel in May 1520 and reprinted in Strasbourg in October 1520, duplicated several of the sermons that were also published individually.^[10] There also appeared four devotional treatises (and perhaps several that I have classified under polemics could equally count as devotional treatises): another edition of the German Theology , two different treatises on confession, and a brief exposition of the Lord's Prayer.^[11] Finally there were between nine and twelve treatises dealing with the controversy between Luther and the old faith,^[12] some of which could also be classified as devotional works with mild polemical content (for example, On the Freedom of a Christian , which appeared in one or two editions,^[13] and Doctor Martin Luther's Appeal or Petition to a Free Christian Council ,^[14] which appeared in two editions). On the Papacy at Rome, Against the Highly Famous Romanist in Leipzig appeared after 26 June 1520.^[15]To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation appeared after 18 August 1520 in two to four editions.^[16]On the Babylonian Captivity of the Church appeared in two or three editions, sometime after 6 October 1520.^[17] Only one of these polemics, Doctor Martin Luther's Answer to the Notice Issued Under the Seal of the Official at Stolpen ,^[18] may have appeared before mid-year.^[19] The rest appeared well after mid-year (since the terminus a quo given is the original publication date in Wittenberg), and five or six in the last quarter of the year. So the

vernacular writings published in the Strasbourg press through the first half of 1520 were overwhelmingly devotional and pastoral. This alone is likely to have profoundly shaped Strasbourgeois's first impression of Martin Luther and his ideas.

To whom were these treatises addressed? Clearly, the laity. What was their message? That one should humbly rely on God's promise of forgiveness rather than on one's own allegedly meritorious works. Why may this message have appealed to its lay readers and hearers? Because the message explicitly dignified the spiritual status of the laity at the expense of clerical claims and prerogatives.