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This volume comprises Erasmus' correspondence during the final two
years of his life, June 1534-August 1536. In the public sphere it
was a time of dramatic events: the reconquest of the duchy
Wurttemberg from its Austrian occupiers; the siege and destruction
of the Anabaptist "kingdom" at Munster; Charles V's great victory
at Tunis; and the resumption of the Habsburg-Valois wars in Italy.
In the private sphere, these were years of deteriorating health,
thoughts of impending death, and the loss of close friends
(including Thomas Fisher and Thomas More, both executed by Henry
VIII). At the same time, however, Erasmus managed to publish his
longest book, Ecclesiastes, and to make arrangements, in his final
will, for his considerable wealth to be spent for charitable
purposes after his death.
With great clarity and insight, James M. Estes illuminates Luther's
call to secular authorities to help with the reform of the church
in this important 1520 treatise. Starting with the Ninety-Five
Theses in 1517, Luther's appeals for reform had been addressed to
the ecclesiastical hierarchy, whose divinely imposed responsibility
for such things he took for granted. By the early months of 1520,
however, Luther had come to the conclusion that nothing could be
expected from Rome but intransigent opposition to reform of any
sort. It was only at this point that he began to write of the need
for secular rulers to intervene with measures that would clear the
way for ecclesiastical reform. Concerned that Christendom was going
to ruin, Luther argued that with such an emergency looming, anyone
who was able to do so should help in whatever way possible. This
volume is excerpted from The Annotated Luther series, Volume 1.
Each volume in the series contains new introductions, annotations,
illustrations, and notes to help shed light on Luther's context and
to interpret his writings for today.
In the months covered by this volume, Erasmus experienced sharply
deteriorating health and thoughts of approaching death, although he
remained active in the promotion of good causes and the defence of
his good name. The seemingly imminent threat of religious civil war
in Germany affected Erasmus in two ways. First, he made up his mind
to leave Germany and return to his native Brabant. However, the
arrival in 1533 of a formal invitation from Queen Mary, regent of
the Netherlands, coincided with the onset of chronic ill health
that would last until the end of his life. Repeated postponements
eventually led to an abandonment of the journey altogether. Second,
Erasmus did what he could to promote the cause of religious unity.
In On Mending the Peace of the Church he urged rulers to enact
moderate reforms that would satisfy all parties and avoid
confessional division. When Martin Luther responded to this attempt
at a "middle path" between "truth and error" in his Letter
Concerning Erasmus of Rotterdam (1534), denouncing Erasmus as a
skeptic and not a Christian, Erasmus responded indignantly with his
Purgation against the Slanderous Letter of Luther. Erasmus' only
other work published in this period turned out to be one of his
most popular, On Preparing for Death.
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