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.