Germany Catholics Wary About Major Luther Festivities

Reuters ^ | 10/31/12 | Tom Heneghan

[Mr. Lucky]

You'll forgive my saying so, but in this conversation you have authoritatively asserted that the 95 theses were announced orally at the doors of the Wittenberg churches and, just as authoritatively, that they were written in a language that Wittenberg parishoners wouldn't have understood.

It's been 45 years or so since I last tried to read Latin, but I can make out Thesis #20. Whether the average Wittenberg parishoner could or not, I don't know, but Pope Leo chose to communicate with the Saxons in Latin, rather than German, when he delivered the Exsurge Domine and ordered that it be nailed to church doors. That Luther would choose then same method of communication as the Pope, when seeking to communicate with the same people, could have been mere coincidence, but maybe not.

[wideawake]

you have authoritatively asserted that the 95 theses were announced orally at the doors of the Wittenberg churches

Not quite. What I did say was that there is zero evidence that these theses were nailed to any church doors, and that if Roerer is correct and Luther made his "Ablassthesen" known at the doors of churches, the only way this would have been practical is for him to preach about his ideas at those churches.

and, just as authoritatively, that they were written in a language that Wittenberg parishoners wouldn't have understood

Correct. Which is why he would likely have made his points in German verbally, rather than recited or nailed documents in academic Latin.

It's been 45 years or so since I last tried to read Latin, but I can make out Thesis #20.

That speaks volumes for your retention and your original level of instruction. Of course, Latin instruction in the 19th and 20th centuries was based on training students to eventually read Cicero and other high-level authors with expansive vocabularies and complex sentences.

That Latin instruction is systematic, with drilling in conjugations, declensions and the relation of tenses in various clauses of purpose and result.

Latin instruction for non-clerics in the 15th century was not quite as rigorous, nor did it have quite as high an end goal.

To a reader of Cicero, scholastic Latin seems simple. Remember that at the time Luther was writing, the Italian Renaissance movement to restore Ciceronian Latin was just getting started north of the Alps.

Whether the average Wittenberg parishoner could or not, I don't know, but Pope Leo chose to communicate with the Saxons in Latin, rather than German, when he delivered the Exsurge Domine and ordered that it be nailed to church doors.

His bull was intended for clerics, who were quite capable of reading the ecclesiastical Latin of the bull, and who would find it hard to ignore if it were affixed to the doors of the main churches.

That Luther would choose then same method of communication as the Pope, when seeking to communicate with the same people, could have been mere coincidence, but maybe not.

The 95 Theses came before the bull, and so the legend of the nailing of the theses could not have been in response to the nailing of the bull. The Pope was looking for a way to communicate with people who would refuse his letters.

Luther was looking to communicate his ideas to his fellow academics and clerics in a format that was routine at the university - a disputation. This was the kind of missive the specialists were eager to receive and to then argue for or against.