History of the Life and Acts of Martin Luther
A short life of Luther written by his colleague Philip Melanchthon in the months after Luther’s death in 1546. The story that the theses were posted on the Castle Church at Wittenberg rests chiefly on it.
Read the text at projectwittenberg.org ↗Part two, with the announcement of Luther’s death (Project Wittenberg) ↗Latin text (Project Wittenberg) ↗
Philip Melanchthon wrote this account as the preface to the second volume of Martin Luther’s collected Latin works, printed in the Wittenberg edition in 1546. He says he relates what he heard from Luther himself and what he saw. For Luther’s childhood he questioned Luther’s mother and brother.
Melanchthon came to Wittenberg in 1518, so for the events of 1517 he was not an eyewitness and wrote nearly thirty years afterwards. The work is also a tribute by a friend and fellow reformer. It is cited here for what it states, with that distance noted. The transcription linked above heads the text with the year 1549; the preface was first printed in 1546.
Cited in
- 1516, firm date
- 31 October 1517, firm date