The Battle of the Biographies: Early Modern Life-Writing on Martin Luther

Abstract: Early modern printed polemic appeared not only in doctrinal treatises but also occasionally in biographies. In the 1520s Thomas Murner and Johann Cochlaeus expressed their revulsion for Luther with personal as well as doctrinal criticism in satire and enflamed reports, often misrepresentations, of Luther’s activities and teachings. Shortly after the Reformer’s death, Cochlaeus published the first polemical biography of the Wittenberg professor, beginning a tradition that continued into the twentieth century. Lutherans slowly rose to defend Luther with both favorable accounts of his life and refutations of Cochlaeus and a series of other Roman Catholic biographers, who throughout the second half of the sixteenth century, held orations or published treatises disparaging Luther’s person and teaching. These exchanges reached something of a climax around 1600 in the works of the Jesuit Conrad Vetter, who published a series of attacks on Luther from various perspectives, highlighting his betrayal of the faith and the Roman Church. Lutherans, especially Philipp Heilbronner, professor in Lauingen, responded. Biographical polemic served to challenge or defend Luther’s authority as a teacher of the faith, for character combines with biblical faithfulness in the evaluation of theologians.