Re: the “tulip” picture.
I honestly don’t think anyone should be in the least offended by it. It was obvious (to me anyway) as being nothing other than a case of having some
clean, lighthearted fun. But even supposing it was meant to offend, it would still be
light-years from the kind of material the reformers, particularly Luther, could produce!
And when was the last time any of our Protestant friends said a peep about that!
But lest I be judged unfair, let me give an example of what I talking about (and no, I’m
not trying to offend anyone; just presenting *historical *information).
The following is from the
Theosophical Quarterly of 1918. Listen to what it has to say about the gross vulgarity to those two so-called “great reformers” - Luther and Melanchthon.
In this connection there becomes noticeable Luther’s innate coarseness and vulgarity, for his conversation concerning the most intimate details of life is such as could not be reproduced. His coarseness had already been painfully evident in many of his writings, - more especially those against the Papacy, but, as a matter of fact, those against practically anyone who opposed him and his views.
Perhaps the most startling illustrations of it are his poem “Emancipation,” ridiculing transubstantiation and penance, and his “Interpretation of Two Horrible Monsters, an *** Pope, and a Calf Monk.”
These were published with a number of drawings by his friend, Lucas Cranach, which have been pronounced the most vulgar in the history of caricature. The two pamphlets, wholly aside from partisan feeling as to Church or creed, must impress even the most religiously indifferent as not only gross vulgarity but as the most shocking sacrilege and desecration.
The theosophical quarterly, The Theosophical Society in America, 1918, Brooklyn, New York, vol. XVI, No. 3, p. 241, Harry Houdini Collection (Library of Congress),
books.google.com/books?id=PvxWbFBOzU8C&pg=PA241&dq=%22interpretation+of+two+horrible+monsters%22&lr=&as_brr=0
German title (following the older German spellings) of the “Interpretation of Two Horrible Monsters”:
Deuttung der Czwo grewlichen Figuren Bapstesels czu Rom vnd Munchkalbs czu … By Philipp Melanchthon, Martin Luther, Wittenberg 1523.
D. Martin Luthers Werke: kritische Gesamtausgabe, Published by Böhlau u.a, 1900, Weimar.
Werke, 11 Band (Works, volume 11), pp. 367ff (see images pp. 371 and 373).
books.google.com/books?id=wlQMAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA365&dq=%22two+wonderful+popish+monsters%22&lr=#PPA366,M1
books.google.com/books?id=dMWKGwAACAAJ&dq=%22Deuttung+der+czwo+grewlichen%22&lr=
An early English translation.
Of Two Wonderful Popish Monsters, to Wyt, of a Popish Asse which was Found at Rome in the Riuer of Tyber, and of a Moonkish Calfe, Calued at Friberge in Misne: Which are the Very Foreshewings and Tokens of Gods Wrath, Against Blinde; Obstinate, and Monstrous Papistes, By John Brooke, Jean Crespin, Philipp Melanchthon, Martin Luther
Published at London by Thomas East, dwelling by Paules Wharfe, 1579
36 pages
books.google.com/books?hl=en&as_q=&as_epq=popish+monsters&as_oq=&as_eq=&num=10&lr=&as_filetype=&ft=i&as_sitesearch=&as_qdr=all&as_rights=&as_occt=any&cr=&as_nlo=&as_nhi=&safe=images&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wp&q=%22popish%20monsters%22
Interpretation of Two Horrible Monsters, an ***-Pope and a Calf-Monk.
By Martin Luther, Philipp Melanchthon, Published by , 1823
books.google.com/books?as_q=&num=10&lr=&as_brr=0&btnG=Google+Search&as_epq=%09+Interpretation+of+Two+Horrible+Monsters%2C+an&as_oq=&as_eq=&as_brr=0&lr=&as_vt=&as_auth=&as_pub=&as_sub=&as_drrb=c&as_miny=&as_maxy=&as_isbn=
Little wonder therefore, that Denifle could write the following about such slanderers:
Nevertheless those runaway monks and fallen priest, who had annihilated their own and other’s decency, modesty, and honor, had the effrontery to come forward as preachers of morality, even to call themselves the Evangelicals and, by their malevolent exaggeration of the evil condition of the Church, to cover their own infamy. Luther himself, some years earlier, had already said: “Heretics cannot themselves appear good unless they depict the Church as evil, false, and mendacious. They alone wish to be esteemed as the good, but the Church must be made to appear evil in every respect.” {44} “The close their eyes to the good,” said St. Augustine {45} in his day, “and exaggerate only the evil, real or imagined.”
Luther and Lutherdom, from original sources, 1917, by
Heinrich Denifle; translated from the 2d revised edition of the German by Raymund Volz, pp. 14-15.
Notes:
- Martin Luther, Dictata in Psalterium or Dictata Super Psalterium (1513-1515). Weimar, III, p. 445.
D. Martin Luthers Werke: kritische Gesamtausgabe, Band 3, Weimar, Herman Bohlau, 1883.
books.google.com/books?id=9YkVtSs8WdUC&pg=PA350&lpg=PA350&dq=luther+%22dictata+%22&source=web&ots=kCO3YIoBAf&sig=T3oz2LtL_yvOeRFjC2e6–XTLQc&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=9&ct=result#PPA445,M1
- Augustine, Enarrationes (Ennarations) on Psalm 90, no.12.
:bounce: 